Ever since I was little and I first saw the census I was confused because I did not understand why it mattered what my ethnicity was. I asked my mother when I got home that day and she told me it was just so they know how to categorize me, and that she did not understand why it mattered either. Even today when I look at the census I am not sure what to mark, because I am just not one ethnicity but three. For example on question 8 I would have to mark a couple things, such as “Yes, Mexican, Mexican American” then I would also have to put another Latino group which is Honduran. For question 9 I have no idea what I am supposed to mark because I am not White, Black, American Indian, or Asian, and they do not offer Latino as a race so I am absolutely confused. When I look at the census I think that it is to general and that they do not offer enough categories for an individual. I blame the census for the ignorance that people have today about races, because when someone is enrolled in school you have to fill out a census and when you fill it out thats when the ignorance starts unless someone learns otherwise. Most people do not learn otherwise until college. When I was younger I went to private catholic school from first to eighth grade and there was only about maybe ten dark kids and at least six of them were black so they identified me as black. From about second to eighth grade they picked on me for being a different skin color than white with many degrading names, and I blame the ignorance of people that do not take the time to learn about race and the different types. I feel that society has a huge part to play in that and little things such as the census that only gives a couple of races is the basis of that because if the government or society did not care about skin color or ethnicity in that matter no one else would. Everything you do in life from applying for a job, applying for school, getting social security, everything that matters in society you have to fill out a census and say what ethnicity you are and nothing is going to change soon, we care to much about peoples skin color and where they come from.
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Hi Nelson,
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciate you sharing your experiences; they will contribute so much to the conversation we will have this week! I think you will find that the Hattam reading talks a lot about why the precedents that the Census creates are important, and the consequences of those categories are very real! Both that piece and the Flores discuss why the complexities of the Latino community don't align too neatly with the boxes on the Census. I would urge you to keep the experiences you mentioned here in mind as you read for this week- I think you may gain quite a lot.
--eas