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2010 U. S. Census

The 2010 United States census will be mailed to Americans in February and March of next year. It will offer more choices than ever for racial classifications. This comes at a time when nearly every leader says that race does not matter. Some people even say that there is no scientific basis for race. Yet many who claim to believe this also support affirmative action and other forms of discrimination against whites.

The Center for Perpetual Diversity found some problems with the census and made recommendations to the Census Bureau for the 2020 census. First we should look at the 1890 census which is interesting because they already recognized the problem of how to count mixed race people. According to the census in 1890 The United States and its territories contained  6,337,980 Negroes, 956,989 Mulattoes, 105,135 Quadroons, 69,936 Octoroons, 107,475 Chinese, 2,039 Japanese and 58,805 Civilized Indians. The 1890 census divided whites into 3 categories. Their populations were as follows: 34,358,348 native whites, 11,583,075 native whites with foreign parents, and 9,121,807 foreign whites. The white population was nearly 88% of the total.

An Octoroon was defined as anyone with 1/8 negro ancestry or any trace of negro ancestry. Later the Census Bureau simplified things by just having one category for people with black ancestors. When they made this change it gave Qaudroons and Octoroons a chance to classify themselves as white. Furthermore, how many people know all eight of their great-grand parents? I am sure that quite a few Octoroons don’t even know that they are black. Even Quadroons are technically more white than black, even though they look black and probably vote black. A Quadroon would not really be telling a lie if he said he was white.

In 1890 Hispanics had to be counted as either white or Civilized Indian. So why do we need a different category for them in 2010? Hispanics can be of any race as they keep reminding us. When a crime victim describes the assailant as looking Hispanic, a good defense attorney will explain to the jury that there is no such thing as a Hispanic look or a Hispanic race. Hispanics’ skin color ranges from the darkest black to nearly the lightest white and there are Asian Hispanics as well.

In the 2000 Census whites were only 75.1%. 2.4 percent of respondants checked two or more boxes for race. 5.5 percent said they were ‘some other race.’ 12.3 percent said they were black, while 12.9 percent said they were black and another race.

Question number 8 of the 2010 Census explains that ‘Hispanic origins are not races.’ We are offered the following choices:

Not of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin
Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
Peurto Rican
Cuban
“another Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin - print origin, for example, Argentinian, Columbian, Dominican, Nicaraguan, Salvadorean, Spaniard, and so on”

Question 9 is about race and says the respondant can mark one or more boxes. It offers the following choices:

White
Black or African American or Negro
American Indian or Alaska Native, Print name of enrolled or principle tribe.
Asian Indian
Chinese
Filipino
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Native Hawaiian
Guamanian or Chamorro
Samoan
Other Asian
Other Pacific Islander
Just in case these choices are not enough you can also check ‘some other race’ and print whatever you want.

For the purpose of the census, is the difference between Japanese and Chinese or Korean really that important? They are not different races, just like French and English are not different races..

Are Guamanians and Samoans different races? Why are they races and Hispanics are not? Most Hispanics need to say that they are white if they choose from the above list and don’t want to write an answer by hand in those little squares. Hispanics could be divided into racial groups and the entire category of Hispanic could be eliminated. People with mostly Spanish or Portugese blood would be white or European and darker Hispanics would be African or Negro and the others would be South American Indians. They would not lose political power from such a change.

I am sure that many of the people who check the ‘white’ box do so because they don’t fit into the other categories and they don’t want to take the time to put a check mark next to ‘some other race’ and then scribble the name of some country which they are happy to forget. Many of these ‘whites’ are not really white at all.

The term white really seems inappropriate now. Arabs, Georgians, Afhanistanis, Iranians, Most Hispanics or Latinos, and Moroccans to name a few, are not really white. Some of them can pass for white but such diverse people should not simply be dumped in the same category just to make things easy.

Perhaps there is another reason. The same people that are responsible for bringing millions of third world immigrants into our country might be telling the Census Bureau to make it look like America is more white than it really is. High level officials must be concerned that reporting a smaller population of whites will shock the financial markets and cause a market crash and/or a devaluation of the dollar. When the white population drops below a certain level, it could trigger the ultimate white flight, as millions of whites move to Europe as author, James Schneider wrote about in his novel, White Flight? This is a valid concern, but The Center for Perpetual Diversity believes we should correct the problem rather than mislead ourselves into thinking that it is not that bad.

The Center recommends that the Census Bureau eliminate the white category and replace it with: Europeans, Arabs, and West Asians. Perhaps it would even be good to separate Europeans into Northern Europeans, Southern Europeans, because these two groups are more different than Chinese and Japanese. If the Census Bureau followed this advice the white population of the US (people whose ancestors came from Europe) would probably be less than 50%. This is a milestone that many liberals look forward to. Why not give them this victory sooner rather than in the year 2042 as projected? Then we will see if they are satisfied with a white population under 50% or if they will continue their racist policies until whites are virtually extinct.

To demonstrate the difficulty of counting races we should consider the white Africans. There are a number of white refugees from Africa living in the United States. Most are from South Africa and Rhodesia but there are some from other countries too. These people were born in Africa and may even have white ancestors born in Africa hundreds of years ago. They are not black or Negro but they are more African than the majority of blacks in America. They could honestly say that they are African Americans.

My dictionary defines Hispanic as, ‘of or relating to the people, speech or culture of Spain, Spain and Portugal or Latin America.’ If a European couple lives and works in Mexico for a few years and then moves to the U.S., can they claim to be Hispanic? What about their Mexican born child? If a person visits Mexico for a week or two and likes the food and learns a few words of Spanish is that enough to be Hispanic?

To further complicate things, consider the fact that many anthropologists agree that all humans alive today have a common ancestor who lived near what is today Kenya about 150,000 years ago. Therefore everyone could say that they are African or African Americans. It is even more important to classify yourself as African American when you are applying for a loan or a job. It may increase your chances of success, but it also helps the company you are dealing with. They will get extra points (whatever that is worth) for lending to or hiring more Africans. If they look at you and say, ‘you’re not African American.’ You can respond defiantly, ‘I have ancestors from Africa. I hope you are not going to discriminate against me because my skin is lighter than some of my African cousins.’

When we complete the 2010 census we must give more thought to our responses, especially question 9. The Center for Perpetual Diversity is recommending that whites check the ‘other’ box and write in ‘European’ or even a specific country of origin if you want to. On the other hand all Americans could consider their ancestors from 150,000 years ago and say that they are African American to protest against a country that encourages discrimination against whites? If the 2010 census shows that whites have been reduced to less than 50% of the population maybe some of our leaders would be alarmed enough to stop the insane levels of immigration into our country.  Or is it more important to get results which can be compared to previous census’ so that we will all know how much worse our country has become?

By James Schneider.