Comments on: The Census and Race: A Question of Wording http://censusprojectblog.org/2010/01/19/the-census-and-race-a-question-of-wording/ The blog of the Census Project, a Washington, D.C.-based stakeholder coalition Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:12:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Mara http://censusprojectblog.org/2010/01/19/the-census-and-race-a-question-of-wording/#comment-150 Mara Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:20:57 +0000 http://censusprojectblog.org/?p=159#comment-150 Recently, I found the 2010 Census form hanging on my door. As I began filling it out, I came across a dilemma. The U.S. government wants to know if my children are adopted or not and it wants to know what our races are. Being adopted myself, I had to put “Other” and “Don’t Know Adopted” for my race and “Other” and “Don’t Know” for my kids’ races. Can you imagine not knowing your ethnicity, your race? Now imagine walking into a vital records office and asking the clerk for your original birth certificate only to be told “No, you can’t have it, it’s sealed.” How about being presented with a “family history form” to fill out at every single doctor’s office visit and having to put “N/A Adopted” where life saving information should be? Imagine being asked what your nationality is and having to respond with “I don’t know”. It is time that the archaic practice of sealing and altering birth certificates of adopted persons stops. Adoption is a 5 billion dollar, unregulated industry that profits from the sale and redistribution of children. It turns children into chattel who are re-labeled and sold as “blank slates”. Genealogy, a modern-day fascination, cannot be enjoyed by adopted persons with sealed identities. Family trees are exclusive to the non-adopted persons in our society. If adoption is truly to return to what is best for a child, then the rights of children to their biological identities should NEVER be violated. Every single judge that finalizes an adoption and orders a child’s birth certificate to be sealed should be ashamed of him/herself. I challenge all readers: Ask the adopted persons that you know if their original birth certificates are sealed. Recently, I found the 2010 Census form hanging on my door. As I began filling it out, I came across a dilemma. The U.S. government wants to know if my children are adopted or not and it wants to know what our races are. Being adopted myself, I had to put “Other” and “Don’t Know Adopted” for my race and “Other” and “Don’t Know” for my kids’ races.

Can you imagine not knowing your ethnicity, your race? Now imagine walking into a vital records office and asking the clerk for your original birth certificate only to be told “No, you can’t have it, it’s sealed.”

How about being presented with a “family history form” to fill out at every single doctor’s office visit and having to put “N/A Adopted” where life saving information should be?

Imagine being asked what your nationality is and having to respond with “I don’t know”.

It is time that the archaic practice of sealing and altering birth certificates of adopted persons stops.

Adoption is a 5 billion dollar, unregulated industry that profits from the sale and redistribution of children. It turns children into chattel who are re-labeled and sold as “blank slates”.

Genealogy, a modern-day fascination, cannot be enjoyed by adopted persons with sealed identities. Family trees are exclusive to the non-adopted persons in our society.

If adoption is truly to return to what is best for a child, then the rights of children to their biological identities should NEVER be violated. Every single judge that finalizes an adoption and orders a child’s birth certificate to be sealed should be ashamed of him/herself.

I challenge all readers: Ask the adopted persons that you know if their original birth certificates are sealed.

]]> By: Roger Green http://censusprojectblog.org/2010/01/19/the-census-and-race-a-question-of-wording/#comment-144 Roger Green Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:42:45 +0000 http://censusprojectblog.org/?p=159#comment-144 Grace -The true reason for collecting racial designations is because of the long-standing racism of the society, and the government wanting to see if progress being made. You can't measure it if you can't count it. The racial categories are self-selected; check the box or boxes you think accurately describes your family. As for "Negro", if you know the categorizations that have been used in the past, you might find it as much of a non-issue as I have. Grace -The true reason for collecting racial designations is because of the long-standing racism of the society, and the government wanting to see if progress being made. You can’t measure it if you can’t count it.
The racial categories are self-selected; check the box or boxes you think accurately describes your family.
As for “Negro”, if you know the categorizations that have been used in the past, you might find it as much of a non-issue as I have.

]]> By: Grace http://censusprojectblog.org/2010/01/19/the-census-and-race-a-question-of-wording/#comment-143 Grace Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:14:55 +0000 http://censusprojectblog.org/?p=159#comment-143 This whole CENSUS has refreshed my memory of why people in the U.S. feel discriminated against. My son is mixed with both hispanic, seminole indian and african american, but what I find confusing is that you are considered white if you are from North Africa so I assume your considered black if you are from South Africa. Unless I had traced back all of his ansetors in a family tree I would not know how to state his race and somehow deep inside I feel that the cesus is a violation of privacy rights. Then to top it off they used NEGRO as an option, I’m livid! Why is it in the U.S. that we can state a color is a race? No where else do people go on like this. Now that was the straw for me. It makes me think what is the true reason of collecting this information and are we really as liberal as the government proclaims us to be? This whole CENSUS has refreshed my memory of why people in the U.S. feel discriminated against. My son is mixed with both hispanic, seminole indian and african american, but what I find confusing is that you are considered white if you are from North Africa so I assume your considered black if you are from South Africa. Unless I had traced back all of his ansetors in a family tree I would not know how to state his race and somehow deep inside I feel that the cesus is a violation of privacy rights. Then to top it off they used NEGRO as an option, I’m livid! Why is it in the U.S. that we can state a color is a race? No where else do people go on like this. Now that was the straw for me. It makes me think what is the true reason of collecting this information and are we really as liberal as the government proclaims us to be?

]]> By: ersie37 http://censusprojectblog.org/2010/01/19/the-census-and-race-a-question-of-wording/#comment-61 ersie37 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:27:28 +0000 http://censusprojectblog.org/?p=159#comment-61 I was an enumerator in the 1990 Census, and I read an apparently black person the choices. When I got to "black or Negro", he said, with teeth clenched, "I'm AFRICAN-AMERICAN." He wondered what fool was at his door. BTW, I'm black. I was an enumerator in the 1990 Census, and I read an apparently black person the choices. When I got to “black or Negro”, he said, with teeth clenched, “I’m AFRICAN-AMERICAN.” He wondered what fool was at his door.

BTW, I’m black.

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