How should the decennial U.S. Census approach the touchy issues of race and heritage when we claim America is a melting pot? Especially one where many people identify by multiple races or ethnicities and cultural pride is often mistaken as race.
Multimedia Renaissance man Baratunde Thurston participated in an interesting but too brief discussion Sunday on CNN about census form concerns and low participation rates by minorities.
Joined by Latina filmmaker Raquel Cepeda and Christian Lander, author of What White People Like, the segment focused on an interesting semantic dilemma — what are we and how do we describe ourselves?
According to the Census, people of Hispanic or Middle Eastern origin are considered white but may add an ethnic identifier through a series of check boxes or as a write-in option. Cepeda’s street interviews sadly confirmed that Americans are still uncomfortable grappling with words for color.
As Thurston noted “This country was forged in the fire of race” but we’re still loathe to embrace it or agree on how to describe it.
A spot-on statement which stokes a long overdue national conversation around the anxiety-inducing terms “black, African Am or Negro” used on the Census form. When is it okay to refer to people by their hue, their heritage or an historical term that can evoke a negative visceral reaction.
Be sure to catch Baratunde at Jack and Jill Politics where he posted an extended video and discussion.
Still have your census form laying around? It’s due April 1.
