The other day on facebook I noticed my friend Jamar had joined a group called, No Negro(1 Million against the word Negro on the US Census) and my immediate reaction was, like I would assume most people who live in 2010, 1) You're joking right? 2) If so, isn't it a bit late since it was already mailed out? This morning over breakfast Jill opened our census envelope and I immediately scanned it for the word Negro. My jaw literally dropped when I saw that it was indeed included under the category for race. It was listed as a three part identifier as "Black, African-American, Negro."
Clearly my first response is WTF? After a second I start to relate this to another ethnic group that has multiple categories for self identifying depending on where they're from, the people of Spanish speaking countries. Some want to be referred to as Hispanic, some Latino, some Chicano, so maybe as a white guy I'm just not in the know and some black people want to be identified as Negro? But, I remember my friend Jamar (a black man) has joined a group against this word and I'm right back to WTF!
As a kid in the south that term and it's much worse derivative, which I refuse to write, was used all the time by my friend's redneck dads, but not in public. It was always said in the company of other close minded, backwards thinking, scared people. When I moved away to college and deposited myself into the cultural melting pot of George Mason University I quickly realized just how ridiculous those men (and women) were to characterize anybody based on the color of their skin. I feel fortunate to have gotten away from a place where that kind of thinking still exists, but it does, everyday, and apparently it's not just in barns or in the company of scared old white people. Apparently it's in the office buildings of a gov't agency set out to figure out just how many people live in the good old US of A.
Just to double check, we are currently living in 2010, not 1960. Was I sent the right form? I want to live in a world where those terms aren't spoken under breath and in back alleys and kitchens. I don't want NFL teams to fake interviews with black men to meet some sort of quota. I want people to be seen as people. Judged by their actions and intentions, not their skin pigment. I know this may be incredibly naive and to think we'll completely eradicate racial tension and blatant racism in my life time or even my kid's isn't realistic. But I never would have guessed I'd receive an official gov't document asking people if they identify as "Negro." Are they still using separate bathrooms and water fountains down there?
Maybe I have it all wrong and some people do identify as that. If I am, feel free to tell me so I won't be quite so disappointed in the US Census Bureau. But, I don't think I'll be checking the "white" box. Instead, I'm going to self identify as another term that shouldn't show up on the US Census or in people's vocabulary, I'm going to write in "cracker."
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