Makes No Census!

Back in March, I and all other residents of the US received this:

tricky, tricky mr. envelope!

The US Census spent millions advertising the 10 question survey that accounts for who's living in the country every 10 years. What promised to be a straightforward 10 questions proved to be a wee bit confusing for the Hispanic community. You see, you ask us what we are and the answer is "Hispanic" or "Latino." That's it.

Well, this Census got jazzy on us. You see, you had to identify as Hispanic and then pick a race. Wuh Woah! Hmmm...let's see. Hispanic, then Black for my dad and White for my mom. Wait, that's not how I self-identify. Well, that's what they wanted, so I did it. My sister said Hispanic, checked "other" in the race section and wrote Caribbean Hispanic. What? Perhaps the best of all was this conversation with my mom.

Me: Ma, check Hispanic, then you have to check White.

Mom: Huh? I'm not White.

Me: I know that's why you choose Hispanic first, then White.

Mom: I am not a White lady, OK?

Me: I know.

Mom: I'm checking "other" and writing in Latina.

So there you have it. Three ladies in the same family who identified 3 different ways. All accurate ways to self-identify. See the problem here? Multiply that by the 30 million estimated Latinos in this country and you've got a pretty inaccurate count. Unless you just leave it at Latino. This is a testament to the fact that Latino is such a diverse term and any attempts to narrow it will fail miserably. We are Black, we are White, Native American, European, African, you name it.

In retrospect, I wish I would have done what my mother did. It subtley shows that we don't self-identify in the way we were being asked to. That's a stand I wish I would have taken. And really, what difference does it make if I'm Black Latino or White Latino? Why is there a need to be that specific?

Anyway, I've got 10 years to think about how I'm going to address that question next time around. Hopefully, by that time, the word "Negro" will be removed. Wait, that's a whole different post.