Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Question 9 of the 2010 Census

What is Person 1's race?
_White
_Black, African Am., or Negro
_American Indian or Alaska Native ---Print name of enrolled or principal tribe

_Asian Indian _Japanese _Native Hawaiian
_Chinese _Korean _Guamanian or Chamorro
_Filipino _Vietnamese _Samoan
_Other Asian--print race, for example Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Pakistani, Cambodian, and so on.
_Other Pacific Islander--print race, for example Fijian, Tongan, and so on.
_Some other race--print race

Me, I'm planning to answer "Some other race."

Many consider de facto racial profiling an example of institutional racism in law enforcement. The history of misuse of racial categories to impact adversely one or more groups and/or to offer protection and advantage to another has a clear impact on debate of the legitimate use of known phenotypical or genotypical characteristics tied to the presumed race of both victims and perpetrators by the government. I think, like Justice Roberts that the way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

"Some other race" seems to work for me.

No comments: