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If the U.S. didn't classify by race, it would be used as an excuse for ignoring perceived or actual injustices based on race. For example, without classifying people by race, how would one know if Blacks and Latinos were being disproportionately detained and frisked for contraband on city streets.
The whole concept is just stupid and getting more so every census. Lumping all people of Latin American descent together as "Hispanic" regardless of nation of origin (as if Mexicans and Cubans have anything in common other than Spanish), all Asians and Pacific Islanders together (as if Indians and Japanese are even remotely similar), all blacks together (as if African Americans have anything in common with Ethiopeans or Somalis) and all Europeans, North Africans and Middle Easterners together as "white" when all the various nationalities and religions are so very different. Toss in the huge (and growing) number of people of more than one race due to the increasing trend of intermarriage and the Byzantine pigeonholing of people is both laughable and sad.
The responses that its "white supremacy" or racism by whites are typical, but off base. Its bureaucracy and agendas by various groups that fuel it. If there wasn't money to be divvied up or political power to be had by splintering the populace it wouldn't be happening.
Race data is taken because to make Congressional districts, if a state has a certain tipping point of black or Latino residents, it has to by law create a number of minority districts proportionate to the population. Every state in the South has at least one majority black district created by law, although I imagine they'd make them even without the law because Republicans benefit from pushing all the black Democrats into one district to make their districts safer for Republicans.
I'd say we don't need it anymore but states like Texas and Florida go out of their way to dilute and disenfranchise the Latino vote thru weird shaped districts but the courts force them not to do that which imo is a good thing.
The whole concept is just stupid and getting more so every census. Lumping all people of Latin American descent together as "Hispanic" regardless of nation of origin (as if Mexicans and Cubans have anything in common other than Spanish), all Asians and Pacific Islanders together (as if Indians and Japanese are even remotely similar), all blacks together (as if African Americans have anything in common with Ethiopeans or Somalis) and all Europeans, North Africans and Middle Easterners together as "white" when all the various nationalities and religions are so very different. Toss in the huge (and growing) number of people of more than one race due to the increasing trend of intermarriage and the Byzantine pigeonholing of people is both laughable and sad.
The responses that its "white supremacy" or racism by whites are typical, but off base. Its bureaucracy and agendas by various groups that fuel it. If there wasn't money to be divvied up or political power to be had by splintering the populace it wouldn't be happening.
Well, by looking at the results in terms of economics, maybe people aren't as off base as some might think.
As for the first part, that's why race is more of a social construct, as it can vary by the country as to who is what and labels can actually cover various racial groups like the Asian tag.
Because people of different "races" in the USA have different buying and consumption habits, and the data is used by business as a market-planning tool. Some marketing areas have different racial composition than other ones do, and a business planner wants and needs to know what they are. It is the people who use and need the data who want it, and the agencies gathering the data get what the users want. If you want to open a walk-in business and invest a few million dollars in it, do you want to see some data on the racial composition of different prospective neighborhoods?
If an advertising agency produced a commercial showing a social group, and all members of the group are white, a part of the audience will wonder why they are all white. And it is not the white people in the audience who are doing the wondering. If people self-classify themselves by race, why shouldn't this be recognized by official agencies?
Last edited by CowanStern; 06-07-2012 at 10:28 AM..
Sometimes I think race was created to justify oppression of a certain group for economic reasons. After slavery, this belief in white superiority carried on.
I always love how people seem to embrace the attitude that slavery was created, and only existed, in America.
I always love how people seem to embrace the attitude that slavery was created, and only existed, in America.
It isn't about that, but considering what this country is suppose to stand for and then to have that institution within said country seems to be contradictory. On top of that, it didn't end there. So, it goes beyond the institution of slavery. With that said, it is remarkable that said people used for that institution and were limited in terms of citizenship still have carved an important niche and aspect of this society.
I find it hilarious how some people from other countries act like America is the only country that sees race. They act like America is the only country with racial problems. Of course some countries are more "race conscious" than others but lets not act like the US. is the only country that sees race because that is clearly not the case. The reality is that almost every country on the planet has experienced some type of racial or ethnic tension at some point in their history.
Last edited by gwillyfromphilly; 06-07-2012 at 06:23 PM..
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