I don’t remember the U.S. Census being so openly reviled in the past, but now it seems that no matter where you stand politically, if you fill out your census form it’s like you’re obliging a government conspiracy.

Last week I was visiting a gay couple when the one partner got a call from a gay friend distraught about some series of questions on the census, and my friend was telling him, “No. NO. They do NOT need to know these things about you!” It sounded like a fear of the government knowing you’re gay — even though everyone else in your very gay neighborhood knows. Not being in the situation, I’m not one to judge.

Someone else I know gave this response to “the asinine race question”:  She checked off the box “Some other race” and then wrote in “Lightly tanned.” Granted, once upon a time a lot of people didn’t fit into that form at all (including my friends who are what was once called “mulatto”). But now there are more racial options on that form than ever before. I understand the resistance:  I don’t like being categorized either. Some people claim that if “communities” are under-represented, then there are fewer programs directed to them. Maybe. But starting with my college applications I always checked “Native American” — after all, I was born in New Jersey — and I never got a single grant or scholarship.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Politics, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.