NPR is reporting that the US Census has slipped up and put “Negro” on the 2010 form. You guys know that I have a special place in my heart for this word (see the title of this blog). They claim they added it because some older African-Americans wrote it on the form in previous years. Really? I need to call Mother Dear and tell her not to do that. It’s 2010. I wonder if they actually considered adding in “colored” as well.
Census Bureau, do you really have to think about these things? Really!?!? DC is a few min away from their Suitland MD offices. I might need to send a letter or something.
I’m not surprised. I think someone may have been lashing out in a form of anti-Obama style protest. It reminds me of when that artist put a penis in the art work of the Little Mermaid VHS cover. Here’s the sccop from NPR.Org
Photo: From the 2010 questionaire. (Census.gov)
By Mark Memmott, NPR.org
The Census Bureau says it has included “Negro” as a way for individuals to classify their race in the 2010 Census because some older African-Americans wrote it on their forms in 2000.
But many African-Americans find it insulting.
– “It’s almost like a slap in the face,” Nikyle Fitzgerald tells WTOL in Toledo.
– “I am a little offended,” Dawud Ingram says to WCBS-TV.
– “It’s a bad vibe word,” Kevin Bishop says in the New York Daily News.
We’ve asked Census for some historical background on when the word has been used in the past. We’ll update with that information.
3 Comments
January 8, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I actually don’t have a problem with the word Negro. If you look at the REAL meaning and the root, its not a bad term. What I do have a issue with is the word black. Look up that definition: soiled, evil, impure, unclean, dirty, bad, ugly, dismal, stained with dirt, sullen or ill, threatening, disgrace, gloomy. Now tell me why THAT is a word used to characterize people of color?
January 11, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Ia it really an accident? So much of this stuff is happening now that there is an AfrAm POTUS.
A shame it is. So disrespectful it is.
There are no proofreaders?
February 7, 2010 at 6:47 pm
In agreement with Anji, Negro is the more accurate description of our race, for the reasons she(?) mentioned. Most people who prefer “African-American” to identify Negros are unaware that there also are Caucasian African-Americans.