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Azaria Banks Period 4 January 25, 2012 “For Many Latinos, Racial Identity Is More Culture Than Color” By Mireya Navarro In 1790, the very first census hit the streets counting the number of people to a household. But only in 1840 were you asked to identify specifics about each member; and in 1970, Hispanics and Spanish people were told to identify themselves as such. Up to this present time, you are asked to answer 10 questions about yourself (race, ethnicity, etc.). However, in the 2010 census 18 million Latinos checked the “other” box when asked their race. The confusion between what race they should choose has become more of a guessing game than an accurate test. The problem we now face is when the “other” box is chosen, the person is assigned one. They base this off of their neighborhood, which obviously, can easily lead to an inaccurate count. The numbers taken from the census are vitally important, though, and need to be taken seriously. These numbers help determine the creation of voting districts, monitoring discriminatory practices in hiring and racial disparities in education in health. More than ever, people are choosing to leave questions empty and purposely ignore the questions they’d rather not answer because Latinos see themselves categorized more by their ethnicity than their race. The Census Bureau is trying everything they can to better the questions but they hit a few snags. When they changed the wording and added “Hispanics origins are not races” almost 5% of Latinos chose the white category instead of any type of Spanish. Some say they should change the question completely, but that may only cause more confusion and less participation. Many Latinos have voiced they’re opinon of how they believe the census needs change. There is a difference between you ethnicity, race and your heritage. James Paine does a great job at showing this by saying, “If the question is ‘What’s your heritage?’ I’d say Irish-Mexican, but the question is ‘What are you?’ and the answer is I’m white.” This article is very relevant to the course because it has to do with race identification. In class, we are talking about how one’s race can decide their future. It will be the base for their treatment from others, their opportunities, and their overall fate. If Zachariah Walker wasn’t black, he wouldn’t of had to endure the horrible destiny he did. He was judged by his race and given an excessively cruel punishment. We also discuss how gender affects where you stand in the community and in the world. This census article discusses how your race is just as important now as it was then. Now-a-days, however, you won’t hear of lynching and accidental deaths due to mistreatment, but you will see the difference between races and how they live. The census has you indicate the number of people in your household and your race. They even said that if you leave your race empty, they will base it on your neighborhood and the majority of races around you. This article also stated that “Most of this ethnic attrition occurs among the offspring of parents or grandparents married to non-Mexicans, usually non-Hispanic whites. These Latinos tend to have high education, high earnings and high levels of English fluency. That means that many successful Latinos are no longer present in statistics tracking Latino economic and social progress across generations…” Regardless of what they say, the government still cares about your race and still bases things off of it. And not only are they categorizing us by our race, but they are doing it will a minimum of races that don’t cover everyone, which comes off as more offensive than you would expect. I think this article fits very well for the topic of American Identity. Not only can it be taken literal, by how the government is identifying and recording the race of each American, but also as a more in-depth meaning. The identity of America can be broken down into many parts such as culture, religion, race, ethnicity, etc. In this case, they are labeling America by it’s race. The census documents the race of an individual and calculates the percentage of Americans with the same race. By doing this, I believe the government is trying to put title, or label, on America. In a sense it is like saying America is __% Caucasian, __% African American, and __% Latino. Looking at America and it’s population is a very easy way to identify it. One could say, “America is mostly Caucasian, that it is indeed a Caucasian-ran nation, but yet we have a black president. Questions:
 * Summary **
 * Relevance **
 * How It Ties To the Theme **
 * 1) What is the importance of the Census?
 * 2) How can they better the Census for less confusion?
 * 3) Is there a better way to calculate the population than the Census?
 * 4) What is the problem with not answering all of the questions in the Census?
 * 5) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you think the Census should be more focused on ethnicity than race?
 * 6) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why might people become offended if they cannot correctly identify themselves on the Census?
 * 7) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is the difference between ethnicity and race?
 * 8) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How does the Census identify or label America?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NAVARRO, MIREYA. "For Many Latinos, Race Is More Culture Than Color - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., 13 Jan. 2012. Web. 3 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/us/for-many-latinos-race-is-more-culture-than-color.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=culture&st=cse&scp=3>.