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When Republican Senator David Vitter introduced an amendment that would require the U.S. Census Bureau to ask residents whether or not they are citizens, the Senate voted it down along party lines. As former Washington Post reporter D’Vera Cohn told us, controversy has often followed the count.
I object to the questions about race and ethnicity in the Census. The government's categories make no sense and are not based on science or how people actually look at themselves or how groups arrange themselves politically. It falsely reinforces identity politics and perpetuates racism. It supports the wrong idea that minorities can be represented by legislators only of their minority, and it is the basis of gerrymandering by both parties to preserve safe seats that destroy democracy. It discourages genetic mixing and exogamy and crossing false boundaries. As was pointed out in the story, there are always accusations of undercounts, and the reason is that minorities feel they can gain advantage over others by forcing cohesion of their groups through this government action. The Census should just be a "strict enumeration" of residents, there are no slaves to be counted as 2/5, so racist questions should be dropped.
Those of us who look at old census data for genealogy research know that citizenship status was in fact a standard question, until 1920. The 1930 census did not have a citizenship question.
What the story pointed out is not that there are always "accusations" of undercounts... at least the part the I remember... the story pointed out that there ARE always undercounts. I mean, I definitely remember the lady saying that "there are always undercounts."
Now, if there are always accusations of undercounts, you have to believe that the fact that there ARE always undercounts contributes to accusations of undercounts. And you have to assume that taking race off the census won't stop the accusations of undercounts, since it won't stop the undercounts.
I'm also having a hard time understanding what advantages are to be gained over others Affirmative action? I guess, but I'm not impressed
Still, I'm not so skeptical about the whole gerrymandering thing. I'd welcome a broader discussion about these issues.
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