I filled it out... but I don't think I'm properly counted.

Who do you think I am?

As you may know the U.S. government is spending an incredible amount of money and time hoping people fill out the census.  I won’t get into the antiquated process - you would think that by 2010, someone would have figured out a better way to count the number of people in the country.  I digress.  This is about one small little line under “What is this person’s race?”

Black, African Am., or Negro

Wait, I’m now confused.  If I check the box, I’m saying that I’m either Black, African American OR Negro.  Does this mean that there’s a difference between the three?  If so, then why aren’t there three boxes on three separate lines?  But they’re on the same line so they must be the same, no?  And if they are similar enough to be on the same line, why couldn’t you just pick one of the “suggestions”?  Is the identification of black people in this country so complicated that the census people have to make it a multiple-choice question?  This actually leads me to my most important question…

Who’s responsible for deciding who I am?

Because it clearly isn’t me or any other black person that I know.  It’s been several decades since people of my race have identified themselves as “Negroes”.  Did someone really think that putting Negro on the Census was a good idea?  Why not just add, “Colored” and complete the list?  I love to believe that we’ve come far as a country but it’s a shock to think that I’m still considered a Negro in 2010. 

Then we have “African-American”.  Although this isn’t a negative term, it’s incredibly inaccurate and presents the problem of exclusion.  I was born in New York; I have two friends whose families are from Ghana and Jamaica.  Of the three, only one of us is an actual “African-American”.   Maybe at one time all of the black people in America came from Africa but those days are long gone as well.  Our race is just as diverse as everyone else’s and that needs to be recognized.

This leaves us with “Black”.  It’s simple, accurate and in no way offensive.  It speaks directly to the question asked: “What is this person’s race?”  Saying “Africa” is in no way indicative of your race.  There are several generations of white people that are from Africa the same way there’s black people from France.  It’s really not complicated at all.  My race is black.  My friends’ race is also black.  Either you’re black or you’re another race.  Period.  Now why can’t the rest of this country figure that out?

Having this fog over one’s identity doesn’t help anyone.  It’s hard to move forward with race relations when we don’t even know who we all are.  Being Asian in this country is no different as the census just listed every available Asian country until they found one that your family is from.  As if a person from Hong Kong is of a different “race” than someone from Toyko.  If you're Latin, you have to answer an additional question in order to identify yourself.  I guess listing your race just isn't enough if you're a Mexican or Puerto Rican.

This is why the concept of diversity is so important.  With more diversity you don’t run into issues like this, especially on something so important as the U.S. Census.  It’s not a coincidence that you don’t have Italy, Germany or Canada on the list as options.  You don’t have “Russian Amer.” or even Caucasian as an option.  If you’re white in this country, you only have one line with one box to decide between… and you already know what it says.

White.