Folks,
I despise the obsession with race that is forced upon us by the nanny state. I'm always having to fill out these forms that ask my race. Liberals are so fixated on race that they would make a Nazi Gauleiter proud.
Nowadays, when I get the chance and I come across some official piece of paper that demands "race," I put an asterisk in the box and at the bottom or along the margin I write this:
"No, not so much anymore. I'm too old, fat and out-of-shape to win."
Sometimes they have a box labeled "white" which you are supposed to check. I mean, only albinos are white, right? And not even them, really. If I look at my skin right now it's like a brownish pink from being out in the sun. So I'm not white, but they don't have a "brownish pink" box to check.
And then there's "Caucasian." Well, I've got news for you. I wasn't born in the Caucasus. Not me nor any of my ancestors. I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan in the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and Fifty Two. That makes me a Wolverine.
I have also written in "American" for race, which is more honest and equally subversive of their racialist system.
The reason this came up is that a fellow just sent me an email asking the question: "Are you proud to be white?" My answer went something like this:
"No, not particularly. I am proud to be an American. My race is incidental. To think otherwise is to buy into racial collectivism, which I refuse to do."
May I add that I am also proud of being the father of two wonderful girls and an outstanding boy.
I am proud to be the husband of a loving wife. I certainly married above my station the second time.
I am proud that I gave my life to Jesus Christ and try to serve him, imperfect though I certainly am, as best I can.
I am proud to be a Wolverine born and bred, but even prouder to be an Alabamian by adoption. And believe me, you can't adopt them, they must adopt you.
I am proud of many things, but proud of being accidentally white? No, not really.
How is it that you refute one collectivism by adopting another?
I REFUSE TO BUY INTO THE LIE.
If you're smart, you won't either.
22 comments:
We have a great many things in common Mike and I find more with each of your stories. I also married way above my station the second time around when I found my true soul mate and partner, could not be more proud of my kids, and I'm too old to win any races.
When I'm assualted with these idiotic questions I usually write in "human" even if there isn't a box for it.
I don't hold out any hope that our elected officials will ever learn any better but I do hold out hope for the "human" race.
Weaver
Once upon a time all those silly federal forms had a check box for "Decline to State". That eventually disappeared so I selected "Other" and wrote in "human". Now it appears I am not allowed to be a generic member of the human species.
Generally, if I bother to check that box, I use 'other'. Which is really accurate, as my pedigree is a mixture of Celt, Germanic and Native American... and probably smatterings of others as well... so, who's to know? But the article is good, and makes an important point. Just plain "American" is fine... it takes too many hyphens to do it the other way.
Yes, we in the Creationist crowd like to put in "Adam's".
But, American is just as accurate.
Excellent post!
Does the notion of race even make sense from a biological standpoint? Can 'race' even be proven?
I think not.
It is worrisome that the state is so preoccupied with the 'notion' of race.
Cory
Thanks for the reminder to make a statement with those boxes.
Usually, I just give them the answer they expect out of apathy on my part.
I need to make it a point to not play in their silly little games.
I'm just praying that I don't get the un-Constitutional long census form. I don't have the time or the funds for the court battle that would ensue.
I refuse to answer it and refuse to pay a fine for refusing to obey an un-Constitutional order.
Well said, Mike. For years, I have written "Holy," "Christian," or "1 Peter 2:9" into the line next to "Other".
1 Peter 2:9 reads, "For you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God..."
"Nation" is EQNOS, from which we get our word "ethnic" and all its derivatives. Therefore, all Christians can no longer claim to be identified by skin color, but rather by virtue of our new life in Christ Jesus and our being given a new ethnicity (holy) by God.
Heck, if the UK had to recognize "Jedi Knight" as a religion because of all the dimwits who put it on their census form, we can certainly make the very legitimate claim of marking "Holy," or "Christian" in those ridiculous boxes.
I was an Enumerator in the Olympia Washington area for the 1990 US Census. After reading the law so that I could understand it enough to explain what the heck I was doing on folks porches, I uncovered the one question that is actually required by law:
"How Many People Live At This Address?"
This is how the number of Congressmen are assigned to your State in the US Congress House of Representatives. Every State gets at least one Congressman, and States with lots of people like NY or California get bunches.
Then, I would ask the person at the door if they would care to answer the rest of the questions on the form, since they are completely optional and slightly (or with long form, obscenely) invasive.
Whatever they answered, I complied with. They were mostly happy to tell me that 2 or 5 people live there and to have a nice day. This explanation of the Census greatly speeded my work and allowed me to get the maximum quota bonus possible for each work day. Riding my bicycle on the route also made everything faster, since I could get to within a few steps of the door easily.
Cheers.
I got the Census long form in 2000 at our current address. I filled it out the usual way, answering that 2 people live here.
A Census taker supervisor showed up to help me fill out the rest of the form. I declined and told her why.
"It's none of your business, and it's not required by the US Constitution."
No more Census Enumerators or Supervisors came around. Perhaps, they did what I was instructed to do with "refusers" for expediency purposes: "estimate" the correct answers for that address based on what you could see about the buildings, cars, and property.
If these were the instructions I got, they are the same as thousands of others got. It means that Census data is not as solid as they might pretend, especially about topics of any sensitivity.
"How many loaded .30 cal cartridges do you normally keep in the house?"
"How many long arms are in the house?"
"How many pistols?"
"Do you keep more than 6 months worth of preserved food in your house?"
"Is there a source of electrical power that can run the house for more than 7 days available in case of grid power loss?"
"Are there any access tunnels under this property big enough for a person to crawl through?"
There are just 2 of us living here. Good day.
Cheers.
Exactly. "Race" is part of the Hegelian dialectic meant to divide the populace.
+1 for Human/Other as a response to "race" questions.
Last time a census worker came around asking long-form questions, I answered as follows:
How many people reside at this address? 4 people.
What is your ethnicity? 4 people
What is your age? 4 people
What do you do for a job? 4 people
...etc.
I went on for a few more, then told the guy we could cut the interview short if he would just go ahead and fill in all my answers as "4 people."
He didn't think it was nearly as funny as I did, but it did make him go away. After all, it might not make sense for some questions, but a "4 people" IS an answer!
I periodically participate in a well know national poll, when I come to the "Race" section I always write in "Southern American" just to make things a bit more complicated for every one. I to am over this obsession with race, and with those are obsessed with it.
Dr.D
I'm with Weaver and parabarbarian. I write "human" in boxes asking for race.
I normally mark other and if asked I tell them I am an American. On that same note if they have a blank spot where it asks what my martial status is I write Happy. Thats my marital status and they asked.
Good post Mike! Note: If you ever wish to not have those boxes checked when you apply for a loan: APPLY OVER THE PHONE. IF you apply in person - you are given the option to either volunteer your information OR the loan officer has to make their own assumptions based on your surname and visual observation. VIa phone, they can't mark anything other than 'not given' or an equal statement like that on their forms. I've been in the finance industry for 7 years now (and never did a bad loan - no skeletons in THIS closet!) - figured someone would like to know.
My eldest son had it out with the mo.gov folks with my grandaughter a couple of years back. He always enters "human" when asked for race on any form. :)
thanks for the blog!
I have never answered a question on government forms about my race or religion, well not since I was about 16.
I did receive a questionaire once while I was project manager on a construction project for a government militarily supported facility. When I got to the race question, I left it blank. I was approached later in person and asked to fill it out. I declined. So the dummy thought I might be as dumb as was he. He tried to "good guy" me and engage me in conversation. He asked after a while why I wouldn't answer that particular question. "nobody's damn business".
So a little more good guying and he asked "just between us" what is your heritage? "Construction".
"No, I mean before you did this, your ethnicity". Me; "Pipefitter"
"That's not a race". Me; "Don't let a pipefitter hear you say that"
The goof wasted a couple of hours with me, but I was having so much fun jerking his chain that I let him. He finally left and the race question on the form was still blank.
Just for the Hell of it, though I will tell y'all. I am of German, Cherokee, Chickasaw descent. Of course, the Five Civilized Tribes not only owned plantations in the Southeast with black slaves but they had a propensity for taking black wives and husbands and breeding with them for fun without benefit of marriage. All this was prior to the Trail of Tears and documentation was sparse after. So, I really don't have a damn clue about all my racial makeup, just like everybody else.
I do know my family at the turn of the previous century was and is related to some old west outlaws and friends with some others. I think we have always been a little freer than authorities prefer their citizens to be.
All that wouldn't fit in that little bitty space on the questionaire. :)
Oh yeah, Mike, you and Weaver must be way smarter than I. It took my fourth foray into marriage to marry above my station.
I reserve pride, as such, for my personal accomplishments. I can take no credit for my physical attributes or the color of my skin.
Neither can I take any "pride" in being an American - or any such designation. That is an accident of birth too, not my own doing.
I am proud to be an individual sovereign. THAT I do myself.
Just to be perverse, I check a different box on each government form. So I'm a white non-latino, white latino, black non-latino, black latino, asian non-latino, asian-latino, pacific islander non-latino, pacific islander latino, native american non-latino, and native american latino - as far as I can remember.
I'm not proud of BEING white (actually, a bit of a mongrel, as are quite a few people who appear "white" to outward appearances and by virtue of their known pedigree). But by the same token, I am not ashamed of being white, either. I bear neither white-guilt nor euro-guilt, and I am not going to step aside for anyone who feels entitled to take "cuts" in front of me, whether he or she be an elitist who imagines I am from an inferior caste, or a "victim" who demands I make amends for crimes I didn't commit.
I was inspired by your article, and I don't say that very often.
I'm going to college, U of M on top of that. There are MANY race/gender/creed specific scholarships. There is an arabic scholarship, an african american scholarship, a whole slew of women-only scholarships, and even a gay/lesbian scholarship. There are no christian or "white scholarships", yet they plaster on every single application:
"UM does not discriminate based on gender, ethnicity, creed..."
even worse, they refuse to use the word "black" to describe african americans, but they lump all of Europe into the equally offensive word "white", in print, on their application!
I work in an office on campus, and I know for a fact we keep records on every students' race and ethnicity. It makes me sick. How can ANYONE justify what they are doing? How do they sleep at night?
I'd love to cross out the question entirely (or rip it out of the page). I'd like to put "human" or "Adam's", too, but I could lose scholarships if I write in "pirate" or something...
and this "ethnicity" policy is everywhere... they have events and clubs for every single ethnicity, and they have "conversations on race" seminars (sponsored by the university) every once in a while.
Are they TRYING to alienate certain races? It's almost like they're putting them on as a sideshow. Here's the Arabic American experience, look at how they live.
Here's the African American experience, aren't they really awesome?
What? Europeans? Oh, you know everything you need to know about them.
They just don't get it. Judge people on people... everyone's different, you can't just classify people into a race and say "this race does X", or "THIS is how an African American sees the world".
Barking mad. Why would they waste their time making predictions about what somebody's going to act like based on their race, anyway?
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