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Director of Census Bureau Apologizes for 'Negro' Category
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by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | March 26, 2010 at 04:42 pm
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Director of Census Bureau Apologizes for 'Negro' Category
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Robert Groves, Director US Census Bureau, Apologized on C-SPAN's Washington Journal for term, 'Negro' on 2010 Census form
Census Bureau Director Robert Groves apologized for the "negro" classification on the 2010 census form during a call-in show on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" today, on their Friday edition.
"I am black. I did not appreciate the Black, the Afro-American and Negro. That is back when I used to live in Nashville, Tennessee, when people were called Negro. I do not like that, that is out of character, and it really hurt my feelings ... that to me is racist," the caller said before hanging up.
Groves told the caller he apologized on behalf of all of his colleagues, and that the Census Bureau chose to keep the term, 'Negro' on the forms, because it was "recognizable", and that it would be gone by "2010". It was wondered by some why the more politically correct term , 'African American" was not chosen, for its neutrality in terms of historical resonance.
Groves also said that the Census Bureau had done research about what terms people used to identify their own racial classification. In a large portion of the study, Groves said, people chose or wrote "Negro" as their race, which prompted the Bureau to continue to use word on the 2000 census. Still, Groves acknowledged that the research was outdated.
The term, 'Negro' was included on the 2000 Census form, but since the 1980s has been seen as increasingly dated, and carrying negative historical connotations. Although Martin Luther King used the term, the more recent 'African American' is viewed as having broken with the racial stereotyping which is often equated with the former term.
See also the Atlantic, "They Put Negro On There?" Many in the blogosphere are outraged that the term was not researched for the 2010 census, which some have been offended by. Used pejoratively, as in the "Negro question" or "our Negro problem", the word has the ring of the old south and the KKK or Aryan brotherhood to more than a few people.
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Susan Marie Kovalinsky
Ledgewood, New Jersey, United States
Recommendations (8)
stejeb
United Kingdom
hussain
All Places, Pakistan
Rory Cripps
New Port Richey, Florida, United States
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 20:06 on March 28th, 2010
This is BULLSHIT!!!! why would THEY want to put NEGRO on there? in 2010?? for what???!! To demean up???? how ignorant!!! IGNORANCE!!!! its white Supremist world i guess
at 20:09 on March 28th, 2010
This is just pitiful! In this day in age, WHO calls another black person a NEGRO, seriously??? a NEGRO? WTF are we in the 1950s?? "Negroes aint allowed in this here area, coloreds only section u dirty NEGRO" thats what that word is affiliated with you dumb WHITE PRICKS!!!!!! Thats why we have a black president and u all wanna shoot urself cuz BLACK IS IN BITTTCHHESSS!! haha!!! U low, racist, phucks!
at 04:56 on April 10th, 2010
you ignorant twat if you got a big effing check from the United WHAT???? College Fund, you'd shut yer yap... that WHAT being....wait for it....N-E-G-R-O loudmouth race-baiting bitch. is al sharpton yo daddy?
at 17:01 on April 11th, 2010
Recently, I found the 2010 Census form hanging on my door. As I began filling it out, I came across a dilemma. The U.S. government wants to know if my children are adopted or not and it wants to know what our races are. Being adopted myself, I had to put “Other” and “Don’t Know Adopted” for my race and “Other” and “Don’t Know” for my kids’ races. Can you imagine not knowing your ethnicity, your race? Now imagine walking into a vital records office and asking the clerk for your original birth certificate only to be told “No, you can’t have it, it’s sealed.” How about being presented with a “family history form” to fill out at every single doctor’s office visit and having to put “N/A Adopted” where life saving information should be? Imagine being asked what your nationality is and having to respond with “I don’t know”. It is time that the archaic practice of sealing and altering birth certificates of adopted persons stops. Adoption is a 5 billion dollar, unregulated industry that profits from the sale and redistribution of children. It turns children into chattel who are re-labeled and sold as “blank slates”. Genealogy, a modern-day fascination, cannot be enjoyed by adopted persons with sealed identities. Family trees are exclusive to the non-adopted persons in our society. If adoption is truly to return to what is best for a child, then the rights of children to their biological identities should NEVER be violated. Every single judge that finalizes an adoption and orders a child’s birth certificate to be sealed should be ashamed of him/herself. I challenge all readers: Ask the adopted persons that you know if their original birth certificates are sealed.