my apartment holds three comfortably, seventeen uncomfortably
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:17 (3 years ago) Permalink
are you an "angry Latina judge"
Yes ___
No ___
Fuck you, Scalia ___
i also found the language interesting "how many people live/stay in your apartment/house/mobile home"
Yeah, that is a curious verb choice. Does my dead mother in the attic count?
― kenan, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:18 (3 years ago) Permalink
y
― smoking cigarette shades? it doesn't even make any sense. (HI DERE), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:18 (3 years ago) Permalink
Is she comfortable?
― Ask foreigners and they will tell you the gospel comes from America. (Laurel), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:20 (3 years ago) Permalink
it asked very specifically "are you of latino/hispanic descent and if so what kind" and then listed puerto rican, mexican, nicaraguan, etc. then there was a little box asking "are you of 'other' hispanic descent?" and listed colombian, "spaniard" etc.
THEN it asked for my "race" and i was given a chance to say whether i was white, African America/black/Negro, korean, Chinese, Guamanian, etc.
then there was a box for "OTHER"
so basically what I understood is this:
* they are counting latinos* they are counting if someone is latino + something else* they don't give you an option to mark if you are [x] race + (something else not latino)
weird, i thought* they want to know if you are
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:21 (3 years ago) Permalink
whoopsignore that last * point
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:22 (3 years ago) Permalink
U+K Walken sketch
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4165/saturday-night-live-census-taker
― kenan, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:22 (3 years ago) Permalink
If they want to know if I am weird, they're going to have to have to be a little more specific.
― Ask foreigners and they will tell you the gospel comes from America. (Laurel), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:22 (3 years ago) Permalink
anyway, can we talk about the special latino question?
i think this is because the census is worried that if the significant population of americans who are latino/hispanic aren't given an option to list that as their ethnicity, they might get tripped up and choose white. from what i understand latino/hispanic isn't listed under the race category, because it's not technically a race. i assume the only reason there isn't also a separate white-race ethnicity disambiguation question for arab-americans is because that's not considered a "significant" population?
limiting people to specific races/ethnicities gets hairy, for sure. they should just provide a world map on the form and say "shade in every region from which you believe you have ancestors" during some particular time period.
― iiiijjjj, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:29 (3 years ago) Permalink
function of time period, of course, would be so that everyone doesn't just shade ethiopia
― iiiijjjj, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:30 (3 years ago) Permalink
I believe part of the reason for asking such specific questions is so such a map can be made.
― kenan, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:31 (3 years ago) Permalink
right, but i'm saying at this point the accuracy of the map's data is only going to be as good as the question by which the data is obtained
― iiiijjjj, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
i understand why they're doing it -- i just want to know what they're going to do with the data. are these contortions the work of squeezing people into a box or expanding the box? because squeezing isn't going to get us anywhere.
ps USians can't read maps, duh -- try harder!
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
It's all so they can round us up into FEMA death camps more efficiently.
― kenan, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:33 (3 years ago) Permalink
oh, i see. well i don't think they're trying to fit people into these boxes one way or another, only make sure the box itself is accurately defined. i guess the purpose of that is so grad students' sociology theses can be as accurate as possible?
― iiiijjjj, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
The white/non-hispanic vs. white/hispanic vs. non-white/hispanic-or-whatever-else-there-was distinction is one I'm familiar with primarily through seeing it used on Wikipedia. Thank you internet for keeping me up to date with demographic trends!
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 19:38 (3 years ago) Permalink
i like how the questions on the form are:
1) how many people are in your house?
2) How many people are REALLY in your house?
― akm, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 21:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
3) REALLY??
― akm, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 21:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
what is the legal difference btwn 'black' and 'negro'?
― sleepingbag, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 21:46 (3 years ago) Permalink
Are those two seperate options (haven't got mine yet)?
― musicfanatic, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:03 (3 years ago) Permalink
Got mine Monday, returned Tuesday morning. Came home to a vaguely "threatening" postcard Tuesday afternoon about returning it OR ELSE. Really?
― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:05 (3 years ago) Permalink
yup
13 USC Sec. 221TITLE 13 - CENSUS
CHAPTER 7 - OFFENSES AND PENALTIES
SUBCHAPTER II - OTHER PERSONS
Sec. 221. Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers
(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.
(b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500.
― iiiijjjj, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:13 (3 years ago) Permalink
Oh I'm surprised by the "threat" just that the sent me the follow-up postcard literally the day after I got my forms. I know it takes like 3 minutes, but still.
― he's always been a bit of an anti-climb Max (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:17 (3 years ago) Permalink
There's an add on the bus stop near my work encouraging people to fill out the census form so that Chicago Transit Authority knows how many more buses to add, which hurts me in my feelings area because the CTA just cut a ton of service, including my favorite bus, and no amount of census data is going to change that because we're broke.
That said, I filled out and returned our census form because I am a sucker for doing my civic duty. Also like I said in the Chicago thread, we straight, white, middle-class, married people need to STAND UP AND BE COUNTED.
― she is writing about love (Jenny), Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:21 (3 years ago) Permalink
xxpost There's one checkbox that says "Black, Afr. Amer., or Negro" iirc; I guess it's not really a separate option but there's still some distinction apparently. The one for white just says "White"
― sleepingbag, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:24 (3 years ago) Permalink
Please check one
[ ] I'm white btw
― dmr, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 22:42 (3 years ago) Permalink
[ ] No homo
― kenan, Wednesday, 17 March 2010 23:02 (3 years ago) Permalink
i can hear the arguments in the congressional census committee about the black/AfAm/negro language -- they were just trying to cover their bases i'm sure
just like some people say "where do you live" and others say "where do you stay" -- covering their bases
i just would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in those meetings where they hash it all out, including the Special Latino Question of 2010
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:03 (3 years ago) Permalink
got my form today, pretty excited
― harbl, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:06 (3 years ago) Permalink
wouldn't you love to see the first draft of this thing? i would.
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:11 (3 years ago) Permalink
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
nice! i completed my census while 100% sober, but i will say that i felt a bit of giddiness when i was done.
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:28 (3 years ago) Permalink
i'm drunk should i do it now
― harbl, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:31 (3 years ago) Permalink
why is this the first time i received a census form? wha happen 1990 & 2000??
― velko, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
Ed, is it going to be like me filing in UK voter registration with the equivalent of 'nobody in here but us chickens'?
― ned ragú (suzy), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:35 (3 years ago) Permalink
mailed mine this morning. woooo
― dmr, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:35 (3 years ago) Permalink
it doesn't have enough questions for my satisfaction!
― harbl, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
Blimey, they don't ask for a lot of detail and still, talk radio thinks its an imposition. And why am I getting robocalls to write in that I'm diabetic? Is that a race? Where do I say I'm a Jedi?
suzy, I'm here for the purposes of the census.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
you should include a narrative portion about your race/ethnicity
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
true story on my form underneath the part where it says "THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION" i wrote in "NO, THANK YOU"
― iiiijjjj, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
there should really be more races to select
― harbl, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
why give so much primacy (a separate box) to guamanians or samoans, but nothing to mixed race with no latino? dumb. i just want to know how that happened.
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:40 (3 years ago) Permalink
what about germans, irish, greeks, italians, dutch, spaniards
― harbl, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:42 (3 years ago) Permalink
swedes, norges, croats
Because Guam and US Samoa are territories? Seriously would not be for any other reason. xpost
― ned ragú (suzy), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:42 (3 years ago) Permalink
What I don't understand is there is no box for immigration status. I have to fill in the form but I'm not eligible to vote, so if enough people like me fill in a form (and there are many foreign students in Pittsburgh) does pittsburgh get extra representation?
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:43 (3 years ago) Permalink
yes indeed, isn't that weird?
― harbl, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:45 (3 years ago) Permalink
maybe they figure that the foreign student population is relatively stable even if the actual students are different people? i also can't imagine there are tens of thousands of foreign students?
― figgy pudding (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:46 (3 years ago) Permalink
like foreign students, children can't vote but their interests are still represented based on the census because they live there
― iiiijjjj, Thursday, 18 March 2010 00:48 (3 years ago) Permalink