# Do you check the "ethnicity" box on applications & other forms? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 7, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144 "2005-10-07T03:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/21 "2005-10-11T03:13:52Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > I can picture it now at the NH statehouse: “Governor Lynch! It’s an emergency! The new numbers are out for the month and the trend continues: The Irish are marrying the Scottish!” I wonder what nationality Lynch is. He reminds me of Dobby - is house-elf a recognized nationality in NH? 😛 I leave it blank unless it’s absolutely required. They want you to check one thing, and that doesn’t cover a lot of us mutts. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/22 "2005-10-11T04:00:21Z")
> [@sleeepy2](#): > > When I took my SAT , I checked “Native American” for fun. I received all sorts of scholarship information in the mail. > > It left me wondering, if I had continued to insist that I was a Native American, short of a DNA test, how could they prove I wasn’t? Every time I fill in one of these, I’m tempted to check “Native American”. After all, I was born here; that makes me a “native” American. But I usually either check “White/Caucasian” or leave it blank. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/23 "2005-10-11T20:51:05Z")
I mark it. I have no strong feelings for or against doing so. ---
**Author:** ![velvetjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5f9b8f/32.png) [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/24 "2005-10-11T21:02:17Z")
It does raise an interesting question though. If you’re multi-ethnic how do you identify and why? My husband is 1/2 Italian and 1/2 Hispanic. You could argue that he should check the hispanic box on those forms but he’s always checked caucasian. That’s just how his mother taught him and that’s how he identifies. It really seems so pointless to classify people by ethnicity or ancestry. My ancestors have been in this country for several generations. My mother raised us to believe that we were Irish-american but in reality we’re no more irish than French, British and Lithuanian. I sometimes wonder if we just stopped with the racial demographics what would happen. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/25 "2005-10-13T04:41:30Z")
> [@velvetjones](#): > > I sometimes wonder if we just stopped with the racial demographics what would happen. I wonder that too. I think that it’s one of the things that tends to maintain these arbitrary and frankly stupid divisions. Like the OP, I used to check it but I’ve come to think it’s pointless, so I usually use the “Other” box now. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/26 "2005-10-13T05:10:38Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > A former boss once told me that a guy he used to work with would always check off or write “Native American”… because he was born in Chicago. 😃 This is where I’ve gotten to. I used to check all the boxes years ago thinking it was doing a modicum of good. Heh, left that notion at the door. For a few years I’d check the other box and write in Euro-American. I have as much Scot blood as I do German, Irish and Russian. White didn’t seem to cover it since someone from Johannesburg, Cairo or Accra would be African. So I started marking Native, since I was born here (US). I’ve never been a citizen of any country other than America. I’m American, that’s my pedigree. I haven’t had a blood relative born outside the US in 4 generations. It’s not that I’m trying to be a dick about the issue. It’s just that it’s such a worthless stat to track that it’s become it’s own joke. If race isn’t supposed to be an issue, why are so many asked to identify themselves by a subset? ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/27 "2005-10-13T12:53:37Z")
I do clerical work for a college which has an ethnicity section on its enrolment forms. As I think Misnomer was saying, this is more in the pursuit of equal opportunities than to rudely pry, so it may be counter-productive to refuse the question - if you’re a fan of equal opportunity drives. I did notice that out of the hundreds of forms that have passed over my desk, the only two people who ticked ‘Prefer not to say’, were Americans… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144/28 "2005-10-13T15:44:32Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > When filling out the form at the town hall for a marriage license, I was surprised to see that they had a box for “ancestry”. I left it blank. The clerk noticed this while reviewing the form and handed it back to me. > > … She looks at me like I’m an asshole and says “Everybody’s from somewhere.” Well, let’s see… my great great great great great great grandfather on my father’s father’s fathers’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s side came over to the Virginia Territory from Scotland. His son married my great great great great great grandmother, we don’t know about her ancestry, to be honest. Meanwhile my great great great great great great great grandfather on my father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s father’s _mother’s_ side is unknown, we haven’t traced that branch that far back yet. In fact, of the 256 people who were my ancestors of that generation, the only one I know anything about is my great great great great great great grandfather. So I guess you could put me down as 1/256th Scotland. But the clan history records indicate that the land grant of 1423 that first mentioned the family of his ancestry describe them as affiliated with the Norman contingent that came across with William. So strike what you put, let’s say I’m 1/4096th Norman. And clan tradition has it that he, the recipient of the land grant, married a Pictish girl from the old families there, so 1/4096th Pictish. OK, now, the Pictish tribes are thought to have originated… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-check-the-ethnicity-box-on-applications-other-forms/325144.md?page=1)