I was sifting through the comments on an article about the census in the local rag, and caught one (by a frequent flier who calls him/her/itself “tubbythetuba” and whose avatar looks like someone who recently OD’d on a mixture of Ex-Lax and prune juice) observing that those who filled out their census forms were “sheeple” who would probably take Hitler up on the offer of a train ride followed by a relaxing shower. And his/her/its reaction was scarcely unique, just more emphatic than most. So given that such attitudes exist here in the SoW, I can easily imagine that the atmosphere in statsman1982’s neck of the woods is even more poisonous.
At the risk of editorializing, these Tea Baggers are guilty, and must be dealt with in a harsh and brutal fashion. Otherwise, their behavior could incite other Birthers leading to anarchy of biblical proportions.
It’s in “Revelations”, people!
The actual sentence in the Constitution is:
“The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”
The Congress has directed that the census be more than a simple headcount, from the very first census in 1790, when the people who wrote the Constitution were still around.
It is totally a myth that the Constitution insists on nothing more than a headcount.
Except skipping pass the ethnicity question I finished the whole thing. I see no reason why the U.S should inquire on what ethnicity I am but won’t ask whether I’m a U.S citizen. That, to me, is mind-blowing. I’m also amused that hispanic is now distinct from white (Did I miss the memo on that one?). Aren’t hispanics just Europeans from Spain? In any case, the Census should represent a show of hands in a household without regard to skin color. The Census has become a data mining experiment that’s outside the scope of what the Founders originally intended. Just my opinion.
- Honesty
Europeans from Spain are called Spaniards, or Spanish.
Hispanics are, for census purposes, Spanish-speaking people from the Americas, although awhile ago we had a big blow-up about whether or not Brazilians are Hispanics, and I’m not going to get into that.
It’s important to figure this stuff out, including skin color. Yes, in an ideal world, skin color wouldn’t be a factor. Would that we all lived in such a place. Instead, we live in a world where people who are of certain ethnicities live in certain neighborhoods and have higher or lower incomes than other ethnicities. This is far from a data mining experiment. The government uses this information to try to correct for these inequalities (at least, in theory; it’s not like they do a perfect job, but without the data, they can’t even make an attempt). Census data is public information, and NGOs can also take action based on that. Have high school graduation rates among black males gone down in a city in the last ten years? Is the rise in Latina income half of that of white women? How can governmental and non-governmental agencies address that? What kinds of programs can be instituted to correct for this? Why is it happening? You need census data to figure this stuff out.
And finally, did you miss the part where the census has ALWAYS asked these sorts of questions, including the very first time around, in 1790, when the Founders were still alive and kicking? Where are you getting your information that this wasn’t what they intended?
I never said that the Constitution says there can be nothing but a headcount, just that the headcount is the only part of the census that is in the Constitution. The rest, as I said, is just crap tacked on.
doorbell rings. Half-naked woman answers
Male Census Worker: Hello ma’am. I’m here to ask you ten questions.
Half-naked Woman: Oh? I hope they’re not too… personal.
Census Worker: Well, I do have to ask you if there are any people staying here temporarily that don’t otherwise live here. Are there any… guests in the house?
Woman: Why no Mr. Census Worker. I’m completely alone. Why don’t you come inside for a moment. You must be tired working on your feet all day.
Census Worker: I sure am. It’s hard work counting heads.
Woman: Oh I’ll give you a head to count alright. devilish grin
bow chika bow wow
Census Worker: I hope you don’t mind, but I brought the long form.
Tacked on, that is, by Congress, at the explicit direction of the constitution.
Not sure how that legitimately gets characterized as “crap,” by the way.
Short form filled out and will be mailed tomorrow. IIRC I filled out the long form in 2000. I don’t recall getting a short form afterwards. Does the ACS usually come before the short form?
The two surveys are separate. The American Community Survey is mailed out to 250,000 households every quarter, and it has nothing to do with the Decennial Census, which is what’s going on now. If you get both, you have to do both, but if you don’t get both, don’t worry about it.
Well, you have to have race on there so you can exclude the indians, and count black people as 3/5.
In all seriousness, I don’t see how.
I took five tiny steps in that direction, by writing “H”, “U”, “M”, “A”, and “N” in the “Race: Other” block.
Also, US Census data were used to facilitate the WWII Japanese-American internments.
I realize that you are being facetious, but there are laws that require compliance to ensure that blacks and other minorities aren’t being disenfranchised and that legislative districts aren’t being gerrymandered on the basis of race or ethnicity. Consequently, the Census has the authority and mandate to ask about race. Again, if this is so offensive to you, you don’t have to give your race, or you can list Wookiee or whatever cute response you want, but accurate data on race and ethnicity is important.
Wrong board. 
More seriously, I think MsRobyn’s comment in post 56 is the simplest answer to the objections about being asked about race. One of the fundamental purposes of the census is to allocate seats in the House of Representatives fairly, based on the population. That includes as between the different states, but also within each state. Having sound information about the racial distribution within the state helps to ensure that the state’s seats are not being gerrymandered on the basis of race.
Being 1/4 Brazilian (my maternal grandfather came to the U.S. from Brazil as an adult), I’ve often wondered what the answer to that question is. I obviously don’t consider myself Hispanic in the least, and nobody who looked at me would, but I have aunts and cousins who got more of the Brazilian genes, and I wonder.
As above, I was tempted to make a joke or Rule 34 reference.
Then I found this awesome site: http://chartporn.org/
Between that and Graphjam, I may end up losing quite a bit of time.