Actually, tonight I found out you really only need to answer ONE question for it to be a valid response: “How many people live here?”
Supposedly, that’s enough to counted as being counted, and they won’t send anyone to your door if they get at least that. I’ll try to confirm that next week, so take it with a grain of salt tonight.
Actually, I believe the penalty is $50,000. I don’t think there is any jailtime involved, but I could be wrong on that.
I got the Community one in 2008, near the end of the year. And got the regular census form Monday, sent it out Tuesday. Took about 2 minutes to do, since I live alone.
But they’re not really asking what ethnicity you, Honesty P. Honest, are. They are asking what is the ethnic make-up of your district and the U.S. as a whole.
I don’t believe they record anywhere, by name, what your particular, individual ethnicity is. So your privacy is fully intact (AFAIK).
It’s because asking people to document their citizenship status on a government form is kinda a touchy subject amongst people who are here illegally, but we sure as hell want them to fill out the forms anyway.
The Book of Numbers, the fourth book in the Bible, is a census of the Hebrew people. I thought you might like some additional ammo.
God, exactly. One of my friends posted that she wanted to do exactly this and I loved the people who said that’s the whitest way to answer the question.
The problem is accuracy. There really ARE some distinct physical differences between Koreans and Han Chinese, and there really are differences between Norwegians and Armenians. Not just physical ones, but certainly in terms of historical access to services, wealth, and jobs. Remember when the Irish weren’t welcome in many cities in the US? If the point of the census is to accurately help with services, then breaking down the “white” black" and Asian" categories into a few more distinct groups would be helpful.
Consider: Let’s say that over the last twenty years Acidville has had a large wave of immigration from the Slavic countries. Acidville is aware of this but would like to better serve it’s new residents through dual language programs, library lending, etc… But in the census they all put “white”. Now Instead of the feds having on record that Acidville has had a rising “Slavic/Russian” population that might need additional services it merely knows that we don’t need funding for minorities. Acidville now has to petition the state, county, etc. to make it’s case; who will undoubtedly refer to the census, and probably return the reply that we don’t qualify for additional help for minorities.
Has anybody ever actually been charged and convicted?
Oh, that reminds me of the one thing that did actually piss me off about the form. I don’t remember if it was labeled as “sex” or “gender,” but it definitely specified that you could only check one. It’s sure a nice “fuck you” to people who are, say, intersexed.
1 to 1.7 percent of the population is intersexed in some manner. Most identify as one gender or the other. further, only .01 % is ambiguous enough to not be assigned gender at birth. I doubt the govt was trying to be insensitive there.
You only have to answer that question on the long form.
Right. Sure. The white folks went out of their way to make “black only” districts. Buuuulshit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia%27s_13th_congressional_district
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%27s_7th_congressional_district
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois%27s_1st_congressional_district
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania%27s_2nd_congressional_district
i’ll stop now.
edit, no… i’ll save the best for last:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia%27s_3rd_congressional_district
Most do identify as one *gender *or the other, yes, but what if the form asked for sex? And if it asks for gender, what about people who identify as asexual? You can check more than one race; people should be able to check more than one sex or gender if they so desire.
oh for fuck’s sake. not this bullshit.
No one has been charged since 1960 when two people were charged and neither were fined. It’s all hot air to get you to fill out the form.
Search and you will find many, many people indignant about the threat of a fine, and you won’t find anybody who has been issued one. Issuing a fine is beyond the power of the Census Bureau. Since overall response for 2000 was 67% you would imagine that several million people were fined, right? Or a couple thousand at least? Or maybe a couple hundred? What? Nobody?
And the allowed fine under US code Title 13 is $100 for failure to complete the form and $500 for providing false information. This language exists so that the manditory statements can be made. It is never applied.
Relevant part here:
^What he said.
Why? Immigrants pay taxes too, you know.
Because 90% of the black population of the US has no idea where their ancestors came from beyond “Africa”, and half of the remainder have no idea where their ancestors came from prior to the Caribbean.
:rolleyes:
Funny how being kidnapped into generations of chattel slavery with no ability to enforce familial cohesion will cause you to lose track of your family tree like that.