You whiney infantile brats!

The BBQ Pit
41

[[These forms are not being used for medical/genetic tracking purposes, and so there is no medical justification for requiring racial classification.]]

Please take a look at documents put out by your health department. You will see that census stats are used to show the discrepancies in disease rates between different racial populations. Tracking this does not create the discrepancies - it just shows that it still exists and something needs to be done about it. When people mark these forms “human” or otherwise do not answer the questions properly, it makes it very difficult to identify health and other problems which very unfortunately still occur at different rates between different racial populations.

42

As other posters have pointed out, the idea of the census as a base for demographic benchmarks is bullshit.

The government gets far better data allready year after year from sources such as clinics reporting std rates, hospitals reporting births, county death rates, state disease stats, school dropout rates; any number of sources that are constantly reporting one thing or another. Those are just examples.

Not to say that some of those stats aren’t padded in favor of those who report them, but accuracy is not the point, “we” need the money.

The idea that a national head count will affect funding re: ethnic groups (or any group)is a pipe dream.

Lobbyists and activists with money decide how congress funds programs.

Yes it would be nice if it worked how it was supposed to, but alas, this is the real world.

43

[[The government gets far better data allready year after year from
sources such as clinics reporting std rates, hospitals reporting births,
county death rates, state disease stats, school dropout rates; any
number of sources that are constantly reporting one thing or another.
Those are just examples.]]

Do you know what a “rate per population” is? What do you think we “government” types use for a denominator? Sheesh.
Jill

44

Yes I do, and that is precisely my point. A “rate per population” doesnt mean shit.

A numerical rating using a formula is reducing people to numbers.

That is why big liberal government can claim anything they want.

The census is meaningless in that respect; the gov has the numbers they wish to use allready.

(BTW, 50% of census info is bullshit anyway, and 90% of my Latino?/Chicano? friends think this years form is fucked up, and they throw it away or give BS info) I know, they are screwing themselves out of all that fed money…<sarcasm>

I live in Albuquerque, so I know about “ethnic groups”

How often do we have a census?

You will counter and say “well, thats how the local school district might get fed funds”

I say, its how much pull my local congressman/woman has on Capitol Hill.

Sure, we might still get fed bucks, but its not just a “rate per” thing.

Jill, I sent my form in, didn’t lie, but working for the gov or not, you are naive if you think gov spending on social/other progs revolves around census data, no matter what your bosses tell you.

(and I dont need a link to some gov site, I mean the way the REAL gov works)

Just ask Bill or Al.

45

Oops, I think I just busted my own balls with that post.

I guess vaseline would be to much to ask for.

Jill, I humbly stand before you to get the irony smacked into me…

slinking back to lurksville…

46

:::Handing Klaatu antiseptic and gauze:::

Here ya go buddy, it happens to all of us at one time or another. :wink:

Watch it with the antiseptic, it’s gonna sting like hell!

:::slinking off to other threads:::

–Kalél
TheHungerSite.com
“If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.”
“Well, there was that thing with the Cheese-Wiz…but I’m feeling much better now!” – John Astin, Night Court

47

Apology accepted here, Klaatu.

But just FTR, a whole bunch of county, state, local, and private concerns totting up their individual numbers at different times, using differing methodologies - this doesn’t sum up to the same thing as a single nationwide survey of essentially the entire population.

And Jill’s point about where the denominator comes from still stands, of course.

48

[[I live in Albuquerque, so I know about “ethnic groups”]]

I live in Albuquerque, too. And I know that without census data, we would have no idea that Black people in our state, for example, suffer disproportionately from certain diseases and social conditions compared to other groups. With their smaller numbers, no one would recognize that the impact on this community is great. If we didn’t know this, we couldn’t investigate why these discrepancies exist.

[[Jill, I sent my form in, didn’t lie, but working for the gov or not, you are naive if you think gov spending on social/other progs revolves around census data, no matter what your bosses tell you.]]

I am an epidemiologist. I don’t simply equate numbers with funding. I myself do use census data as a denominator when I analyze rates per population of diseases, which is useful to those designing prevention programs or writing grants to fund services… There are many reasons why this information, by race, is relevant and important. We would all prefer to live in a world without such racial differences, but we don’t. I’ve made my point, so I’ll drop it now.
Jill

49

[[Please explain why it is necessary to know poverty rates for different groups? Do we need separate programs to fight black poverty, Native American poverty, Hispanic poverty, white poverty, Asian poverty, Korean-Puerto Rican-German-Cherokee poverty? Why can’t we just fight poverty?]]

Wouldn’t that be nice? The more we know about poverty - what causes it, how it perpetuates itself, and how it differs in different groups, the better equipped we are to fight it. There is no one program for everybody.
Jill

50

Fuck the Census. It is suppossed to be a plain and simple head count for purposes of determining seats in the House of Representatives. Period.

You want to know my income? My ethic background? Ask the fucking IRS.

You want to know what time I leave for work in the morning? None of your dammed business.

You want to know my medical history? Fuck you. That’s private information and none of your dammed business.

I received the long form and I’m suppossed to answer 318 questions…not a chance…and I’ll be dammed if I’ll open the door when they come knocking. The $100 fine will be well worth the satisfaction I’ll get.

Oh, and for the record, 6 people live here and fuck you very much.

51

According to the Census’ own rules, they cannot share the information with anyone else, or another branch of government (such as the Justice Department). So, if you * only partially answer*, how are they to prosecute? They cannot provide the form to the Attorney General without breaking their own rule, and nullifying the ‘evidence’.

::

52

Personally,I thought this was quite amusing:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2000/03/25/census/index.html

It’s an article written by Michael Finley entitled “Black and Proud; I’m white, but I told the census I’m African-American. Here’s why.”

An excerpt:
"March 25, 2000 | There must be something wrong with me, because when I got my census form last week, I dutifully filled it out. That is, until I came to the section on race. On an impulse, I said that our entire family was black.

We aren’t. One look in the mirror confirms that. We are white as sheets, off-white sheets anyway, all four of us.

But I marked us black, perhaps committing a felony in the process…"