Census 2010 Question 9 Symbolic Protest

Personally, I want nothing to do with Census 2010, and I have encouraged individuals to skip Census 2010 as a polite, peaceful expression of civil disobedience.

Each individual must decide for themselves whether they will participate in the census though.  Some individuals may only answer the how many individuals reside at this address question, while other individuals may answer all ten (10) questions the census form puts to them.  My census form will be recycled, which is environmentally friendly, right?

If you are an individual who is inclined to completely answer all 10 questions put to you on the Census 2010 form, either because you feel it is your duty, or you fear the compulsion, the force, which can be brought to bear against you by the government in the form of fines for non-compliance, Mark Krikorian, in a post at National Review’s The Corner, has a suggestion for Sending a Message with the Census.

...I have a proposal. Question 9 on the census form asks “What is Person 1’s race?” (and so on, for other members of the household). My initial impulse was simply to misidentify my race so as to throw a monkey wrench into the statistics; I had fun doing this on the personal-information form my college required every semester, where I was a Puerto Rican Muslim one semester, and a Samoan Buddhist the next. But lying in this constitutionally mandated process is wrong. Really — don’t do it.

Instead, we should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — “Some other race” — and writing in “American.” It’s a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, “American” was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties.

So remember: Question 9 — “Some other race” — “American”. Pass it on.

Krikorian’s proposal is only a symbolic protest, unlikely to raise any eyebrows.  In fact, the census data compilers will probably think individuals who answer Question 9 in the manner suggested by Krikorian were simply confused by the wording of the question as presented by the census form.

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