This is a question probably asked by many here, though my mediocre search skills were unable to pull much up from the past quarter.
On the household census we filled out yesterday evening, the race section has three options for its second box: black, african american, and negro.
Where did that last option come from? Harry Reid?
I googled to see what was up, and got this from NPR.
(flip)
LINk:
In a statement e-mailed to us this morning, the Census Bureau says that "56,175 respondents" wrote in the word "Negro" on their 2000 Census forms -- even though the word was included on the form much as it is on the 2010 Census.
And Census public information officer Robert Crockett tells us that the word "Negro" has been on Census forms since at least 1950.
This year, Census says, the government is going to study the effects of removing the word from the forms.
So the reason it's still on census forms is....because it already was. Circular logic, perhaps, but there's a lot of things we did in the 50s that we don't do anymore.
I'm sure plenty of you out there getting your census just now noticed this as well.
oh snap, I should have put this up originally:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo...
*Diary update: The word "negro" is racist and offensive. Just in case someone reading this diary didn't already understand. I don't need a link to tell you that. What's that , you say? You need a link? ok, here's wikipedia:
During the 1960s Negro came to be considered an ethnic slur.[3]
The term is now considered archaic and offensive, and is not commonly used.