As I discussed in my very first blog post, the U.S. Census now allows respondents to check more than one box when reporting their race. Inclusive as it is, that tactic can only go so far. What if a Hawaiian-Nigerian-Swede has a child with a French-Canadian-Jew? Which boxes will their daughter check? And what if that young girl grows up to fall in love and have twins with an adopted Chinese-Indonesian-Pakistani raised by WASPs? What boxes will those adorable little WASPy-Nigerian-Swedish-French-Canadian-Jewish-Chinese-Indonesian-Pakistani identical twins check?
The only way to accurately gather racial data from U.S. citizens will be to move to a more color/culture-based, self-identification system. In this new collection system (a draft of which Obama has been kind enough to share with all certified biracial Americans), each person will be identified by a unique polygram. That shape, along with their lip measurement, will be utilized by the government to determine how to best address the economic, social and educational needs of our nation.
A sneak peak is below. Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section. I’ll be sure to pass them along to the committee.
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[...] What’s Your  Polygram? (This is great…well to me.) [...]
Reblogged this on serialmel.