Census Bureau to parents: please poison the well of your child’s self-image.

The issue of race on question 9 in the 2010 Census causes a great deal of discussion and anger among many Americans. See this discussion at the web site of New York radio talk show Brian Lehrer for polite and intelligent discussion from people who have, as they say, skin in the game.

This issue is complicated further when reporting the race of minor children. The U.S. Census Bureau explains race as a matter of self-identification. Instructions [.pdf file] state specifically that it is “not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically or genetically.”

If race is a matter simply of “self-identification” then what is the parent of a minor child to do? Ask the child himself what race he self-identifies as? A supervisor at  the Census Bureau’s Telephone Questionnaire Assistance (1-866-872-6868) says that the parent should answer the question for the child. Sensible as that advice may be, it specifically contradicts the instruction in the pamphlet that race is a matter of self-identification, not biology. There is no ambiguity in the pamphlet linked above. The Census Bureau has adopted self-identification as the only criteria to use when answering question 9 on race.

When a parent answers the question for the child it also muddies the water for the child’s future thinking on self-identification. That’s because it forces the parent to go on the record on the issue. Imagine the future conversation on the day the child starts thinking seriously about self-identification and asks “Hey Dad. What race did you put down on the census for me?” Any answer you give him will strongly affect his thinking.

The U.S. Census Bureau has simply not thought the concept of self-identification all the way through when it comes to minor children. I believe they have adopted the nonjudgemental but nonsensical idea of using self-identification without taking minor children into account. If they are going to adopt self-identification as their criteria then they must exempt children from this question. Because they have not done that, they have created yet one more example of how the good intentions of the government result in its inserting itself into something that should only involve the family.

** update **

Blogging is so turn of the century. Here’s a YouTube video version of this post.

Census Hotline rep discovers the contradiction of minor children self-identifying their race.

Related: Advice to the multi-racial job seeker.

Related: the form on the 2010 U.S. Census if the government treated your hair color like it treats your race.