And the Survey Says...

Saw a long stupid survey yesterday that among other dumb questions asked the following. “Which of the following ethnic groups do you most closely identify with?”

Your choices were Caucasian, Hispanic/Latino, African American, Asian, Multiracial, and other. Does this seem dumb to anyone but me? Let me first deal with their question. I suppose that with the exception of ‘other’ you can be a Caucasian that identified with African-American because you like, rap music, love fried chicken, or think Jessie Jackson isn’t a racist. Perhaps you are Japanese and identify with Hugo Chavez because he reminds you of the corrupt emperors of old or you are a multiracial moderate but you just can’t make up your mind so you identify with Caucasians.

What exactly is the point of that question? Wouldn’t it be far simpler to ask, which of the following groups are you part of? Notice, I left out ethnic, more later. Is it too much to ask for a direct question, are they afraid that they may be accused of being well, too direct. Perhaps it is the Chianti speaking but I don’t see how you would be one of the group members but identify with the other. Even if you did, what would they get out of the answer? Would they than target BET TV toward a bunch of Koreans grocery owners?

Let’s go to their choices and the reason I left out ethnic. If they had given a choice of Polish, Russian, Japanese, Jamaican, Irish, or Mexican than I could buy off on ethic identification, these choices are not ethnic.

They aren’t even cultural, which might give you Hispanic in extreme interpretations, possibility but not really African-American, but definitely not Caucasian, Asian or multiracial. They lumped political terms, races, continents and confused all together. I suppose they think that Chinese and Russians have a lot in common or Nigerians and urban youths or maybe even the Irish and the English. Again, no matter what you pick for an answer, what do they get out of it. Will they begin broadcasting Italian TV to southern Baptists?

Pity the poor Indians or Egyptians or the Polynesians or the Brazilians, they never get to participate in the survey. The survey by the way was conducted by the New York Times, which should explain everything.