Ethnic Heritage Question Number 9 of the U.S. Census
If you or our parents emigrated from Africa, identify yourself as being "African" on the 2010 U.S. Census questionnaire and to be more specific about your ancestry, add the nationality – such as Nigerian-Ibo, or Kenya-Kikuyu. If you check the box in question #9 for "black, African-American or Negro" there will be no place to show whether your ethnic heritage is as an African immigrant or refugee, with a place of birth on the African continent.
The African Times/USA suggests writing your nationality on the Census question #9 under "some other race"; writing in the country you or your parents came from – Kenya, Mali, and Morocco.
This year’s Census has moved well beyond general categories of the past, which were "black" and "white" to allow people to identify themselves with a specific ethnic heritage or national origin and in some cases by their multi-racial mix.
The wording of the questions for race and ethnicity changes with almost every Census, making room for the people who say, "I don't see how I fit in exactly," Census Bureau Director Robert Groves told reporters. "This will always keep changing in this country as it becomes more and more diverse."
Advocates, and The African Times/USA are urging indigenous immigrants from Africa to write in groups such as Ibo, Wolof or Afrikaner, so the Census Bureau can tally the African immigration mix for the first time.
While most African immigrants are expected to check the box for "black," that will lump them together with African-Americans. The result will be that corporations and politicians will not see the political, economic and social issues specific to the African immigrant communities. They also will not see the size of those communities or get a sense of the diversity of experiences among the African groups.
Efforts to push the federal government to recognize specific communities have grown since the 1960s, when residents began filling out the forms on their own, said Ann Morning, a sociology professor at New York University.
For instance, the Census Bureau first included the option "of Spanish heritage" in 1970, then added the term "Hispanic" a decade later. Before 2000, Native Hawaiians were counted as American Indians.
Now there is more recognition of diversity within the black community, Morning said. "For long ago, black (in America) meant a particular kind of ethnic identity — a native-born descendent of slaves who had been in the South generations ago," she said. "Now people are increasingly realizing there are other kinds of African descent."
And why is it important to have the correct data? Accurate counts in the once-a-decade survey ensure recognition from the federal government and the fair allocation of resources to state and local governments.
As Africans plan to check the "some other race" category and write in your nationality, be it Senegal, Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho or any of the other African nations.
The African Times Editorial
