Belarusians in the U.S. Census 2010
The Belarusan-American Association starts a new campaign with compelling slogan “Are you proud you’re Belarusian? Identify yourself on the 2010 census form!”
In March 2010, every residence in the United States and Puerto Rico received a census form. The organization urges Belarusian Americans to complete the census form to ensure that their Belarusian ethnicity, background and cultural heritage are appropriately reflected in their response and counted.
“This is the only means for determining how many Americans have a Belarusian background,” said Viachaslau Bortnik of the Belarusan-American Association.
Question 9 is where the census form lets respondent to define his or her race, where this means heritage, nationality group, ethnicity and related concepts. In general, the Census Bureau defines ethnicity or origin as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. Because of the wording of “race” used on the form and the categories listed such as the general category “white” there is a seeming resultant bias toward gathering information about just the categories that are listed. For example, a person who is of Belarusian heritage might only check “white” and not write in “Belarusian” as their race at the end of Question 9, because the words ethnicity, origin, nationality, or heritage are not explicitly used, though these are included in the definition of “race.”
“Why fill in that you are Belarusian? Because being counted is what the Census is all about, it is important to fill in the information even though it is not one of the explicit ones listed. Knowing there is a significant group who identify themselves as Belarusian lets our representatives in Congress know they should keep our interests in mind when they vote on policy and deal with matters of foreign relations that are of special interest to us,” said Alice Kipel of the Belarusan-American Association.
VB
March 20th, 2010 at 00:10
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