Yesterday as I picked out of the window confirming that spring finally has arrived to NY I was opening the window of my computer to fill out the census; my brain was as blank as the boxes of the questionnaire.
To my surprise my Hispanic colleagues on the Zoom call started to go on and on, on how ridiculous and confusing the whole racial thing was. A big cyber water cooler discussion started on what and how to check the boxes. One of them kind of angry shouted” so tell me… what am I?” My mother is black with Indian from Colombian, and my father is white with Indian from Peru, which makes me…? We Americans come in all colors, races and shapes so is not easy to label yourself anymore. Hispanics are Hispanic but multiracial and trans-cultural, the same goes for Blacks, Asians… you name it! We are in a new spring, in a transitional time that will force us to take a second look to our nation’s face. Even in our instant-gratification society, our celebrities of the day rather go “incognito” than displaying their “ethnic” background, because they belong but don’t. Our cultural bonds will never die but our genes are diluting. These bonds will be more and more a matter of personal and emotional choice than a biological determination. We consider the census a pain that we must endure every ten years, but it is the most reliable data base to know how many, and most importantly, who we are as a nation. Culture and ethnic roots are not exclusively racial, they go beyond, to our tribes, our choices. It’s about time that the census questionnaires start thinking out of the box to reflect the new reality of America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
@mercedesrbIgnited by curiosity Archives
February 2021
Categories |