Some students at Columbia University are in a tizzy over ethnic cleansing of a sort. Schools are subject to a new federal survey that lumps people of North African and Middle Eastern descent into the “White” category. (Source)
Students must choose among five race/ethnicity categories: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and white. Which box does the quarter black/quarter American Indian/quarter Pakistani/quarter Chinese student check?
Arab student Yasmina Raiani wrote that the regulation “clumps individuals of North African and Middle Eastern descent into ‘white,’ which is not only superficially inaccurate—in that the actual skin tone range of North African and Middle Eastern peoples is more akin to that of Hispanics/Latinos than it is to Caucasians—but also historically insensitive…To identify Arabs as ‘white’ is to disregard our history as members of the colonized world and to dismiss all acts of racial discrimination against our community.’”
The U.S. Census includes such categories as Asian Indian, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, and Samoan. Plain old “American” won’t do. The simplest solution to the which-box-do-I-check problem is to eliminate the race box altogether. Why does it still exist?
Discussing the U.S. Census on the “Uncommon Knowledge” show in 2002, the American Civil Rights Institute‘s Ward Connerly said, “I think that we need to reach the point where the census doesn’t even ask you about race.” (Source)
Connerly added that race “is a political phenomenon essentially that’s been used to divide people, to segregate people and to engage in all other kinds of societal mischief. And I think that the more people are aware of the fact that this purity of races is kind of like the Nuremberg laws and is something that America should get away from.”
If only we could! But the government won’t allow it. I’d vote for the removal of race/ethnicity boxes from all government applications.
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As someone who’d have to check several boxes – what a crock, and what colossal ignorance on the part of the students.
Technically, North Africans and Middle Easterners, and Indians (from India), are CAUCASIAN. It has nothing to do with “skin tone.” I would think that someone attending Columbia would know that.
Second, the baloney about disregarding Arabs as members “of the colonized world,” is ludicrous, and ignores Arabic/Muslim history of 1000 plus years of invasion and colonization. Just ask the Spanish and the Rumanians and the Isrealis, etc. etc.
And finally – you are so right. This is all about Balkanization and dividing people to stir up resentments and hatreds.
Thanks for commenting, KZ.
I would select “some other race” and put “HUMAN”.
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