The Obama White House has proposed adding a new racial category for Middle Easterners to the census. It is a poor plan for many reasons; now we have another. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/30/white...
It's not that unusual. The UK's IC codes[1] are more fine grained than those in the US. With all the information organizations have on people, I'm not sure the government having official classifications makes any difference. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_codes
The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
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Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#32The Obama White House has proposed adding a new racial category for Middle Easterners to the census. It is a poor plan for many reasons; now we have another. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/30/white...
It's not that unusual. The UK's IC codes[1] are more fine grained than those in the US. With all the information organizations have on people, I'm not sure the government having official classifications makes any difference. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_codes
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you joking? The Japanese military committed many atrocities in invaded countries: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre
I think the GP meant civilian Americans chopping other Americans heads with katanas. Also isn't the katana mostly stabbing weapon? Slicing someone in two requires too much effort IMO.
[1] http://www.systemofstrategy.com/articles/the-truth-about-tan...
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#34Why is anyone surprised? If we should've learned anything from the last couple of weeks, it should be that it turns out that despite recent progress, America hasn't strayed far from its roots. The powers of government have long been used as a weapon against various groups over our history. All that's happened recently is the removing of the mask.
um, well, if you're going to take it in that direction... FDR was a democrat.
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#35Why is anyone surprised? If we should've learned anything from the last couple of weeks, it should be that it turns out that despite recent progress, America hasn't strayed far from its roots. The powers of government have long been used as a weapon against various groups over our history. All that's happened recently is the removing of the mask.
um, well, if you're going to take it in that direction... FDR was a democrat.
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#36France doesn't ask for or record race/ethnicity on its censuses for exactly this reason. If you don't store it, you can't be made to give it up.
Nowadays you can do it with drone, camera and facial recognition software. If president Le Pen needs the info she could get in 2 days.
I doubt it would exactly be a secret or entirely quick, implementing racial recognition on a national scale.
Releasing information, especially today, takes only a few (Let's ignore bureaucracy and assume it takes only a few sign-offs to give away massive data dump legally)
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Middle Eastern" is not a race though. I'm Turkish and we are very Caucasian. :)
Well, of course there's really no such thing as race to begin with, it's a big bag of various cultural and historical prejudices with all kinds of different people thrown together into arbitrary "races". Racism had to be invented to justify slavery and colonialism.
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#38Why are we even talking about this?
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, of course there's really no such thing as race to begin with, it's a big bag of various cultural and historical prejudices with all kinds of different people thrown together into arbitrary "races". Racism had to be invented to justify slavery and colonialism.
I'm with you on the prejudice part. But pedantically, its not so easy to dismiss 'race'. We see strong genetic pooling around the world. We can make up a new word for that, or use the one we have. Unfortunately the current word has been muddied by history.
My favorite way to illustrate the arbitrary nature of race is to ask what the race is of our current (alas, soon to be former) president. Typically the answer is "black." Yet his mother was "white." If it were genetic, we'd say he was mixed, but we're still operating under the influence of old arbitrary rules where having just a small amount of black ancestry makes you "black."
Re: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WWII (2007)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that unusual. The UK's IC codes[1] are more fine grained than those in the US. With all the information organizations have on people, I'm not sure the government having official classifications makes any difference. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_codes
If my memory is correct, the Japanese census does not collect data on ethnicity/race at all.
On the other hand you have to register with the local Koseki[1] and last names are positive indicators of ethnicity for the non-Japanese [except for haafu with ethnic Japanese fathers].
On the other hand, France by law does not track race characteristics, so they can't rely on census statistics to know how well or poorly a population is doing.