The idea and use of the government census has been around since before Ancient Egyptians used it to keep track of their slaves, citizens, goods and treasures.
Now, the government census is used to help lawmakers create budgets, implement aid programs, run election campaigns, create statistics regarding racial, religious and political make-up, mortality, birth rates and death rates, and get a general sense of who is living and loving in the U.S. every year.
In March of this year, you can expect to receive a short ten question form and a postage paid envelope. It is very important that every person living in the U.S. and her protectorates take the time to sit down and answer those ten simple questions.
Why? As a human being, you have the right to be counted among your peers. As a citizen, you have the duty to participate in something that can bring about positive change in your communities. And as a mixed person you have the opportunity to write your own personal heritage down under question #9 line 3. Also, for every household that doesn’t fill out and send in the census form, a government census taker must make a trip to your house. Not only does this waste your time and theirs, but it also wastes precious government resources.
No need to worry about having a suspicious or questionable person come to your door as a census taker. Each and every census taker is subjected to an FBI background check and a fingerprint check. This process has been helpful in screening out an additional 16% of census taker applicants.
The questions on the U.S. Census include information on people in your household including ages, genders, and ethnic information. If your race or ethnic information doesn’t fit inside the usual; Asian, White, Black, Japanese, or Samoan blocks in question #9, then you can skip down to line 3 and fill in your own personal ethnic recipe.
Historically, adding in your own race was never an option on the U.S. Census, but with the ever growing population of multiracial, multicultural people, the need for an extra line has become necessary.
What does this mean for the mixed community? This means that slowly but surely, mixed people are being recognized as a race all their own. This means now, instead of having to break down your special blend of races into specific little blocks, you can celebrate your ethnic diversity by simply writing in, “Mixed”.
Once you receive your copy of the 2010 U.S. Census, sit down, fill it out, mail it in and be among the millions of multiracial, multicultural people who write in “Mixed” and are counted.