Recently I asked why the government doesn't accept "American" as ethnicity. Why not? But.....?

Of the answers I got, most interjected "race" into the question. Race; however, was a completely separate question on the Census Community survey. I answered that question according to my race . But my gripe is that my genes and chromosomes are now so interbred that I am very little of any ethnicity (and I really couldn't care less about my european heritage). I have native american in me along with who knows how many other ethnicities. I have NO gripe with people being proud of their forefathers and mothers "culture" if they want to. My family has not retained these ways. So, regardless of my race... my ethnicity is American. Europeans don't call us Italian Americans etc., they just despise us as Americans. And saying that Germans, or Japanese, or Vietnamese were always in those countries is untrue yet our US Gov calls Vietnamese American a separate ethnicity from Japanese American. You can't tell me that they were not from the same "tribe" if you look far enough back.

Recently I asked why the government doesn't accept "American" as ethnicity. Why not? But.....?
Because there is no money in it. The seperating, sifting and culling of the population is big buisness. Allowing a catchall term like American or multiracial would emasculate too many influential rabble rousers. No one can claim to represent the 90% who self identified as American but representing the 5% of the country who are "ixian-american" is possible. Since margins, either business or political are often only 1-2% possibily delivering 5% makes you both important and rich.
Reply:Because it's a *nationality*...ethnicity is more a race/deep rooted culture thing.
Reply:Race is difficult to define, other than skin pigmentation, eye formation, and a few other minor details. DNA differences are miniscule, even between chimps and humans.





Our major differences are cultural: "ethnic". That is especially true for blacks and Amerindians, including most aboriginal "Latinos". You call these distinctions "racial", but they are chiefly ethnic. These distinctions are not important to many of us, but extremely important to a majority of our citizens. Proof: we are six generations removed from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, but the only reason Bush is in the White House is that "Whites" (Europeans) living in the South will not vote for a "n*****(African)-loving liberal.





The survey is important so that we can understand what disastrous effect prejudice has on democracy. We have gerrymandered congressional districts and school districts. Public funds are spent to favor certain ethnicities.





You may think you are an American, but you have not suffered on an "Indian" reservation. For much of our history these were concentration camps where the inmates were poorly housed, clothed, and fed. We are not yet far enough evolved to ignore ethnicity.