Just my thought of the day.

Imagine being "other" on the origin/nationality checklist.

LaVisHh said:

that makes me sad.

applekisses said:

Sometimes,if you see other it's like yeah,Alien creation. Sometimes,I wanna play that yes, I'm extra-terestrial and I come from Neptune or Mars or Venus. Yes,that's it I come from Venus,I'm the Goddess of Love wanna touch my Love Handles? Or Antennai? {I am writing Antennai not Antenna on purpose} but other is so Weird like what Aboriginal or something? What the? Yes,we came from the Forests and all and we eat Leaves,Berries and like Cavemen we rub sticks together to make a fire...Ungawah!!! Goshagowah!! Gowah!!I'm laughing right now,cause it's so Stupid actually.

Natasha said:

Natasha......you crack me up.

LaVisHh said:

aww... back at ya, girl! Although I don't have to check the 'other' box on paper, I find that by looks people see me as being ethinically ambiguous (unless their Italian, or eastern european ) So, I feel your pain.
[This message was edited Thu Dec 5 7:58:29 PST 2002 by applekisses]

applekisses said:

It's an interesting place to be. I see rocks flying over my head most of the time.

Unfortunatly I am.
But because of my looks I was able to hide it when needed.
Even though most of the time I don't hide it, and actually show how proud I am of my origin, it all depends on the people around me. If I feel danger, I'd hide it. If I feel that I'm strong enough to defend myself, I'll gladly show it, in a non-threatening way.

MissCute said:

All right, why are you bumping the threads? Go out and play with a baboon or something.

Boob said:

Ironic...I just got a Test Census 2003, and was asked to fill out a form online...

As usual I had to select: Other and fill in what I am...

LaVisHh said:

I actually think that Other makes you kinda special. unique. I like it

MissCute said:

MissCute... what time is it where you are?

Yeah, I just "check all that apply," throw in a few guesses for good measure.

ThreadBare said:

It's strange for me, lol...or anyone who's race is not obvious.

I know. It was a trip for me, growing up and being called (and calling myself) black but looking at a half-white great-grandmother and it finally registering with me how varied my family was -- and why. Then, just a few years ago, I found out there's Native American in my background, too. None of it's obvious to folks, until they start to really look closely at me. But, it's been a trip, occasionally getting questions like: Do you have Chinese in you? Are you Indian? I mean, "India" Indian?

I believe we're all mongrels, in one way or another. We just go by the "label" that fits our parents' appearances the closest.

AzureStar said:

10:40pm

LaVisHh said:

They actually ask you to write down your race?

On our Census form (where we list characteristics -- education, age, salary, occupation and such), we're also asked to contribute information concerning our ethnicity.

There are two forms -- a short one and one that asks exhaustive questions. This last time, I got one of the "nosey" forms.

The thing I hate the most is that on our ID cards they write down our religion

Heavenly said:

That's a trip!

I hate having to choose between Caucasian and Asian/Japanese. I fucking hate it.

ThreadBare said:

The one I just did was a short test form.

The long form, although time-consuming, is quite resourceful. I fill them in as honest as is possible, because in the case of going back into history, it's a great genealogy tool.

I've been able to back-track into my family line using various census records.

I'm a sucker for family history, so I try to think ahead for my descendants.

Heavenly said:

Can you say "none"?

Natsume said:

I hear ya

What I found interesting, was the checkboxes on the test form I used today online, didn't disable mulitple-option selections...so you are able to check as many as you relate to.

LaVisHh said:

I don't think so, but I've never checked.

LaVisHh said:

I like those - check as many that apply. But they are rare. In fact it's rare to find boxes that say Japanese, they just group all of the Asians together.

I've also seen a couple that say something along the lines of "Mixed" though it's more tactful.

Natsume said:

This one did in fact separate the Asian nationalities.

Let's hope this "test" becomes the one they use.

Another interesting note:

The first race they asked about (an entirely different section) was regarding Spanish/Hispanic/Latino...which leads me to believe they are going to try to seperate them too, as they did the Asians.

It's great that they are recognizing more and more...imho.

LaVisHh said:

I'm wondering what good does it do?
If a person comes from a certain place that means he's less capable of doing cerain things?
I could only understand if it has to do with language problems.