filling out forms

[Dan Goodman]

> Date:    Wed, 15 May 2002 06:48:19 -0500
> From:    Mike Salovesh <t20mxs1 at CORN.CSO.NIU.EDU>
> Subject: Re: SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Increasingly Significant Issue
>
> I'm not just picking on our neighbors to the south.  In the U.S., the
> Census Bureau and my university's Office of Affirmative Action insist
> that I pick one and only one "race" or "ethnic group" as a self-label.
> I can't. I am like all other human beings in that regard: I am of
> mixed ancestry.
>
> I'm told that if I insist on affirming the biological truth, then I
> should provide the details of what is mixed with which.  Well, like
> all human beings I can't be at all sure what would be in my individual
> mix if I could trace ALL my ancestors back for a mere two thousand
> years or so. Even in that short  a time, I suspect that my genealogy
> would reach out to every continent and include the ancestors of some
> members of each and every "race" or "ethnic group" enumerated in the
> official list of available categories.

Actually, there's a good chance that you lack Australian Aboriginal
ancestry.

I consider myself ethnically Jewish -- though from the looks of some
of my relatives, it's likely that some ancestors were Tartars and
others Slavs or related to Finns.  So, when I came to that question
on the 1990 Census long form, I had a nice simple answer ready.

One which wasn't allowed.

I put myself down as Hispanic.  My family hadn't retained any of its
Sephardic heritage, to be sure. However, I almost certainly had more
Spanish ancestry than two then-presidents of Latin American
countries.

Whether or not I have more Spanish ancestry than the current
president of Mexico is an interesting question.  His father was US-
born.  According to one report, his mother is from -"the Basque
country in Spain"-.