Monday, July 13, 2015

Little and big boxes as promoted by media

The U.S. Census Bureau allows us to self identify for statistical gathering and adheres to these 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards on race and ethnicity. Notice there is no "Hispanic" or "Latino" because that would be Spain or oddly American Indian (tribal peoples of Central or South America). The Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice and FBI use different designations for victims and criminals—including ethnicity and country of origin. Some statistical designations include age, and therefore under “millennial” you can have whites as a minority in some states. For the U.S. Census you can claim OPI with Samoan ancestors, but if your family was Zapotec (Mexico) from Oaxaca, which is probably much more common, you won’t even get a write-in.

White – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

Black or African American – A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

American Indian or Alaska Native – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

A NYT opinion piece thrashes about examining the statistics for board members of various organizations that support parks and environmental issues and finding—you guessed it—discrimination.  I guess they didn’t examine  the age statistics, or leisure time, income, etc. of park visitors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/diversify-our-national-parks.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0  (be sure to read the comments which demolish one person’s opinion) Also, according to U.S. Census, 75% of U.S. is white and not the figure given in this piece.

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