Robert Groves, the director of U.S. Census Bureau, appeared on C-Span today to talk about the 2010 Census. He responded to a call from a woman who was upset offended by the racial designations on the census form, specifically the use of the word “negro.” Groves apologized for the old-timey word, then proceeded to blame its inclusion on black people.
Apparently, the Census Bureau conducted a survey 30 million years ago and discovered that black people preferred the word “negro” over terms such as “Afro-Ams,” “Negroids” and “Jungle Bunny.” Now that they realize how offensive the term is, Groves swears that the they’ll strike it from the census form in 2020.
Here’s the diplomatic speak translation:
“The intent of every word on the race and ethnicity questions is to be as inclusive as possible so that all of us could see a word here that rings a bell for us. It was not to be offensive, and again I apologize on that. My speculation is that, in 2020, that word will disappear, and there are going to be other words that are going to change.”
They’ll use paint samples instead. Just pick the one that most represents your skin color.
