Caribbean Identification issue

[Dolores]

This is a very important issue for Dominican-Americans dual nations living in the United States. Apparently, there is now a regional movement to identify Caribbean residents, beyond Puerto Ricans, in the US Census.

Caribbean nationals push for own category in US census - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM

[Keith R]

Actually, I wonder just how much this would be welcomed by Dominican-Americans. Depends on how the Census would do it, I guess.

If the Census just adds a category "Caribbean" without subcategories I'm not sure many Dominican-Americans would like it and identify themselves as "Caribbean" during the Census. I know many Dom-Ams that complain loudly that when average Americans hear the term "Caribbean" -- whether applied to food, music, art, or culture -- they think of Jamaica or some other portion of the English-speaking Caribbean. "That's not the Caribbean I know," these Dom-Ams assert. "Not my food, not my art, not my culture, not my language, not my mindset."

Point is, would Dom-Am respondents really prefer to be lumped in with the Jamaicans, Haitans, Trinidanians etc. as "Caribbean" instead of responding that they belong in current "Hispanic or Latino" category? I wonder...

Personally, I dislike the USG's obsession to divide and sub-divide the US population into more and more subsets and track them. In the last Census, our household was one of the unlucky ones picked for the extensive interviews. I hated it the whole long, emotionally exhausting, intrusive thing, my wife even more so. She got ticked off right at the start by being forced to characterize our twins as one ethnic category or another...

[Dolores]

The Dominican American Round Table for years has been trying to get the Dominican category included. If we are lumped into Caribbean, would be the same as Hispanic. We need a Dominican category. It would be interesting to see what the region is proposing to Congress. I will ask spokespeople from Dominican-American Round Table to comment on this.

[Chip]

Originally Posted by Keith R

Actually, I wonder just how much this would be welcomed by Dominican-Americans. Depends on how the Census would do it, I guess.

If the Census just adds a category "Caribbean" without subcategories I'm not sure many Dominican-Americans would like it and identify themselves as "Caribbean" during the Census. I know many Dom-Ams that complain loudly that when average Americans hear the term "Caribbean" -- whether applied to food, music, art, or culture -- they think of Jamaica or some other portion of the English-speaking Caribbean. "That's not the Caribbean I know," these Dom-Ams assert. "Not my food, not my art, not my culture, not my language, not my mindset."

Point is, would Dom-Am respondents really prefer to be lumped in with the Jamaicans, Haitans, Trinidanians etc. as "Caribbean" instead of responding that they belong in current "Hispanic or Latino" category? I wonder...

Personally, I dislike the USG's obsession to divide and sub-divide the US population into more and more subsets and track them. In the last Census, our household was one of the unlucky ones picked for the extensive interviews. I hated it the whole long, emotionally exhausting, intrusive thing, my wife even more so. She got ticked off right at the start by being forced to characterize our twins as one ethnic category or another...

You can thank the PC movement for this - so much for the American "melting pot" - should be the American confederacy of races, and growing by the minute.

This also bothered me a great deal when I lived in the States, people's automatic classification of my daughter's into one class or another, or the abject confusion when they can't and it doesn't "compute". As far a racial issues go, we are still fourth world I'm sorry to say.

Here is a picture of my three girls, no "classification" needed.

[Dolores]

I agree with your comment on how labeling does not unite a society. I remember when I was studying at Columbia University feeling funny about labeling myself. In the DR, you are only Dominican, no breakdowns. In the US, everyone should be American, period. But, the way the US system works, I understand that important government funding is pegged to the sub-categorizations. Money talks there.

[PJT]

The U.S. govt does sub-categorize for a reason, in some cases to make sure government funds or your funds are distributed to all in need, ie: those recognized as minority groups.

PJT at one time worked as a transportation professional in a very well known company and the government was one of its clients. The government required of PJT,s employer, proof the employer used the services of minority owned companies. spending least 10% of its transportation budget on the services of these companies. Should PJT,s company not supply the proof, the government would not purchase from PJT,s employer. Lost sales = no earnings.

The is one of the reasons money talks. But, the agenda is to make sure sure every one gets a cut of the action without the government actually having to hand it out directly to the end user.


Regards,
PJT