Racial identities spawn new terminology: Are you Melungeon, Nuyorican or what?
Its not a bad piece, and better than most on the topic. Far too often when this subject is covered, the naysayers and "stay in one box" types from the traditional civil rights groups get the final say and fugging big giant gargantuan quotes. But there’s no bias there…
A fuller listing of shameless self-promotion media coverage is available here.
Yes, I am vain, but ya’ll already knew that. Stop pretending.
Anyway, information on the term "melungeon" mentioned in the article can be found here and here. To clarify, I told the reporter I was "very likely Melungeon" from one branch of my ancestry. Not a big deal, but a distinction none the less. For now, I identify as James and refuse to check any of the boxes.
Rob Carr of UnSpace blogged it here.
Until there are no more stupid little boxes…
The standard selections in the Race questions are black, white, (non-white) hispanic, and asian (also sometimes native indian and pacific islanders). I’ve always despised these questions on employment, academic, and other application forms, and leave them blank as a rule, since “white” is the “wrong answer,” i.e. there’s no affirmative action bonus for being white.
I wonder about the “asian” selection. Most people think of the Chinese and its neighboring countries as the lands of the asians. We used to call them oriental, but this became an unfashionable term at some point. I call them southeast asian. What about Russians? Are they members of the Asian box or the White box? Russia’s part of Asia, but the people look pretty white/caucasian.
I would prefer a new box for myself: Californian. I’m a third generation Californian. Maybe I should start a celebratory Month, a Scholarship, a Club, and an exclusive Job Fair for native Californians like me?
12/3/2006 8:47:00