Mark Krikorian over at NRO's The Corner reminds us of Antonin Scalia's noble declaration from the Adarand Constructors v. Peña affirmative action case, "In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American."Well, you couldn't tell that from the census forms that will be showing up soon up in your mailbox. At least 25% of the space in this year's form is dedicated to questions of race and ethnicity.
Therefore, Krikorian cites Scalia's comment as just one motive for citizens to make a principled (and completely legal) statement to Question 9 from their census forms. Question 9 is the one that asks, "What is Person 1's race?" (and so on for other members of the household). Krikorian suggests that checking the last option ("Some other race") and then writing in "American" gives citizens a way to answer accurately (a legal must for the census) and yet be able to "express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes."
Indeed, Krikorian adds, "'American' was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties."
Count me in.
And to help spread the word, I'm not only writing this post but I've also joined a Facebook group that is urging Americans to answer Question 9 with "American." The group is My RACE: AMERICAN.
So...you get the idea? 1) Select "Some other race" in Question #9. 2) Write in "American." and 3) Pass this idea on to others.
