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Hyphen-ated for Life
“Democratic representation of ‘We The People’ requires an accurate ascertainment of who ‘We The People’ are.” ~Arab American Institute
The space of identity is tight. A single identity can hardly fit into its place, yet that is what society expects. The reality of identity is much more dynamic and colorful than dry categories of some census-defined race or ethnicity.
But wait. Is any generic definition a fair categorization of a person’s true identity? Do the census-defined presented categories neatly fit into the narrow space of society’s conceptualization of identity and therefore expected to accurately define a population?
I live a hyphenated life — an inherited scar that cannot be washed away nor neatly tucked into the space of races presented in the census questionnaire or many people’s one-dimensional minds. As far as I reckon, my hyphenated life is not one I chose, but it is the one I choose to cherish, at times. Fitting more than a single identity into the identity space is hard enough, but trying to squeeze in the hyphen makes it a lifetime chore, not to mention having to squeeze in multiple hyphens as the world intermingles.
My identity is one, regardless of the number of hyphens, but the constructs of each side of the hyphen are constantly jockeying for the limited identity space. White does not do it for me. When I look at my skin it does not resemble the color of the paper I’m writing on. I can’t cut it as black either. My skin color is somewhere in the middle, between bronze and tan of sorts. But why is anyone’s skin color important?
U.S. Census
The U.S. Census Bureau is bound by the 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards on race and ethnicity, which guide the Census Bureau in classifying written responses to the race question. The categories adopted are White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. That’s it. You are expected to fit into one or more of these categories crafted by a group of government professionals sitting in Mary’s Room, knowledgeable beyond belief, but light on world travel.
