USA TODAY
March 19, 2010 Friday
FINAL EDITION

Useful — but wrong

by Mark Krikorian

A great American once said, "I have a dream that my four children will
one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
their skin but by the content of their character."

The Census forms that have been arriving in mailboxes this week remind
us that nearly 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, we
still have an obnoxious system of mandatory government racial
classification. While the motives behind today’s race laws are
different, and better, than those of the past, the government
nevertheless continues to sort us into official racial and ethnic
categories.

But those same Census forms offer ordinary citizens a way to register
their aspiration for a colorblind society. Two of the 10 questions are
about race and ethnicity, and a quarter of the space on the form is
taken up by a long list of possible choices. Being of Armenian
descent, today’s race laws classify me as white, though that in itself
is a relatively recent development. But rather than play along by
answering Question 9 about race, I checked a box marked, "Some other
race," and wrote in "American."

My inspiration was Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote in a 1995 Supreme
Court decision, "In the eyes of government, we are just one race here.
It is American." This is not to devalue one’s ethnic or racial
identity, if any; groups such as Alpha Phi Alpha, the Colombian
American Bar Association or the Ancient Order of Hibernians are
important elements of our vibrant civic culture. But just as our
religious affiliations are none of the government’s business (and the
Census is rightly barred from asking about them), we also need a wall
of separation between race and state.

There’s no doubt that the race data are useful. My own think tank
(whose views are not necessarily reflected here) makes extensive use
of them in research on the impacts of immigration. But just because
something is useful doesn’t make it right.

Fill out your Census form — it’s your civic duty. Don’t lie in
answering — that’s wrong. But write in "American" to send a message
that the government should get out of the race business.

Mark Krikorian is executive director of the Center for Immigration
Studies, a non-profit think tank that supports tighter controls on
immigration.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress