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“Negro” Controversy
Filed Under (racism) by Maura on 09-01-2010
Controversy has erupted over the use of the term Negro for the new U.S .Census. The term conjures up a period in our collective history that overtly supported separate and unequal treatment of Black people. I don’t know whose bright idea this was but what I do know is that they did not do enough research in the land of common sense.
The confusion as to the inclusion of Negro is further compounded by the fact that the terms African American and Black are also included on the form. There is a distinction in the terms Black and African American. Not everyone who is Black is African American. Yet the term African American is suppose to be symbolic of the strides that have been made with regard to racial eqality. That road to equality is a long one, but the return of the term Negro sanctioned by our government won’t help us get there any quicker.
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However, the official stance of the Census Bureau is that term was included after it was requested by people who said they would prefer to use it to identify themselves. In many generational groups and reigions of the country, the terms “negro” and “colored” are still used proudly by people of African descent.
Recently, I found the 2010 Census form hanging on my door. As I began filling it out, I came across a dilemma. The U.S. government wants to know if my children are adopted or not and it wants to know what our races are. Being adopted myself, I had to put “Other” and “Don’t Know Adopted” for my race and “Other” and “Don’t Know” for my kids’ races.
Can you imagine not knowing your ethnicity, your race? Now imagine walking into a vital records office and asking the clerk for your original birth certificate only to be told “No, you can’t have it, it’s sealed.”
How about being presented with a “family history form” to fill out at every single doctor’s office visit and having to put “N/A Adopted” where life saving information should be?
Imagine being asked what your nationality is and having to respond with “I don’t know”.
It is time that the archaic practice of sealing and altering birth certificates of adopted persons stops.
Adoption is a 5 billion dollar, unregulated industry that profits from the sale and redistribution of children. It turns children into chattel who are re-labeled and sold as “blank slates”.
Genealogy, a modern-day fascination, cannot be enjoyed by adopted persons with sealed identities. Family trees are exclusive to the non-adopted persons in our society.
If adoption is truly to return to what is best for a child, then the rights of children to their biological identities should NEVER be violated. Every single judge that finalizes an adoption and orders a child’s birth certificate to be sealed should be ashamed of him/herself.
I challenge all readers: Ask the adopted persons that you know if their original birth certificates are sealed.