Essay contest: Should the census ask about race?

By Claudia Ortiz, Paramount HS

Being a child of Mexican parents, I am considered Hispanic and proud of it. I was born in the United States and have always lived here. I consider myself American as well. Whenever I take a test such as the PSAT and it asks me to bubble in ethnic background I get confused. I remember the first time I bubbled in Mexican-American. That day I began to ask myself why anyone would want to know what race I am. Would I be considered more Mexican than American? I’ve never even lived in Mexico so does that make me only American? What if I’m stereotyped and someone says, “Oh look, she’s Mexican, she probably isn’t smart.” Why do we even need to tell anyone what ethnic background or race we are when all that matters is our hard work and personality? In my opinion, government shouldn’t ask about our race or ethnicity.

What makes America beautiful is its multiethnic people. I don’t agree with the government keeping track of what race we are because some people use the data as a weapon and as a way to stereotype. Once I went to the store with my mom and there were two people of a different ethnicity than us in front of us at the checkout stand. They were talking about a survey that said there had been an increase in Hispanics in California. Then one of them said that the United States was being taken over by Hispanics. I don’t know if they were saying it to be funny or what, but I don’t think they realized that what they said was a form of hatred toward Hispanics. And this doesn’t happen just to Hispanics, but to other ethnicities as well. But what is worse is that information from the census, which was designed by the government to help people, is used to back up what people say, whether or not they mean to hurt someone.

I have friends with different ethnicities and it makes each of us special. But we all feel uncomfortable asking what ethnicity we are because we feel singled out. Our race shouldn’t matter but rather what we do. This is why I am against the census asking about race.

By Jacqueline Martinez, Paramount HS
 
I would not feel hurt by the census asking about race. It’s an honor to be able to share my race! I’m half Filipino and half Mexican. I like to think of our different multiethnic backgrounds as something to be proud of. We are privileged with the opportunity to answer this question on the census. It allows us to show how multiethnic the United States has become. As they say, we are a huge melting pot! By answering this question we can see how much more diverse our country has become.
 
I feel it is necessary and that it is nice to be able to know how many different ethnicities have come together. The census is an opportunity to share our ethnicities, which make us who we are. This question shows our uniqueness, our individuality and that we are not just another number to be added to a statistic.