HOLLYWOOD–Horizon 180’s Paul Chaderjian speaks with ANCensus2010.org spokeswoman Tamar Yardemian Baboujian on the project and opportunities for community groups to get involved in ensuring an accurate count in the 2010 Census.
The ANC-WR Census 2010 campaign efforts are supported in part by a grant from the California Community Foundation. The grant will assist the ANC-WR to conduct an aggressive community outreach campaign for the 2010 Census. The goals of the ANCensus 2010 project include maximizing Armenian American participation in the 2010 headcount and informing the community to indicate Armenian as their race on the questionnaire.
The outreach campaign also allows for re-granting opportunities to Armenian American nonprofit organizations. The ANC-WR will distribute grants in the coming months to those Armenian American organizations that are willing to conduct Census outreach work. Organizations must submit proposal applications by Friday, February 5, 2010. For more information on re-granting opportunities, visit ANCensus2010.org or call the ANCensus 2010 Hotline at (888) 666-4761.
Broadcast February 1, 2010 on Horizon Armenian Television, http://www.horizonarmeniantv.com
I admire and approve of the work of ANCA to have Armenian Americans be included in the census and to make sure that they write “Armenian” on the census form.
But from what I understand – and please correct me if I am wrong – this census won’t work well in that respect and here’s why. I looked at the FAQ on the website you sent around, and it says to check “Other” and then write in “Armenian” where it asks for one’s “Race.” Fine.
But Armenian is not a race. It’s an ethnicity. I know of no literate person who sees Armenian as “race.” Race means black, white, etc. The race of Armenians is Caucasian or White. Probably the census form has no space for “ethnicity” per se.
And it gets more complicated: In an act of self-ghettoization by some newcomer Armenian Americans in California, they use the term “whites” when referring to non-Armenians. Armenians are White/Caucasians. Get over it. And no, we’re not Asians just because we are from “Asia Minor.”
This is all the US census’ fault, of course. The US government selected certain races to be favored over others for “affirmative action”. In the case of Hispanics, they actuall chose a language group (Spanish). Armenian, Irish, Jewish, Greek, etc. are not races, OK? They simply are not. Hence, the tortured logic of ethnic groups to get people to write their ethnicity under “Race.”
I should also note that there is some confusion in modern parlance about the term “nationality”, which actually refers to one’s citizenship – most of the time, anyway – not to one’s ethnicity necessarily.
This is why I think a count of Armenians by the census is going to vastly undercount. It’s unfortunate. But I approve of ANCA’s hard work.
This might make us Armenians feel good when we fill out the census form and may make the ANCA look good because after all they are telling us to stand up and be counted as Armenians, but the reality is that its not going to work. Here is an exact quote from the Census Bureau, “The Census Bureau does not tell individuals which boxes to mark or what heritage to write-in. An individual’s response to the race question is based upon self-identification. National origin or ethnic group write-in responses to the 2010 Census race question will be coded and used to racially categorize the responses.”
So bottom line…if you mark other and write in Armenian, they are simply going to take that response and recode it as “White”!
Does the Census Bureau care if you mark Armenian…no, because they will simply recode it as “White”. So what good is the “ANCA’s hard work?” As far as the Census bureau is concerned if it gets more people to fill out the forms…Great! But is it going to help Armenian people…zero!
Take a look at the 2000 census data. Do you think at least 1 person somewhere in the US marked Armenian? I have used census data files and I can assure you there is no category for Armenians anywhere. If there is no category then the data can not be disaggregated for Armenians. Sorry ANCA.
All Armenians should be encouraged to mark “Other Race” and indicate “Armenian” because the US Census Bureau tallies the numbers of each ethnicity that is written in.
Click HERE to see the data for Armenians from the 2000 Census
The goal is for the Census to accurately indicate the number of Armenian-Americans we have living in the United States, because this data is used by government, public and private sectors as indicators for service in the next ten years. This includes allocation of funding to particular communities for schools, senior centers, job training programs and student loans. It also helps reflect our influence by population, social characteristics and economic characteristics within the American community.
The importance of participating in the US Census and indicating Armenian as your race can not be stressed enough, and should be promoted continuously to all our Armenian-American family, friends and neighbors.