Posted
on Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 11:05 AM
With the upcoming census in early May, this is a good time to give some thought to what it means to be of a particular race or ethnic origin. My own thought has always been "people are people” and certainly Canada has prided itself as a one of the world’s best countries when it comes to racial and ethnic integration. The focus of the census however, is counting and categorizing. So the question arises: what is race? What does it mean to be of a certain ethnic origin? If a person is 1/2 A, 1/3 B & 1/6 C, how are they categorized? If an “objective” standard is to be used, it is difficult to identify what that might be. In addition, even if we could agree, advances in science might make entire previous classification schemes invalid. The other option would seem to be self identification. Such a system would allow people born in one ethnic group, but raised in another to be identified in a manner they prefer. It would also allow groups to alter their identification when they cross borders, if they feel this is to their advantage. The self identification method, however, is subjective in the extreme and would presumably allow unlimited switching. Perhaps, there is no good answer. How much did that census cost again? —Anonymous