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Pissed-off White People:
"These guys," he says, rolling his eyes. "OK. They yell that the census form is biased against white people or that it's illegal. They hate the race questions. They get mad that there's categories and say thing like 'I'm a white American. Is there any other kind?'
"Or they want even more choices and ask how come they only get the option 'white' when everybody else gets a category of their own. They say, 'How come I'm not European-American?'
"I'm always like, 'Cause it sounds like you're peeing.'
[NOTE: He is like that. Cranky doesn't actually say that.]
"Another thing that pisses them off is that the forms ask about the race of everybody in the house. They think if they say 'white' for one it's automatically assumed for the rest. I'll explain that we need it for each person to insure accuracy, and they shout, 'I told you! We are white European-Americans!'"
Teabaggers:
"These are the worst. We joke that you can hear Glenn Beck in the background. They always call with the idea of proving a point or trying to trap you. First thing, they're like, 'Give me a supervisor.' Or, I say, 'May I help you?' and they immediately start in with 'This is all un-Constitutional. This is Obama's fault.'
"I have to say, 'Title 13, section 182, authorizes the census and makes it mandatory every decade.' That shuts some of them up, but others don't buy it.
"One guy last week was all, 'You can't prove to me that Title 13 exists. You have to mail it to me.'
"I said, 'I'm not authorized to do that. But you can go to the public library.'
"He said, 'All those weird people go to the library. You gotta mail it to me.'
"We often have to go over the questions with them. When we get to the race question, the Teabaggers say, 'I'm white, white, white, white, white!' They get excited about it. It sounds like it's the biggest thing in their day, telling some guy they've never met that they're really, really white.'
"One lady called to tell me she has two fences and a 2 ½ mile driveway, and none of this 'diversity' had anything to do with her, and the census workers won't make it to her door, and she resents that her taxes were going to pay me to invade her privacy.
"Their least favorite question is 'Are you of Hispanic, Latin, or Spanish origin?' They think we're giving preferential treatment by offering made-up choices that white people don't have when really we're just acknowledging the fact that Hispanic culture spans all races. I explain, 'If you're from Cuba, you could be white or black, or white and black, or what we might think is a traditional-looking Hispanic person.'
Highly Educated People Who Overthink Things:
"This can be all races. I had this Asian-Indian woman freak because she couldn't find a category that described her son's race. I explained that that's why we have an 'other' choice, but she just kept asking, 'What race is she? It's not here!' She told me, 'I speak 10 languages. I have a PhD. I'm more qualified than you!'
"Then there's the guy who said, 'I have two doctorates. You call me doctor.' Then he told me this was all Obama's doing and it was illegal.
"Some of the advanced-degree people get upset by the forms themselves because they don't get that they're designed to be as broad as possible. 'Who designed this? Did they even go to school? This is all so imprecise!'"
Anxious Hispanics:
"I feel for these guys. They always get to the question in a roundabout way. 'Oh, by the way, where do you send this information?' Then, a couple questions later, 'Does it go to I.N.S.?'
"There's been some heartbreaking stories. One woman told me that she and her husband had been naturalized years ago, but that they couldn't afford to do it for their kids. Now, years later, those kids have lived as Americans all their lives and are in danger of being shipped back where they know nobody.
"This anxiety I understand, but I treat them just like the Teabaggers -- I read my answers, re-assure, and don't get into it because our calls are monitored. Everything's monitored! They can fire me for telling you this!"
Angry Black Folks
"They always want to know why the word 'Negro' is on the form. They explain, 'It goes back to the times of slavery.' Some scream, yell, and cuss about it, saying 'How dare you? This is racist!' I've had people just call to vent, like the guy who said 'Nobody will hire me because I'm black, and now you want to call me Negro.
"I explain that on the last census more than 51,000 people wrote in 'negro' as a separate category. Older African-Americans use it.
"This one white college kid called and asked why we used it. I told him about the 51,000, and he laughed and said, 'Sounds like a bunch of assholes to me.'"
A bunch of assholes? From the sound of these calls, that might be the most largest demographic group America.
(Home page image via Flickr: KaiChanVong)
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Wow, what a stupid article, written by a close-minded, biased fool. I am dumber for having read it.
What a pile of crap and a waste of time. I stumbled upon this and started reading it and wasted my time. I assume this to be a failed attempt at humor or a bad attempt at journalism? I suppose I am not smart enough to 'get it'.
I wasted my time and man, so did the author. What a dumbass.
I used to work at a help desk for 4 hours a day 5 days a week, those 4 hours were mainly spent listening to people bitch and reading the news on Digg. Every now and again, I would throw in a good well placed "sorry" for issues that I have absolutely nothing to do with. The other 4 hours of the day were spent doing useful stuff.
What did you think about the Census? Not too many people were happy about it and showed it in their calls to the Center.
I tend to tune out anyone who uses terms like bigot, or conformity... Their usually just full of it.
everyone on here needs to grow up. twitter is stupid, you are all stupid, and no one cares what you think. get out of your parents basement and loose those 300 lbs and make something of yourself. who cares what race you are, who cares if you're Latino, who cares if it says negro on the census. all of you can die in the nearest convenient fire. It wouldn't be racist if you stop making a big deal about it or for that matter acknowledging it at all.
I doubt a fine or prison sentence could come of this. Definitely a lost job could. I looked through again and don't see any identifying information of census complainers or the cranky census worker guy. He's just "an out of town acquaintance."
Actually such a fine and jail term would only be applicable if he compromised Title 13 Data or Personally Identifiable Information. Nothing he spoke of violates that.
This would simply be a case of your fired if he got caught.
It's more than being fired, the person who told you these things is guilty of a crime that, if convicted, carries a fine up to $250,000 and up to 5 years in prison.
Ben wrote:
> "Now if the spelling was[sic] something like 'dumbimbst' or something of that effect, you might have an argument..."
How about when someone writes "was" when they should have written "were?"
Didn't they teach you about the subjunctive tense at yer fancy learnin skool?
:)
@Ben,
> "Now if the spelling was[sic] something like 'dumbimbst' or something of that effect, you might have an argument..."
How about when someone writes "was" when they should have written "were?"
Didn't they teach you about the subjunctive tense at yer fancy learnin skool?
:)
Is this in violation of confidentiality? The only hard data here is people yell and Mississippi has the dumbest questions. I think I knew both of those.
Cranky Census Worker should be more vigilant about what he says. All census employees sign a sworn affidavit of nondisclosure when we are hired. We are not permitted to discuss any information that could personally identify any individual or any demographic information we may be privy to. This is a lifelong responsibility.
Anyone who breaks confidentiality can be fined up to $250,000, can be imprisoned for 5 years, or both.
That being said I'm a recent college graduate who is paid to read verbatim from a form. Don't get mad at me about these questions. I didn't write them. You don't need to answer any of them except how many people live in the household.
zzzzzz, you are your own colorful category all your own. I picture it looking like Care-A-Lot, with rainbows and teddy bears.
Wait, olegreenback, anyone who doesn't like being yelled at for silly stuff is an elite or a left wingnut? Is all it takes these days believing that maybe the government is not invading our privacy with a census?
When are the racist bigots of the world going to quit trying to push crap stories like this into our faces?
Human beings -- despite whatever racist bigots believe about them -- they don't need to be seperated into irrelevant/colorful categories, so why bother pushing people into such directions?
Are some assholes trying to rig elections, or ... what?
I'm from Earth and was born in America, they have my state and address otherwise they couldn't send me their racist forms and bullshit, that's all that you fucking assholes need to know.
Fuck off!
Actually, I think I hear a violin playing in the background.
Lou
www.post-anonymously.us.tc
LOL Author needs to choose bar companions more carefully. "Cranky" sounds like a would-be media elite or a left-wingnut, not accustomed to $15 per hour work.
@AC
What? Who are sending "their kids to die in a pointless war"? You realize that our military is strictly volunteer right? If a 17 year old guy or girl goes to the middle east as part of our military it's their choice, and even if you don't agree with the war you should be grateful. It's just a census, fill it out or don't. No ones forcing your inked hand.
From now on everybody should write "asshole" in the space for race. Maybe the census people will add that one next time around.
Robertson,
An error typing doesnt exactly prove anything other than an error typing. Especially considering using some investigative skills I got from one of them "fancy learnin' skools" you can see the 'e' is clearly next to the 'r' on a keyboard. Using some basic logic, you could posit that they accidentally pressed both keys and once. Then they failed to proofread their friggin' internet comment which btw, is not a term paper. Most of us who actually do posess some intelligence would have concluded, "Oh look, that's a typo."
You in your 'trigger happy' delight to try to spew that pretty phrase you heard on FOX you failed to note that even "lib elitists" make mistakes too.
Now if the spelling was something like 'dumbimbst' or something of that effect, you might have an argument, but since it is not, you simply are a moron for such a feeble attempt at ridicule. You sir, deserve an award for being so desperate.
"dumberst"? I love when lib elitists prove they're dumber than the people they ridicule.
It IS the biggest thing in their day to brag that they are white. What else do they have going for them? The idiot president they stood by for eight years wrecked the economy and lost all their jobs and sent thier kids to die in a pointless war so I imagine pride in their greasy pasty loser skins is all they have left and now the black pres is taking THAT away too!
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