After discussing the 2010 census today in class I began to think about the questions 8 and 9. When I filled out the census last year I remember finding it weird that I had to fill in that I was of Spanish origin. I did not understand why my Spanish origin needed to be taken into account but other origins did not. Regardless, I did not look into it and forgot about it until today. When it was brought up in class today I was reminded of how ridiculous it all seems. When I got home today I decided to look up why that question was listed on the census. Just as I thought, I found out that the question is listed on the census to monitor the amount of Hispanic, latino or Spanish orgin citizens as a way to help plan and administer bilingual programs in the United States. While this seems like it could be a good way to help with Spanish speakers in the United States, it also seems extremely unfair to anyone that is not a Spanish speaker. I do not know why the census would not be keeping track of the amount of other languages being spoken as a first language in the United States as well. I understand that Spanish is the second most common language spoken in the United States, but that does not mean it should be the only language taken into account. On another note, I do not see how keeping count of the people with Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin is anyway to get a number of those people who actually speak Spanish. I myself was counted as someone of those origins, yet I do not speak Spanish as a first language, nor does most of my family. It just seems that this question is a very inaccurate way to count the Spanish speakers in the Untied States. If this question is on the census for language purposes, then I think the question should be switched to ask if the persons first language is not english and then fill in their first language. This would be a much better way to accurately count the amount of English as a second language citizens, as well as take other languages outside of Spanish into account.
-Ryan Fleming
Great observations, Ryan. Also, just because someone is of Hispanic descent, does this automatically mean that they speak Spanish? Is the census question therefore a somewhat inaccurate way to gauge the bilingual nature of the U.S.?
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