Negro Please.

Raeana Roberson posted this image of her New York juror information card on her Facebook page

CNN reporter Haimy Assefa posted this article earlier this week here and it definitely made me raise a brow. Educator Raeana Roberts was offened when she encounted the word "Negro" as a choice of race on her Juror information card; she was offended to say the least and took to Facebook to rant (as I would have as well!) 


How is it possible that in 2014, the word Negro is still able to legally be used to classify ones race?

According to a 2010 blog post by then director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Robert Groves, the word "Negro" was used in the 2000 census as a result of research in the late 1990s that showed approximately 56,000 people wrote in the word "Negro" under the "some other race" category.

More than half of these individuals were under the age of 45 in 2000.

Following the negative feedback, the Census Bureau conducted research on race and Hispanic origin using what it called the Alternative Questionnaire Experiment, according to the press release. The study found that removing the term "Negro" does not have an impact on data quality and therefore recommended removing the term for future data collection.

The Census Bureau, which follows the Office of Management and Budget for definitions of race and ethnicity, discontinued use of the word "Negro" at the beginning of 2014, according to a press release.

Check out the Full Story here

-TheeBlackSocialite

Would you have taken offense if you saw a  derogatory term used to describe any race of people on government documents? We want to hear from you. Tweet us @TheBLKSocialite 

Source:CNN
Image: Raeana Roberson/CNN