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Post by everso on Feb 25, 2011 17:19:11 GMT
As an amateur family historian I know the value of the census. As someone who doesn't trust the authorities not to sell my information down river, I'm worried. They really do want to know too much. I don't see why they have to know how many bedrooms our house has (I suspect it's because they're about to introduce a bedroom tax  ) or what type of central heating we have (a tax will probably be introduced on the most common type) In the 19th century, all they needed to know was name, age, relationship to the 'head of the house', what they did for a living, where they were born and whether they were disabled. Why do they want to know so much? Grrrrr! |
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Post by motorist on Feb 25, 2011 17:50:42 GMT
Have you forgotten? Councils sell the details to companies' marketing departments. That's why they want more details
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Post by trubble on Feb 25, 2011 19:41:08 GMT
Where can I find a list of all these questions and wouldn't it be a great idea if they asked you for your favourite recipe then compiled a cookbook called 'The Nation's Favourite Recipes' and sold it to fund the Big Society?
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Post by riotgrrl on Feb 25, 2011 19:52:09 GMT
Why do they want to know so much? Grrrrr! Fill it in and stop whingeing. As a family historian you should realise how much your great-great-great grandchildren will be grateful to know stuff like the number of bedrooms you have. |
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Post by housesparrow on Feb 26, 2011 7:35:23 GMT
Do you think people always answer truthfully?
Clients at the CAB are always invited to fill in a form with all kinds of personal questions not all of which are relevant to their problem; completion is voluntary.
A lot refuse to complete the household income and/or race questions, and a few manage to get some of the other answers wrong. You might be surprised at the number of people who put their ethnic origins down as "white British" when they clearly are not.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 26, 2011 10:22:52 GMT
Do you think people always answer truthfully? Clients at the CAB are always invited to fill in a form with all kinds of personal questions not all of which are relevant to their problem; completion is voluntary. A lot refuse to complete the household income and/or race questions, and a few manage to get some of the other answers wrong. You might be surprised at the number of people who put their ethnic origins down as "white British" when they clearly are not. I seem to remember hearing that the CAB was due to be smothered and buried under the Big Society. Is that so, Sparra? |
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Post by housesparrow on Mar 15, 2011 11:42:34 GMT
Oh, sorry Weyland, a question for me.
If I understood what the Big Society was all about I might be able to answer that better!
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Post by riotgrrl on Mar 15, 2011 13:20:50 GMT
You might be surprised at the number of people who put their ethnic origins down as "white British" when they clearly are not. Not up to you to judge that. Ethnicity - being a social construct rather than anything sensibly scientific - is for the individual being surveyed to choose surely? What does it matter if you think I 'look' black or not - if I feel black, if I say I am black, then I am black. Ethnicity as a concept is such a huge pile of steaming and dangerous shite anyway that I don't favour asking about it. |
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Post by aubrey on Mar 15, 2011 20:05:51 GMT
I had a friend who really wanted to be black. He couldn't do that (he was very white), so he became gay instead (he's married - to a woman - now). Or was when I last heard.)
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Post by tarzanontarmazepam on Mar 15, 2011 20:08:34 GMT
You can't be black unless you are black. I tend to be black on a Friday night. My bottom is mostly black on Fridays. My penis changing length and shade accordingly.  |
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Post by housesparrow on Mar 16, 2011 7:58:55 GMT
[quote author=riotgrrl board=neattidyplease thread=3052 post=56179 time=1300195250 Ethnicity - being a social construct rather than anything sensibly scientific - is for the individual being surveyed to choose surely?
What does it matter if you think I 'look' black or not - if I feel black, if I say I am black, then I am black.
Ethnicity as a concept is such a huge pile of steaming and dangerous shite anyway that I don't favour asking about it.[/quote]
Interesting. If no statistics about ethnicity are ever collected, pressure groups will no longer be able to claim that a particular ethnic group is disadvantaged in society.
Which raises another thought. Is it the disadvantaged who perhaps choose to describe themselves as black, while those doing better prefer not to describe themselves as such?
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Post by riotgrrl on Mar 16, 2011 8:11:52 GMT
I'm fine with that outcome Housey.
I don't think people struggle becuase they're not white.
They struggle because they're poor, because they're recent immigrants, because they don't come from a background that values education, etc. etc. The tiny percentage of DNA that makes up your skin colour doesn't cause you the problems- it's socio-economic.
I'm not denying DNA-based racism exists and nor am I denying it's horrible and personally insulting for those affected. Nor am I denying that there is some kind of institutional/structural racism in our society . . but so is there institutional/structural sexism, so is there institutional/structural heterosexualiy-preferences . . . it's not so much that people who are not white get discriminated as that straight, white, middle-class men cling to power for their own group.
Bit of a rant - not finished my morning coffee yet, but I do believe it.
After all, I wasn't joking when I asked who could tell what colour you were by looking at you . . that's obviously an over-simplification, but 'black' covers such a wide variety of different skin tones and hair tones, that it's meaningless as a description word. We all know that 'black' is a political label, not a colour in this context.
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Post by housesparrow on Mar 16, 2011 10:06:18 GMT
I caught a few instalments of the book "To Miss with Love" which was broadcast last week. Intrigued, I went on line to find out more about the author and was a bit mystified to see her described in one article as "black". She doesn't look black to me. Miss Snuffy |
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Post by housesparrow on Mar 16, 2011 10:11:17 GMT
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Post by jean on Mar 16, 2011 10:39:25 GMT
You can tell from her surname that she's part Sikh.
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Post by jean on Mar 16, 2011 10:42:15 GMT
We all know that 'black' is a political label, not a colour in this context. But it is often a label that is assumed by the 'black' person themself because it has already been assigned to them by others. |
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Post by housesparrow on Mar 16, 2011 11:18:45 GMT
You can tell from her surname that she's part Sikh. All the Sikh women I know have been Kaur. Even one who (confusingly) was a Christian. And I know a few white people with Indian surnames; I'm not sure that is a valid clue. She may be non-white, but she is also non black, poor woman. Best abandon these silly labels, I think! |
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Post by jean on Mar 16, 2011 12:42:53 GMT
All the Sikh women I know have been Kaur. That's right - but having completely different names for men and women is very confusing for English people, so many Sikh women just give up and call themselves Singh. I've taught several who did that. Like Russians and Poles who don't differentiate here between the masculine and feminine forms of their surnames. I knew a woman in Poland who had grown up in the USA - her surname ended '-ski' instead of '-ska' which confused the Poles no end. |
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Post by housesparrow on Mar 16, 2011 16:31:39 GMT
Perhaps we should all rebel, and unanimously describe ourselves as "mixed race". We probably are, to a greater or lesser extent. Too late for this census, but if I start now, I might generate enough support to ensure we are all "mixed race" by 2021
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Post by rjpageuk on Mar 17, 2011 17:13:53 GMT
I did declare myself mixed race last time around but I am sure the question has changed this time because it is pretty difficult to do so again without obviously lying. I just found out karen put herself down as a Christian even though she blatently isnt because "she has been baptised so thought that was the correct one to tick" |
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) or what type of central heating we have (a tax will probably be introduced on the most common type) 
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A.P.P.S
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