Thursday, December 15, 2011

Spot the error(s)--a geography lesson

At the pediatrician today, I had to fill out a form about Eggbert. All was fairly routine until I ran into the following question:

"Race/ethnicity. Check ONE box [emphasis in original]:

White/caucasian___ African-American___ Native American___ Hispanic___ Other____"

Now color me sensitive (what, me?), but I think that asking a child to choose to acknowledge only one side of their ethnic heritage is wrong wrong wrong. It's like saying who do you love more, mommy or daddy?

Also, I have to wonder if they teach you about the existence of this place in doctor school. I heard it's kind of big and a lot of people live there, and the last time I checked, it wasn't called "Other."

12 comments:

China Doll said...

Unbelievable!!

Antropóloga said...

Jeez, seems like the practice would be more likely to have kids with Asian heritage than Native American. I mean, if they were listing fewer options to save space or something. Did you say anything?

Sara said...

Yes, I said "what box are Asians supposed to check" and the receptionist rather snippily said "that's 'Other'!"

JENN said...

I just hate, hate, hate that box-checking question (systemic racism). How does that help a Dr with medical history if they don't have the full story? I usually ignore the question. When asked, I just say, "We don't belong in any of those boxes".

A Shadow of My Former Self said...

Thank you for stopping by to leave such a kind comment on my blog. I also greatly dislike how demographic information is gathered. At work I sometimes have to collect these forms from people. I secretly give them a "high five" when they check each and every box. Who likes to be put into a box anyway???

KH99 said...

Hi Sara,
I saw your comment on S.I.F's Healing Salon post and wanted to say hi. Are you still in NC? I'm in NC too.

S.I.F. said...

That's totally crazy that in today's day and age there would be a "check only one" instruction on that question!

Lacie said...

Well, my little guy belongs to three of those boxes. I am thinking I would have refused to check any of them. Sheesh!

Thanks for stopping by! More to come!

Justine L said...

Wow. Talk about limited ...

SurlyMama said...

Just doing a little blog hopping, landed here and thought this post was interesting because I often sit and stare at those boxes wondering what to put when it comes to my daughter. I'm white. She's donor conceived with an Eastern Indian donor. I feel like I'm denying her ethnic heritage by choosing caucasian, but unless they give a mult-racial box I don't see other options. I did a little googling because I was curious as I also have Asian brothers. I guess people from Asian countries are considered Caucasians. I find that very limiting and will often check the multi-racial box if given that option.

h said...

This is pretty absurd. Along with the who two category gender thing.

You'd like Sociological Images. This photo would belong with the rest of their collection.

torthúil said...

What an absurd form. Of course, all forms are absurd. I also have a phobia of them. Hate. Forms. Thanks for another reason to hate forms.