The Census Bureau is revising its role in government-mandated identity politics, and not necessarily for the better.  For decades, it has been directed to sort Americans into ethnic groups so Federal funds could be allocated to those Americans held to be minorities (never mind that with all Americans being equal under law, there are no minorities—and that the lack of practical truth in that is a failure of enforcement not an indication of any fundamental falseness in that).  The government-required bigotry even went so far as, when Americans were allowed to check off more than one ethnicity, the Census Bureau, rather than leaving it at that, would re-identify such a misguided person as a member of the smaller “minority,” and if an American checked “Caucasian” and a “minority,” that unfortunate was re-identified as the “minority” member.

Now the Census Bureau is looking at revising how it collects its identity politics data for the 2020 census, and a social scientist, David Hollinger has a suggestion.

Mr Hollinger has proposed to do away with the pan-ethnic groups altogether and “count instead those inhabitants who identify with descent communities from specific countries.”

As long as we’re revising the census, here’s my suggestion: just add a box for “American,” with no “Government will re-identify you” capability.

Where is self-identifying when it’s useful?