Beginning in the month of March, Census forms will be mailed to every household and address in the USA .
As part of the efforts to improve ethnic visibility in the US, and showcase our numerical strength, we are encouraging every ethnic man and woman to do the following:
1. Take your civic responsibility of making sure that you and your family are counted very seriously.
2. Fill the form as soon as possible and return before the April 1, 2010 deadline.
3. Take out time to encourage your friends and neighbors (especially those who may not use the internet a lot) to participate.
4. Choose to "Be Counted as Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa or whatever you are" by filling out the Census form as instructed below:
There are 10 questions in the Census form that you will fill. With regards to question #9: WHAT IS A PERSON 1’s RACE?,
a) First mark an “X” in the Second box from the top, (“Black, African American or Negro”)
b) Next, mark “X” on the last box (“some other race”) and in the row of boxes provided, print your ethnic group for example "IGBO".
The goal of this exercise is to allow the Bureau of Census;
- *To collect specific demographic information for the first time from a large number of Ndiigbo in the US
- To identify your ethnic group as a distinct ethnic minority like the Vietnamese, Native Hawaiians, Japanese, and Filipinos etc.
- *Establish your ethnic group as an ethnic group to collect data on in subsequent Census exercises.
Let us give our children and grand children a rallying point. Let them have a name they can proudly call themselves. Let them have a reference point in their lives as they live away from our homeland.
Stand up and be counted as Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa or whatever you are