NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
Thursday, October 2, 1997
Ethnic labels are part of census debate
Continued from page 1A
ly unseen, and on a democratic
'scale without precedent - the two
agencies have enUsted help in
and out of government to find up-
to-date words for that awkward,
yet persistent question: What
Idnd of American are you?
• How the various kinds cluster
across the land helps weigh the
fairness of bank loans and school
assignments, of employment and
pay. The labels aid scientists
tracking diseases that plague cer
tain groups, and drug companies
selling the cures. They’re used to
ensure voting rights are upheld,
and to attract federal, local and
private aid for historic victims of
bias.
; George Washington was presi
dent barely a year when the first
fensus was taken in August 1790.
Its only purpose, then as now and
fixed in the Constitution, was to
apportion U.S. House seats.
• Yet race mattered from the
start. The first census counted
“free white” males and females,
any other free persons, and
slaves.
In the 1840s, the government
began asking outside experts for
help devising questions about all
sorts of things. The 1850 census
was the first to ask census takers
to record race, under a “color”
heading.
But it was the civil rights move
ment of the 1960s that paved the
way for today’s acute attention to
what minorities and others have
to say about how non-white, non-
European people are counted in
this country — not just for the cen
sus, but for a host of other gov
ernment fact-gatherers.
Today, there are racial-minority
advisers galore offering guidance.
Plus top researchers from govern
ment, universities and private
enterprise, demographers and
anthropologists, civil rights
lawyers and marketing experts.
The National Academy of
Sciences was enlisted. The pubhc
trooped into hearings from Boston
to Honolulu. Congress heard tes
timony.
John Beresford, a demographer
whose career included two stints
at the Census Bureau, died in
1995. But his skin-color chart sur
vives amid the nearly 800 letters
of advice for the government that
fiU foxu- fat binders at the 0MB.
Add the nameless good sports
who submitted to test surveys
and participation soars upwards
of 250,000 Americans.
1110 0MB expects to issue its
final decision on the basic racial
and ethnic categories by mid-
October, which should give the
Census Bureau time to make any
changes before its spring 1998
dress rehearsal.
Outside experts and advisers
worked gratis, with only their
modest accommodation and occa
sional travel costs paid, and many
involved in the process were fed
eral employees, so no extra labor
costs were racked up. But officials
estimate $5 million has been
spent so far in this endeavor, most
Renovated Y sponsors festival
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
; The YMCA of Greater
Charlotte will unveil its reno
vated Johnston YWCA facility
Oct. 11 with a festival to which
the mayor and the north
Charlotte community has been
invited.
! The $2.5 million renovation
comes amid the YMCA’s com
munity outreach efforts and
the facility on north Davidson
Street houses a wide range of
services and programs.
The two-story brick building
was once owned by a mill and
provided recreational activities
for its workers.
The renovation turns it into a
family resource center.
The celebration, with the
theme “Blending Together,” will
include 200 volunteers from
various branches working on
projects to enhance the
Johnston facility and the sur
rounding neighborhoods.
The unveiling festival will
feature food, children’s activi
ties, historical tours of the
grounds, a gallery crawl, 3-on-3
tournament, music, mimes and
clowns, face painting and aero-
^vate schools more of an option
Gontinued from page 1A
^ CSiarlotte’s Brisbane Tutoring
Center & Academy is growing as
more African Americans make
fJie financial sacrifices necessary
to find alternatives to pubhc edu
cation, Brisbane, which opened in
11992, has 72 students, said
founder Geraldine Brisbane-
^yhite.
; White said she hears parents
cj)mplaining that children are not
®tting individual needs met in
the larger settings common in
jmblic schopls.
Such needs can include such
sldfis as phonetics, for example,
shu.said. Often low self-esteem
ahd peer pressure can affect per-
f{ii?0iance.
;‘^plat’s why we are seeing kids
in Hugh school who can’t read,”
Wiite said. “It is not that they
cafi’t learn to read.”
.^mailer schools, with smaller
classes, are the answer for many
students, she said.
rStudents have loss
i(}entity,..and do not have a good
sfnse of who they are,” White
said. “That can have an impact.
Sm^er settings allow you to get
edJention, even if you don't want
attention. Even if you are shy, you
still need attention.”
iThose migrating from public
education say the roots of their
disenchantment vary. Some par-
efits are frustrated with bureau-
cfaSy, others fear student vio
lence. Some want their children
hj spend more time learning val
ues; others call the one-size-fits-
ajl model of most large public
sehopls an ineffective and imper-
sanal way to learn.
"Aere are so many reasons,”
said Carol Crabtree, whose two
cfiildren once attended a tradi
tional pubhc school but are now
enrolled in Blue Ridge Christian
School in Bridgewater, Va. “Pubhc
schools have to be all things to aH
people, and I think many parents
are starting to look for much more
than that.”
Not long ago, many pubhc
school officials virtuaUy ignored
that sentiment and scoffed at the
growth of other options in educa
tion. But today those trends have
begun to send a powerful message
to pubhc schools, even prompting
some of them to acknowledge a
threat of competition for the first
time.
In Michigan this fall, pubhc
schools that have lost hundreds of
students to new charter schools,
which get taxpayer money but set
their own teaching rules, have
responded by creating ah-day
kindergarten classes as an entice
ment to wary parents. Others are
featuring new enrichment pro
grams for students, such as ballet,
to compete with alternative
schools. Some are even writing
letters asking parents who have
left the pubhc school system to
reconsider.
In Arizona, a state with rising
interest in home schoohng and
more charter schools than any
other state, one large public
school district, in Mesa, has gone
as far as placing full-page ads in
local newspapers to win back
grousing parents.
“We can’t assume anymore that
everyone is just going to come to
our schools,” said Judy WUhs, the
district’s director of coimnunity
relations. “It’s a whole new
arena.”
Some of the story can be told in
numbers: In 1992, there was one
charter school in the entire
nation. Today, there are more
for research.
Government researchers spent
months developing question
naires, then trying them out on
whites in West Virginia, Cajuns
and Creoles in Louisiana, rural
blacks in Mississippi, American
Indians in Oklahoma, Hisparrics
in Ifexas and Asiairs on the West
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bic and dance demonstrations.
Childwatch will be provided
and EZ Rider has committed to
help meet transportation needs
for neighborhood residents.
WTVI (channel 42) is sponsor
ing the event.
In the past few years, the
local YMCA, with a $16.8 mil
lion capital fund raising cam
paign and $22.7 million in tax
exempt county bond issue, has
opened two new 50,000-square-
foot full-service YMCAs, in the
University City area and near
SouthPark, and a 25,000
square-foot addition to the
Harris YMCA building.
o
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than 800. The Clinton adminis
tration intends to spend $100 mil
lion to help develop as many as
3,000 of them by the year 2000.
Home schooling is also flourish
ing. Researchers at the Education
Department say the number of
students being taught at home
has tripled this decade and now
exceeds 1 million. A new industry
is emerging from that growth,
complete with mail-order curricu
la, computer learning programs,
even centers that offer home
schooled children a chance to
socialize with each other.
Meanwhile, enrollment at pri
vate academies that emphasize
the Bible or Christian principles
has doubled in the past 10 years.
The Association of Christian
Schools International was formed
in 1980 with about 1,200 member
schools. Now, it includes nearly
4,000 schools across the nation
and more than 800,000 students.
Catholic schools, like some black
institutions, are reversing
decades of steep decline in enroll
ment, attracting more non-
Catholic parents whose children
had been m pubhc schools, and
expanding well beyond their tra
ditional base — the center city —
into suburbs.
What all of these changes mean
is a subject of growing debate.
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Filed, October 1, 1997
...The Charlotte Post is pub
lished at 1531 Camden Road,
Charlotte, NC 28203.
...Publisher is Gerald O. John
son, 7320 Oakwood Lane, Char
lotte, NC 28215, Co-Publisher is
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Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28216,
Editor is Herbert L. White, 7613
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NC 28217, Managing Editor is
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Place, Charlotte, NC 28215.
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In her books, Connie Briscoe deals with the stmggle of facing
and overcoming adversity. In her life, she's done the same thing.
Afflicted with a gradually worsening hearing impairment
since birth, Briscoe has never let that or anything else stop her
from achieving her goals. Her first novel, Sisters and Lovers,
sold over 425,000 copies. It is currently in production as a
television miniseries.
NIOVELLO
festivjilofreiidinsi
Connie Briscoe has a way
with words, even if
she can’t hear them.
Connie's most recent novel, Big Girls Don't Cry deals with
the issues faced by a young black woman determined to be
successful both professionally and romantically.
Come see this exceptional author on Thursday, October
23,7:30pm at the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center’s
Booth Theater, followed by an autographing reception in the theater lobby.
Connie Briscoe's presentation at the Novello Festival of Reading is EK
sponsored by The Charlotte Post The autographing reception is sponsored
by Heritage House Books & Gifts. Tickets $10. Call 336-2945. P L C M C