Stuck on the 2010 Census race question

Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in my life

Filling out the 2010 Census was as easy as promised until I got to Question 9: What is Person 1′s race? Mark one or more boxes.

Person #1, aka my husband, is Mexican-American, so Question 8: Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin? was easy. From what we know of his heritage, he’s part-Spanish, part-Italian, part-Persian and like so many Mexicans, part-Native American. In fact, when he swabbed the inside of his cheek a few years ago and sent the cells off to a company that National Geographic worked with to perform a DNA test, it came back saying that his ancestors crossed the Bering Strait and traveled to South America.

Unfortunately, the choices for Question 9 discouraged us from picking American Indian, since it asks the name of the enrolled or principal tribe. Who knows how many eons ago his ancestors were part of an American Indian tribe? They were probably Aztecs or Mayans more recently, but that wasn’t a choice.

If he’d been Chinese, it would have been much easier. Question 9 separates out Asian Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese as different races. I consider them all to be Asian, though I appreciate that they have distinct cultures. On the other hand, if they’re looking to track distinct cultures, why don’t they track Arabs? I’m not the first to notice that omission.

I heard on the radio the other day that it wasn’t until Medieval times that people even really cared about race. (Although I’d bet some slaves would argue with that.) It’s sad that humans are hung up on the color of one’s skin. Perhaps the more that people get to know people of different races and intermarry, they’ll not only better appreciate what’s inside a person and not what’s on the outside, but it’ll be harder and harder to determine what race someone is. (Click here to see The Onion’s take on this.) Since it’s St. Patrick’s Day, maybe it would be easier if we were all Irish. Just kidding – it would be easy for me, but others might object.

By the way, he told me to mark White on the form. I will, but it only tells part of his story. At least Question 8 tells another part.

New website: Hernandez Schaedel & Associates

Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by kchristieh in work

Over 10 years ago, in a fit of eToys IPO-fueled optimism, my husband quit his big law firm job and formed his own law practice, The Hernandez Law Group. He’s worked very hard over the years to grow the practice, and recently decided to take on two partners: Jack Schaedel & Rob Olson. Don and Rob practice primarily intellectual property, healthcare and business litigation, and Jack primarily practices employment litigation. They have five associates who also help them.

The original Hernandez Law Group site was the second site I ever designed. It was fine at the time, but trends change, and I’ve changed the site a few times since then. The new partnership of Hernandez Schaedel & Olson, LLP required a new website, so I used the occasion to completely update the look. It’s convenient when your wife is a website designer.

One more reason to love my husband

Posted on 04. Sep, 2007 by kchristieh in my life

Our washing machine died a dramatic death today. Not only did it stop about two minutes after it filled with water and started spinning my clothes, but it emitted a pungent burnt-rubber death smell when it bit the dust.

I’ve called repairmen (why don’t I ever find repairwomen? they must exist!) and the soonest anyone can come is a week from now. They’re probably all busy repairing air conditioners. I think it’s probably futile anyway: I don’t think this machine can be revived, and even if it can, it’ll probably just continue to tear up our clothing just as it has for years.

I was lamenting the fact that I’d have to find a laundromat and hang out there for the rest of the day, but then my husband emailed those three sweet words every woman longs to hear: “Fluff and Fold.” So I’m off to the cleaners. What a good man.