Census Repost
I finally got ahold of a super nice lady at the ethnic department of the Census bureau. My last post was so inaccurate that I removed it. To summarize, I’ll just post a letter I wrote to the US Representative of my hometown (Kaplan, LA), Mickey Frith.
Mr, Mickey,You may remember me – I’m Ruby’s daughter. How have you been?I’ve got a question/proposition. I do not know if you are familiar with the Cajun/Census fiasco but if not, here’s a summary.Most of us Cajuns think that we are just Caucasian/American. We do not realize that we are an ethnic group too and thus many of us fail to report it on the US Census. As a displaced Cajun living in Los Angeles, I’m now very aware of what it means to be Cajun and I’m extremely proud of my heritage/ethnicity.The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy defines ethnicity as “Identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group’s customs, beliefs, and language. “ We Cajuns certainly have our own distict customs, beliefs and language. We also have our own folklore, music and art. You’ll even notice that “Cajun” is mentioned on the US Census’ Ancestry FAQ page. So it’s officially established that we are an ethnicity but our numbers are not accurately reflected in the US Census.The census survey has a box for people to write in their ancestry. Below the box, they give examples (Jamaican, Cambodian, Italian, French Canadian, etc). This is what it looked like in the 2000 Census.Now in 1990, the Bureau decided to add Cajun as an example. As a result, nearly 400,000 people claimed Cajun ethnicity. Vermilion Parish had the highest numbers – we were about 48% Cajun. The US Census was shocked by the numbers and felt that there were too many false positives — people tend to identify with what is listed. As a result, they removed the example in the 2000 survey and we dropped down to about 40,000 – a number closer to what was reported in 1980 when there was no example. Unfortunately, most of those people shifted to the listed example of “French Canadian” or simply “French.”I think it’s extremely important for us to get out the message that Cajun is a valid ethnicity and that every Cajun report it on the 2010 US Census. I’ve talked to Ms. Judy at the Kaplan Herald and I’ve got her interested too. Do you think there is any money in the state budget for this type of PSA? I’m thinking billboards and TV ads announcing that “Cajun” ancestry/ethnicity should be reported in the 2010 Census. A website could be given for further information for those looking to help the cause or to understand the “qualifications” for being Cajun.I’m going to use the growing popularity of my website http://www.RealCajunRecipes.com (I just moved web hosts so if you can’t get to the site, try again tomorrow) to inform the visitors of Cajun descent of the cause. I’ve found that about 80% of the visitors to my Cajun “blog” at http://oldblog.realcajunrecipes.com are from South Louisiana so I think I’ve got a real opportunity to let people know more.If you are excited about this and want to continue forward, I would be willing to help with the webpage. I’m a professional database and web developer. It’s not just my trade but my passion as well. If you’d like to read more about this, please feel free to read this NYTimes article by a Pulitzer prize winning author, Rick Bragg. It’s titled “Reported to be vanishing, Cajuns give a sharp ‘Non’”Thank you for your consideration!Chrissy LeMaire
I’m excited about this opportunity — we’ve got 5 more years to get the word out and I’m startin now 
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I’m trying to find live Cajun music here in Southern California, preferably along the coast in the Long Beach to San Diegostrip. Can you help? Ben
i too have looked for cajun music.it’s rather cagey. political espionage andsabotage still goes on i’m afraid, along withall its corollaries. cajun food is a rarity.french is getting more extinct all the time.the hildebrand rarity referred to ian fleming’sshort story about j. bond in his book ofshort stories For Your Eyes Only, is rathera rarity also. As time moves forward itreally moves backward. Being progressivebecomes regressive. so one finds solacein being a walter mitty type, as celebratedby james thurber years ago, or returningto the Past, when there was something tolook forward to besides living in somethingmore compact like a coffin. of course warshould be abolished. most ’smart’ peoplebelieve if we fight fire with fire there willbe no more fires. sort of like having awar, a nuclear holocaust, between us all,and then there will be eternal peace, becausewe will all be eternally dead. the war of loveto make peace was a failure too.my best suggestion is to make your ownmusic, and become a cajun musician yourselfand found your own cajun club.
it happened before it occurred.like it was 6 o’clock before it was 5 o’clock.like this message got to you before i sent it.the acadians were nobly thrown off whatthey thought was there land. title meanszilch. they can’t do that to me, meanszilch. the bosnian question was diffcultto ascertain. and so, after mulling itover during the bush era, first bush that is,during the era of clintonism, we went inand really wrecked the whole area.why? because. it gave us something to do.it’s very easy to destroy, but so difficultto wait for a redwood to grow.ever noticed that? cut down, just like that,but it took so, so long to grow,. and somuch care, and then poof its gone.and so we can thereby deduce we are inan evil parameter in this universe.most likely we were the rebellious angelsin our former plane, and here we are,away from God, damned here under theDevil, and this is the bottomless pit,where God, sent the Devil and his angels.we long to return to the Father, but theFather longs for us to split and stay away.He misses us, but at the same time,he knows that if we come home to theFather, we will just rebel again, andhe’ll have to put his foot down and putus back in Hell, where all rebellioussouls go. Nova Scotia was a nice placeat one time, then came the St. LawrenceSeaway. around 1959. just after sputnik.the scientific explosion has accomplishedjust this, enough firepower to blow up theentire Univese, even the throne of God.such an accomplishment. Not that ludditeismis correct. But it just might be.As automation gets automated, even thegoss of gosses and boss of bosses willbe automated. as predicted in 2001 aspace odyssey by clark. we trust the earth’sorbit is not decaying and we dont’ kind andgentle like glide right into the sun andfry like sugared bacon. it might supernovaetonight too. most people, wish to stopthe earth and get off, this is why escapismis so popular. and it is also the reasonpeople wish to be alone. humanity beingthe most dangerous animal in the forest,and humanity being able to think, itwants to get away from itself as fastas it possibly can out of gut-level survival.science fiction of yesterday is science realityof tomorrow, and tomorrow was today atone time. wait until tomorrow happensbefore today.lolol.