Would it be even more cost effective to offer the census form online? The form is simple, only 10 questions. It shouldn't be too hard to build it and protect it. And it would save $$$ on paper, printing and mailing costs.

This question is terribly poorly worded and therefore is very misleading. This is no longer about one's race. This question has become about one's ethnicity and ancestry. Chinese, Korean, Japanese -- those are not definitions of a race. If this question is based on people's responses, then if a bunch of trekkies were to write in 'Vulcan', would it appear as a choice on the next census form? And if the census form is available in Russian, shouldn't Russian be one of the choices, so that next time you can mail English/Russian forms to Russian-speaking households? The more I think about it, the more unsure I am of how to answer it. I'm of Jewish-Armenian descent. Does that make me White? My wife is Chinese, so that's easy. But which category do our kids fall into? And most importantly, what impact does it all have on the outcome of the census?