Working at one of the community partners for Census outreach, we received a bunch of posters to publicize the Census.  The poster above is one of my favorite Census 2010 posters. Overall, I think the Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander posters are the most beautiful, like the one above.  But as I looked through the posters, I started to see an interesting pattern in representation - most of the Asian American posters do not depict people, but instead depict food or hands!  For other posters targeted at Latinos, American Indians, African Americans, Arab Americans, White ethnic groups, and the general population... the images are mostly of people. You can check out all the posters at this Census website.

Here's the general breakdown for posters...

Bengali/Hindi/Korean/Urdu/Vietnamese: Tea; Hand; Lock

Chinese: Car license plate; blurred hands operating an abacus; Lock

Hmong: Food; Hand; Lock

Japanese: Origami + half a face; hand folding paper; stamp

Khmer: Tea; Khmer dancer; Lock

Laotian: Food; Lotus blossom; Lock

Native Hawaiian: Boat; Man in Native Hawaiian dress; Woman's face (above)

Pacific Islander: Boat; woman in indigenous Pacific Islander dress; Man's face

Tagalog/Filipino: Man holding up hands; Food; Lock

Thai: Food; Statue from Grand Palace in Bangkok; Lock

Personally, I really like the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander posters. I think they're the most artistic and evoke a sense of pride and strength.  I also like the Latino targeted ones because they depict families.  There don't seem to be a lot of African American targeted posters, but the one of the child, I think, is pretty cute.  Interestingly, I noticed that the Puerto Rican posters are somewhat similar to the Asian American pattern of half faces, statues/buildings, and hands.

I guess I just wonder why Asian Americans are depicted mostly as objects (food and tea) and incomplete human beings, with the exception of the one Tagalog poster with a full human being. We're mostly portrayed as hands or parts of faces that are disconnected from bodies. I guess that's what bothers me most - Why are we not presented as full human beings?  I'm a huge fan of food, and some of the food posters  made me drool just a bit, but I don't see the relevance of food to the Census.  So I ask again, why aren't Asian Americans people?

By the way, I sent mine in. Have you!? DO IT!  Here's a cool map to see how your neighborhood, city, county, and state are faring in returning Census forms. Great tool for organizing your community (and peer pressure) to return forms! Interesting how Iowa and Nebraska are leaving everyone in the dust in terms of return rates.