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| PLAYING THE RACE CARD Should we have a "multi-racial" category on the census? July 29, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:What exactly is the race-related information collected on the census form used for? How will the Census Bureau use this information productively? Why is there an "Hispanic" category on the census form? Instead of using "other," could we use "American" as a category? Isn't it more important to categorize people by how they are perceived by society, not by how they think of themselves? Shouldn't we classify ourselves by ethnicity or cultural background instead? Are mixed racial people turning a government poll into a platform for personal self-identity issues?
NewsHour Backgrounders
July 16, 1997
Paul Solman leads a debate on the multiracial census category.
June 18, 1997
Essayist Richard Rodriguez discusses his views on checking the race box.
June 12, 1997:
Despite a clash over a ban on census sampling included in the bill, a flood relief package to help northwestern states passes Congress.
June 11, 1997:
Reps. Shimkus and Allen discuss the role of the census in flood relief problems.
Outside Links
U.S. Census Bureau
Project RACEIf we are the sum of many parts, why are we forced to choose one?
This is the question many mixed-race individuals are asking. Currently, there is no "multi-racial" category on government forms like the census, forcing some to compress a complex heritage into one category or label themselves as an "other."
It's a choice, many say, that forces multi-ethnic individuals to choose between parents or lump themselves together in a racial no man's land.
To address the problem, a recent proposal by a 30-agency federal task force recommended that for the upcoming census, Americans be allowed to choose more than one category to define their race. The "other" category would be removed.
But those in favor of a simple "multi-racial" option didn't get a check mark; the task force said that it would "create another population group and no doubt add to racial tension and fragmentation of our population."
Deciding how race plays out on the census is not just a matter if self-identity. Census data is used to determine how the federal government allocates money for everything from education to housing, medical research, and affirmative action. As a result many groups, including civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, are against the "multi-racial" category, arguing that it could dwindle numbers they say they represent.
With only less than one percent of the population defining themselves as "other" on the 1990 census, the issue of multi-racial identity may be small, but it is a growing one: Over the past thirty years the number of mixed marriages has grown from about 150,000 to more than one million--and the number of racially mixed American children has quadrupled to two million.
So this small but growing issue of multi-racial identity therefore underlies a more complex, larger problem facing the country today: as America's population becomes more diverse and complex, how do we accurately define ourselves? If the lines between races are becoming increasingly blurred, why do we seem increasingly eager to fragment ourselves with more and more categories?
This forum looks at attempts to reform the census. How should the census try to accomodate the growing multi-racial population? Will reforms hurt existing minority groups' lobbying power? Would it besmarter to have one simple "multi-racial" category, or as has been recommended, allow Americans tocheck off more than one category to indicate their heritage?
Joining us for this forum are Clyde Tucker, chair of the working group that submitted the recent census proposal, and Susan Graham, executive director of Project RACE, who has testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on Census and Population to promote multi-racial classification.
Questions asked in this forum:
What exactly is the race-related information collected on the census form used for? How will the Census Bureau use this information productively? Why is there an "Hispanic" category on the census form? Instead of using "other," could we use "American" as a category? Isn't it more important to categorize people by how they are perceived by society, not by how they think of themselves? Shouldn't we classify ourselves by ethnicity or cultural background instead? Are mixed racial people turning a government poll into a platform for personal self-identity issues?
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