Mixed Race U.S.
A lot of my friends tell me that they don’t consider me as identifying as mixed race. I’m always troubled by this considering that growing up inter-ethnic-ly has been a huge issue in my life, filling me with doubt, confusion, feelings of rejection and searches for “ethic authenticity,” eventually culminating in an academic pursuit which seeks to examine the exclusive concept of race and ways in which it can and is being made more flexible.
While doing research for another project I came across Census statistics from 2000 claiming that only 2.4% of respondents replied that they were of more than 1 race. This in a country that is famed as the “melting pot”! The largest “single race” group marked “White alone” counting for 75% of respondents. I don’t know about anyone else, but these statistics seem off. Decades after the Civil Rights movement, racial mixing, or at least admission of racial mixing is at an abominable level, and it seems like the “one-drop” rule is still in practice. Is “Whiteness” being privileged here, or is this an actual reflection of society? I am not qualified to accurately say what is going on here, and sometimes the weird responses I get about “what are you?” make me think that yes, I would be discouraged to identify as mixed-race when people are constantly searching for a one-sided answer or an easy definition.
Not surprisingly, the top 2 reported categories of racial mixing are “White and American Indian” (for political reasons? such as claiming govt. benefits?), “White and Asian” (many people have heard me point out this astonishing trend” and “White and Black,” then “Black and American Indian” totaling less than 3% of the respondents. Where are the Latinos????
Anyway, its something to think about.
