Debating Definitions

Nash opens his argument of the multiracial census movement reflecting on the first legal steps taken towards acknowledgment of mixed race individuals. With OMB’s 197 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting, it was acknowledged that white/nonwhite division would no longer suffice. However, this did not really do anything for multiracial people, as these individuals were still instructed to choose only one racial category on the census.

This essay was written in 1997, and some of the issues brought up by the multiracial community have been resolved. However, some are still highly relevant. The essay examines many of the concerns and ideas that arose in the controversy surrounding racial identification on the US Census.

Some of the questions that arose included that of whether or not the US Census Bureau should consider race and ethnicity at all; whether they ought to be considered separately; how they should be identified; whether personal identification or observer methods should be considered; and what role geographical location should play.

Altogether, Nash acknowledges the complexity of the issue and that there were (and still are) no easy answers.

"Watching `biraciality' gobbled up so eagerly

on the Donahue and Oprah circuit makes me pause....

If it weren't such a `fashionable and marketable' identity

these days would so many folks be riding the bandwagon?

(And like the hip-hop club, media darlings of the late

eighties, "the `biracial' lobby" comes across on television

as having have "no agenda" other than its own pride-politics.)...

Are `biracial' people being offered up as

the latest market ripe for exploitation?"

p. 212

What cues would you say are typically used--and what cues do you yourself typically use--to define race?

Phillip Tajitsu Nash

"The difficult and often painful race and

ethnicity problems that continue to plague this country will not go away by

abolishing socially defined racial categories in the census. Neither will they

disappear by allowing a “choose all that apply” alternative that will diminish the

usefulness of the race and ethnicity data Directive No. 15 has given us since

1977.9."

p. 277

LEFT: Yoel Chac Bautista, 7, Castaic, California | Self-ID: black/Mexican/”Blaxican”| Census box checked: black. RIGHT: Tayden Burrell, 5, Sarasota, Florida | Self-ID: black and white/biracial | Census box checked: white/black

Race Main

What is Race?

The data on race were derived from answers to the question on race that was asked of individuals in the United States. The Census Bureau collects racial data in accordance with guidelines provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and these data are based on self-identification.

The racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. In addition, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian” and “White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.

OMB requires five minimum categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

For the OMB definitions of these categories, please click on the “About Race” tab above.

LULA NEWMAN, 7, NEW YORK, NEW YORK

SELF-ID: Chinese, Indonesian, German, Polish, Welsh

CENSUS BOXES CHECKED: white/Chinese/other Asian

From the US Census Bureau webpage

Creating a separate “Multiracial” category

• Allowing respondents to “check all that apply”

• Providing open-ended questions

• Retaining the “Other” option

• Asking about the geographic ancestry of the respondent’s mother and

father

• Asking respondents, in a throwback to nineteenth century pseudo science,

to compare their skin color to a uniform skin-color gradient chart. If no

multiracial category is allowed, options raised so far include retaining the

old “choose one” system, using the father’s ethnic/racial designation,

using the mother’s racial/ethnic designation, and using the race of the

minority-designated parent if one parent is white and the other a minority.

"Race is configured as choice,

as a category on a school form.

Race is not seen as a political/ economic construct,

a battleground where Americans vie for power and turf,

but 'a question of color', 'a (stick-on, peel-off) label'.

If there is an end goal to the Census Movement's

efforts, it appears to be assimilation.

I don't mean this in the didactic sense of chiding

others for wanting their piece of American pie;

I mean it as finding a place to fit in,

creating a space of comfort for self,

away from the choke hold of race."

pp. 209-210

MAYA JOI SMITH, 9, CARY, ILLINOIS

SELF-ID: black and Asian/Korean and African American

CENSUS BOXES CHECKED: black

"Imani, who is African American and German, has a bone marrow failure disease called Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). She needs a bone marrow transplant but a shortage of African-American and multiracial donors has kept her waiting for two years, because matches rely on shared ancestry."

The Changing Face of America

By Lise Funderburg

Photograph by Martin Schoeller

Debating Definitions

"But

what on earth constitutes an accurate racial label?"

Documentary clip: "Being Multiracial

Traditionally and historically derived from outdated rules like the "one drop" rule, official racial labeling used to pertain mainly to an individual's physical appearance and not his or her own self-identification. Meaning, if you "looked" black, you "were" black.

This is obviously short-sighted. A person can look any degree of any combination of races and identify as they choose.

DAISY FENCL, 3, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

PARENTS’ ID FOR HER: Korean and Hispanic

CENSUS BOXES CHECKED: has not yet been counted

Lisa Jones

IS BIRACIAL ENOUGH (OR, WHAT’S

THIS ABOUT A MULTIRACIAL

CATEGORY ON THE CENSUS?:

A CONVERSATION)

Extract from Bulletproof Diva: Tales of Race, Sex and Hair (1994)

Additionally, Jones examines whether or not race, as it was previously understood, is applicable and relevant in the modern age. Citing an interview with Angela Davis, who reported herself unsure of the traditionally "stable" meaning of race but not at all unsure about the existence of racism, Jones questions how a group describing itself as specifically "multiracial" would ultimately treated in society. ("It's been asked before, and until I hear a

good comeback, the question stands

Would "Multiracial" be akin to South Africa 's

"Coloured" caste created under Apartheid?") Jones acknowledges that while the use of, and not the existence of, a between-race group is a problem, those groups are already being used in a negative way.

The recent social interest in biracialism, as Jones sees it, is simply due to a trend and not actual concern and investment.

Jones seems ultimately undecided on her view of the census movement to include a "multiracial" category. While she fully backs the argument of the movement that multiracial individuals deserve equal recognition, she questions the motives of supporters and ultimate result of the movement if it were to achieve its goal--a result that might include further discrimination and division.

Thoughts?

Readings by Lisa Jones;

Phillip Tajitsu Nash

LEFT: Julie Weiss, 33, Hollywood, California | Self-ID: Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, Indian, Hungarian, and German Jew | Census boxes checked: white/Asian Indian/Chinese/Filipino RIGHT: Maximillian Sugiura, 29, Brooklyn, New York | Self-ID: Japanese, Jewish, and Ukrainian | Census boxes checked: white/Japanese