Many contest that there is no true scientific basis for "race" and that it is a poorly contrived man-made classification system. As America has evolved over the 20th and now 21st Century, the extreme diversity in our country is now resulting in a very large percentage of Americans who are made of multiple races either directly from their parents or from their ancestors. That is causing a great delimma as our government and educational systems try to maintain an archaic racial classification system of which many people no longer fit.
Federal funding for many programs and educational accountability systems, such as the measurement of the achievement gap and the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), are still based upon the archaic racial classification system. Organizations representing minority groups are resisting multiple racial classifications because it has a direct impact on minority government funding and sometimes political strength. The NY Times article points out that today 1 in 7 marriages in the United States are either interracial or interethnic. How on earth can their children be neatly classified into a racial category? If those with multiracial backgrounds are allowed to check multiple boxes for each race in their heritage, then is there any validity or accuracy in the racial classification data? I suspect that if everyone who was multiracial checked the "multiracial" box on the many forms where race is asked, the multiracial group would be the largest "race" in America.
As a person who is multiracial, I find it curious that I even have to define myself, by others rules mind you, by any classification at all. Why should I even have to choose a particular race and deny the other? Or do I select "multiracial" and as a person of the African-American and White race, lump myself into a general category no different than someone who is Asian-Hispanic, Black-Asian or any of the thousands of other possibilities that truly exist?
I grew up in an African-American household, was reared within the African-American culture and define myself as an African-American. However, for me, that is a cultural distinction rather than a racial one. I also hold no illusions that as I am researching my genealogical heritage, I've discovered that I am equally or possibly even slightly majority White, but based upon the unfortunate racist practices, policies and laws throughout the history of this country, I could NEVER claim to be White in the same manner that I claim to be African-American, and not be looked upon with a straight face. And because of that, I would never want to be - but again, that should be MY choice.
I recently watched a program where NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith discovered his family heretage and learned through a DNA test that he was 81% African, 13% European and approximately 6% Native American. The examiner said that 81% African was the highest percentage she'd ever seen of an African-American, with most being between 60%-70% African and the rest a myriad of other races. That makes me wonder, is it the color of your skin or the culture with which you were raised that determines most your personal classification of race. Tiger Woods once said that he was Cablinasian, which was a word he devised to recognize his Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian biological heritage. I remember that many in the "black" community were outraged at him for not claiming to just be "black" because White Americans will only view him as a "black man." As someone equally as multiracial as Woods and with a far fairer skin tone, I concur that that is how I am viewed. But he isn't "just" anything, clearly from his Asian mother and apparent other mixtures in his background...and why should he or any who are multiracial (which is nearly all of us) be "just" anything? Thoughts?
New York Times Article: Counting Race Can Throw of Some Number
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/us/10count.html
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