In some ways, it's the patronizing tone of the announcement that takes one aback: "The Clinton administration announced it will allow mixed-race Americans for the first time to check off more than one racial category for themselves on the 2000 census."
The government will "allow" free Americans to make an extra check-mark on an intrusive form?
Bad form aside, the matter of how Americans are to be identified as to race is a notoriously unscientific, subjective and often contemptible way of categorizing and classifying citizens. The simple, all-American answer: The government -- since it is bound to treat people as individuals who possess freedom, dignity and equal rights regardless of race, color or creed -- should not ask people what "race" they "belong" to.
Whether the news is startling or reassuring, there's no denying that the number of Americans of mixed racial or ethnic heritages is growing. Some citizens feel uncomfortable when asked to place themselves in a single category, in effect denying half their ancestry. So the request arose for a generic "mixed-race" category on the census.
The most vocal opponents of such a course were the professional leaders of various ethnic groups, fearful that allowing people to choose "mixed" would mean fewer in their own category and, by extension, likely would result in less political clout for them. So the politicos came up with the "pick more than one" option, which will allow the so-called leaders of many groups to claim they "represent" at least as many and maybe more people than before.
The best approach to this imbroglio would be to eliminate race as a category on the census altogether. Constitutionally, the census was instituted to apportion congressional districts, and race isn't supposed to matter in that process. As evidenced by the nationwide support for what is supposed to be a state issue with California's Proposition 209, Americans have grown weary of -- perhaps even angry about -- the official obsession with race in government agencies.
If the government won't do the right thing and eliminate questions about race on the next census, perhaps Americans will find another way to get their point across.
What if every American checked every single box on the form, claiming "membership" in every arbitrary racial group -- and making hash of the race statistics?
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