'Neither black nor white.'

Ebony, Nov, 1996 by Lisa Jones Townsel

Some multiracial people claim that the new category would be most helpful for mixed-race children, who often feel the must choose between their mother and father when they select a singular racial category on official school forms. Ernie Calhoun, an African-American father in Akron, Ohio, says he looks forward to the day when his five biracial children will have the option to choose the multiracial category. "I'd prefer that it were not necessary at all," he says. "But as far as identity for certain segments, its a necessity. I want my children to have that option."

Byrd of New York says he doesn't expect the establishment of a new racial category to change his life in any significant way, but he hopes it will simplify the lives of multiracial children to come. "I'm 44. I'll be thrilled if [the multiracial category] is established. But it wont make as much difference for me as it will for kids coming into the school system," says Byrd, who is married and the father of twin sons. "Hopefully, children will never have to choose one race over the other, and, in a sense, deny one of their parents."

Others, who don't believe a new category will be beneficial, say multiracial children will remain just as confused about their racial identity as ever. "It will further confuse them," Dunston says. "Everyone wants to know who I am and who I identify with. Cats want to be with cats. All species of animals wish to identify with someone who has similar life experiences. Its human nature. The world and the country, which are both racist and class-conscious, will determine for these children what social order and what ethnic group they will be identified with, if their parents want them to or not. Its just how the social order is structured. And until that changes, nothing else, in my judgment, will change."

Dr. James P. Comer, the Maurice Faulk professor of child psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center in Connecticut, agrees. He argues that race is more of a social choice than a biological measurement, and racial preference is a personal, not a governmental, issue. "Worrying about how kids see themselves is a pure individual identity issue," he says. "Parents should tell [children] who they are. It's not the country's responsibility."

Dr. Comer believes the establishment of a new racial category for multiracial people is simply "not useful." It confuses more important issues and concerns of the day, he says, such as equity and validation. "It's not like saying, `Stop saying people are Black or part White,' will make the problems go away," he contends. "The thing that will make the problems go away is enabling people to have the political, economic and social power to promote their own inclusion in the society. Then the society can begin to address real problems, rather than scapegoating any particular group."

Like some multiracial people, Philomina (Bunny) Wilson of Pasadena, Calif., is betwixt and between on the new census category issue. On the one hand, the part German, part African-American woman believes a multiracial category on school forms would be beneficial for multiracial children. But on the other hand, this mother of four, who has always considered herself Black, says the addition of a multiracial category on the census form could be injurious to Blacks. "I remember as a child struggling to tell people, even though I knew that I was Negro, that I was also proud of my mom," says Wilson, whose mother is German. "[A multiracial category] gives an easy answer for children. And I think that's good. But when you talk about adding that to a census, that's when I become concerned because I know that the reason that we take a census is to accumulate information. I would have a tendency not to check [multiracial] on the census form because I would not attempt to do anything that would diminish the voice of African-Americans in this country."