How Census Results Could Redefine America's Definition Of Black

Jet, April 2, 2001

The 2000 Census marked the first time respondents were given the option of checking more than one race--and nearly 7 million Americans, 2.4 percent of the total U.S. population, took advantage of it.

Of them were nearly 2 million African-Americans, 5 percent of the total Black population, who said they belong to more than one race. About half of those who considered themselves multiracial said they were Black and White, and Blacks 17 and younger were nearly four times as likely as Blacks 50 and older to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race.

Taking all variations into consideration, there were 63 different ways to respond to the race question. Someone with a Black mother and a White father, for example, could check both "Black" and "White" to define their ancestry. It was a stark contrast to the 1990 Census form, in which people could only select from one of five categories: White, Black, American Indian, Eskimo or Aleutian, or Asian or Pacific Islander.

While the struggle between what race a person thinks he or she is and what race society, particularly older generations, chooses to label them will undoubtedly continue, the Census results have gone far in redefining America's definition of Black.

Considering the dramatic rise in interracial marriages-there were 2 million in 1990 compared to only 500,000 in 1970 and 150,000 in 1960-Census officials said they expected many people, who in the past had felt that they were denied the opportunity to recognize their true lineage, to check more than one race box.

But even so, Claudette Bennett, chief of Racial Statistics Branch for the Census Bureau, admits, "We don't really know what individuals are trying to tell us about their heritage," adding that it's only the bureau's job to collect the data, not attempt to analyze it.

In the past, the only change in race distinctions among Blacks occurred every generation or so when Americans of African descent would choose collectively to be called something--from Negro to Afro-American to Black to African-American--deemed more progressive. But Blacks still considered themselves members of the same race, united by a common goal, sharing in each other's successes, feeling each other's pain.

As William Spriggs, director of research and public policy for the National Urban League, said, it was understood that-no matter if you had a White mother, an Asian grandmother or a Native-American great-grandfather-if you looked Black and you got treated like you were Black, then you were Black.

National Urban League President and CEO Hugh B. Price says that the understanding of which Spriggs speaks is still there, but there's also the understanding that a person can be Black and still recognize the other races that make up his or her heritage.

"The multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural character of the American nation is going to become more and more and more evident," Price said. "This too, has come sooner than was predicted even a decade ago."

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume applauds the "expression by people of their mixed ancestry" and says those who identify themselves as part Black-and more importantly are viewed by society as Black-still have the same concerns and issues as those who consider themselves 100 percent Black.

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) agrees, saying those who are trying to use Census figures to pit one race against another or multiracial individuals against Blacks "are up to their old tricks of divide and conquer. It won't work. We won't let it."

Many have praised the U.S. Census for taking a progressive approach to the race issue, although some have criticized the bureau for "muddying the waters" with its lack of a clear way to interpret the numbers it created. But either way, the new characterizations are a far cry from the way the bureau used to categorize race, with such terms as mulatto (half-Black) and quadroon (one-quarter Black).

Levonne Gaddy, president of the Association of Multi-Ethnic Americans, says the country is moving in the right direction regarding to race recognition. "It will be very interesting to see how things develop in the 2010 Census, after things become more acceptable and normal to look at our multiracial heritages."

The whole multiracial debate comes as the country's Hispanic population grew some 60 percent since the last Census, equaling the number of African-Americans for the first time in the nation's history.

Although questions remain as to how those numbers should be calculated (since Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race), and whether or not a power struggle will ensue between Blacks and Hispanics as a result, one thing is for sure: The 2000 Census showed that 31 percent of the respondents were minorities. That translates into about 87 million people, among them are about 2 out of every 5 children who do not consider themselves White.

Among the ever-growing number of Americans who choose to acknowledge their Black roots while also maintaining the importance of the other races in their family are celebrities such as actress Halle Berry, golfer Tiger Woods, singer Mariah Carey and New York Yankees star slugger Derrick Jeter.