For some, question of race a struggle |
For some, question of race a struggle
The Providence Journal
Providence, Rhode Island
2011-04-05
Karen Lee Ziner, Journal Staff Writer
Face to face with the question of racial identity, Providence lawyer Kas R. DeCarvalho chose a write-in option under “Other” in the 2010 census form.
“I put in mixed and called it a day,” said DeCarvalho, whose father is from Angola in southwest Africa, and whose mother is an American of Scottish-Irish descent.
“It has been my entire life, something of a struggle to figure out exactly what to do,” DeCarvalho said. “Only in recent years have any sorts of government forms offered an option, mixed race. Until then, you had to pick one or the other, or neither.”
He added, “I could have put white, and I suppose I could have [also] filled in black. I identify as a black American. That’s how I’m perceived but, culturally, I’m much more complicated than that. I don’t think there’s really a way to encapsulate that in some sort of census document.”
DeCarvalho is one of 9 million people, or 2.9 percent of the population, who selected or indicated more than one race on their 2010 Census forms, a roughly 32-percent increase since 2000. Some 3.3 percent of Rhode Islanders did so, slightly above the national average. He said, “I wish we lived in a world where we didn’t have to fill in anything.”
DeCarvalho isn’t alone…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Karen L. Ziner, Karen Lee Ziner, Rhode Island, The Providence Journal