OMB’s Preliminary Recommendation & an IV Commentary

OMB’s Preliminary Recommendation & an IV Commentary

Interracial Voice [1995-2003]
July 1997

Charles Michael Byrd

The Office of Management and Budget announced last Wednesday (07-09-97) that Americans could choose more than one racial category on Census and other federal forms but would have no new “multiracial” box to check under new rules the agency proposed. OMB rejected creation of a multiracial category because “there is no general understanding of what the term means,” said the federal task force that made the recommendation in a report being published in last Wednesday’s Federal Register. OMB has also called for a sixty-day public comment period, during which you may voice your support or opposition for this proposal. The OMB website has detailed information concerning email and snail-mail addresses to which you may forward messages.

This is not a multiracial category per se, rather a scheme where the government requires the individual to parcel out portions of his or her identity to two or more of the established racial groups. Not only is there no consideration or understanding that the individual may not recognize these groups as valid in terms of identity and affiliation, there is no symbol or icon—specifically a multiracial header—representative of a self-determined, integral being who self-identifies other than monoracially.

Even for those of mixed-race who do view the current racial groups as valid, there is still no specific multiracial designation. According to OMB, “When the data are reported, counts should be provided of the number of persons who checked two races, three races or four races, and information on the combinations should also be provided.” In other words, the government will effectively disperse the individual’s identity in two or more directions and at day’s end will have reduced it to a mere mathematical computation—a cleverly negotiated line segment along the political color continuum.

To not be totally cynical and negative, let me add that this “check all that apply” format is a step toward a recognition of multiraciality—albeit not a huge one

Read the entire article here.

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