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There’s always been a lot of debate, especially within the Black community, about how bi- or multiracial people should identify themselves. Some adhere to the old “one-drop” rule, saying that no matter what other races are in your ancestry, if one of those races is Black, then you’re Black. Others believe people should feel free to identify with all of the cultures that factor into their genetic makeup. Officially, multiracial Americans are now able to express the full range of their identities to the government as the census forms have begun allowing people to check multiple race boxes. Where do you stand in the debate? Tell us in the comments. – NewsOne Staff

From USA Today:

Jennifer Harvey was raised by her white mother and white stepfather in what she calls “a Caucasian world.” Harvey never met her father but she knew he was black and Cuban. That made her Hispanic, white and black.

“Blacks think I’m black,” she says. “Hispanics think I’m Hispanic. Honestly, I don’t identify with either bucket wholeheartedly — Caucasian, black or Hispanic.”

Text continues after gallery …

After high school, living on her own in Alabama, she applied for a new driver’s license. The state, on its own, identified her as black. “I felt I had been branded something I wasn’t,” says Harvey, 40, an administrative assistant for a Houston energy company.

This month, the Census Bureau will remind Americans that racial classifications remain an integral part of the country’s social and legal fabric while, at the same time, recognizing that racial lines are blurring for a growing number of people such as Harvey. The government will give the nation’s more than 308 million people the opportunity to define their racial makeup as one race or more.

The agency expects the number of people who choose multiple races to be significantly higher than the 2000 Census, when the government first allowed more than one race choice. Responses to this year’s survey will provide for the first time a glimpse at the evolution of racial identification: Those who were children in 2000 and were identified as one race by their parents may respond differently as adults today and select more than one.

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  • http://newsone.com/entertainment/casey-gane-mccalla/paula-patton-says-the-term-biracial-is-offensive/ Actress Paula Patton Says The Term “Biracial” Is Offensive | News One

    [...] Census Forms Give Multiracial Americans More Options [...]

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Jack_Stephen1/ Jack_Stephen1

    what do tran nies check in the sex section? should they be allowed to check the “new gender” or should there be a third option added? just some 5hit that crossed my mind.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/doing_me74/ doing_me74

    I don’t see what good that’s going to do in person in the flesh besides on paper because the reality is your black

  • http://health.worldonlinereview.com/2010/03/04/americans-for-stable-quality-care-mean-for-you/ Americans for Stable Quality Care – Mean For You | World online health review

    [...] Census Forms Give Multiracial Americans More Options | News One [...]

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/PiMpInShAwTy_08/ PiMpInShAwTy_08

    So when the Census is finally published, will they still be counted as “multi-racial”? It seems that including each mixture would be too cluttered. If so, what’s the point of allowing this option?

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/MS_SouthSideATL/ MS_SouthSideATL

    The gallery says “Biracial Americans” so why Sade and Thandie Newton and others not from American on there. I’m just saying, though:-)

  • http://kissrichmond.com/national/misscommunityclovia/census-forms-give-multiracial-americans-more-options/ Census Forms Give Multiracial Americans More Options | KissRichmond

    [...] Via: http://www.newsone.com [...]

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/ihateinteracial/ ihateinteracial

    these biracial threads are so disgusting but then again i a m hopful they will stop bunching these high yellow near pale biracial bisexual half breezed zebbras in the same group as us real afrakan americans

    lets give these mutts the term

    mulatto american

    mulatto american

    you are not black

    you are not afrakan

    now go

    we dont want u and never have at least us proud afrakans world wide including america

    we were forced to accept you half breeds because of the one drop rule

    i have no compassion for mixed people u people cause to much confusion and jews id go far to say mayb we need to pt you in concentration camps? aye?

    just joking

    but we do need to let u people stop mixing

    and to my people

    stop making these d.a.m.m babys

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/ihateinteracial/ ihateinteracial

    yay yay

    my prediction is coming true

    half breeds have used and abused us afrakan people and now they want to finally have the balls to be identified as what they really are

    history is repeating itself

    it happend north afraka and ethiopia and now none of them are really afraakan anymore

    afrakan amerkans most of us have been tricked

    we should have never acceppted these half breeds

    and you are right to feel angrey my sisters cousins and brothers world wide

    they want to force us to mixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    im not having it

    i like my women dark dark brown and brown skin

    i also encourage sisters in amerika to date continental afrakan brothers and in the islands but make sure they are real and no sellouts and brothers and sisters world wide

    lets uplift our mighty afrakan race and make millions of dark babys dawk and brown skin babys

    lets make more tupac shakurs

    marcus garveys

    shaka zulus

    fela kutis

    we need real afrakans

    lets make some more serena and venus willams

    we are natrually stronger nd smarter my people so why dumb ourselves down by mixing?

    stop making these d.a.m.m mixed babys

    barrack obama is a mulatto american

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/CaliFemme23/ CaliFemme23

    This has gotten ridiculous…Who in the wide world really cares what someone is mixed with? And for the most part ‘bi-racial’ people tend to make themselves sound real silly with all the different tags they choose to go by. My point is, does claiming each and every different race besides black really give you anymore of a step up in life? Ummm no it doesnt because with that little ounce of black someone may have in them it is seen as the ‘dominant’ race anyway. MOST biracial people mixed with some black see themselves as just that. I could see if it would make a real difference but it doesnt. What it does say is that people who are mixed with black arent happy JUST being labeled as black anymore…quite a message…

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/margeryehannah/ margeryehannah

    @ihateinternational–fickle you and pay respect to the “mutts” that dedicated their lives for the betterment of the people (and read Frederick Douglass and listen to Bob Marley while you’re at it). And by the way, learn something from the Ethiopians, as they are the only African nation not be colonized by Caucasians.
    @CaliFemme23-you care because you took the time to comment.
    Look @ this– a bunch of crabs in a bucket, always pulling each other down. Damn, it’s so, so sad. And why get mad @ how someone identifies themselves? Every person has had their own experiences. One drop rule? Are you serious? Damn, they said we, yes WE, were not humans, but they doesn’t mean I’m going to call myself a beast. Every person should self identify. Every person should refuse imposed labels.
    Do some “mixed” persons want to be called “mixed” to get way from being “Black”? I’m sure. Do some want to be identified this way because this is simply how they identify Yes. Quite working for “massa”. Hating and divisive asses, that’s how Africans were conquered in the first place– read the journals of slave traders: “We never had to penetrate the interior, all we had to do is give the others the guns and they brought ‘em.” But at the end of the day, we’ve been divided a long time because Africans are tribal people.
    Sisters ad brothers, let folks be what they are; it’s a privileged to be “Black”. Socially it may be harder, but it is a blessing. But don’t hate those that claim to be what they really are and refuse to let others define them. They may be the biggest soldier for the cause.
    ONE

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Michael2477/ Michael2477

    Man you really think money is coming to the hood?My, My, My, we are so blind.If they wanted us to have money it would already be in the hood. We would see the dollars working, but NO we see nothing, but hear alot of talk. Now they tell us we will get money in our hood for filling this thing out.Come on, it sounds like a scam now it is up to you to fill this thing out, forget the race who cares what you are we as a nation, or people are falling. What difference would it be if you are black, spanish, mex., pueto r. you still aint gone see no money in yo hood. This Gov. is a joke, an we as a people are still falling for these stupid games. Tell the gov. you do it, that is why you are in office, why do I have to now do your job? I do my job everyday with no help from you. I thought that is why we pay you the big bucks, so I can do your job? Wake up folks come out of the game, you aint getting no money until YOU go out an work for it.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/LeKese/ LeKese

    I personally don’t understand why anyone has to choose a catagory that defines their skin tone. We are all of the “Human Race” and only our origin of decent should seperates us.

    My parents are American; they were born in America and therefore they are American. My mother’s grandfather was Cuban, he was born in Cuba and therefore he was Cuban. The color of their skin does not make them a different race, it only makes them of a different origin.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/chrishud1/ chrishud1

    Just to correct this article, the “One Drop Rule” is actually a farce, because if that is the case, then EVERYONE would be Black and we are definitely not seeing that. If anything, it should be called the “Last known African ancestor” rule.

    Also, with this increasing addition of categories, I wonder if the Black population gets effected due to this. I ask that, because in spite of the reality of 305 of whites(I believe including white hispanics) have some African ancestry, you would never see one claim such to any degree in many cases, even if they have knowledge of it.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/margeryehannah/ margeryehannah

    @chrishud1-good points…especially “Last known African ancestor”. And, yes, Caucasians do tactfully keep their numbers up by including different ethnic groups whom were initially considered “non-white.”. In addition to Hispanics, as you mentioned, this was done with Italian Americans (Italians have long intermarried Africans). Everyone who is allowed to jumps on this “white” bandwagon because of the social implications.
    But at the end of the day “race” as defined within our culture is social, not biological.

  • http://www.blackplanet.com/Das_Blaq/ Das_Blaq

    The 3 race rule is a farce. This 3 race rule was theorized to explain unfounded and ridiculous differences in groups of people with different skin tones and features throughout the world to put them on a vertical ladder based on false genetic superiority and inferiority. There is only one race, Homo Sapiens Sapiens. There is no Homo Sapiens Africanus, Homo Sapiens Caucasianus, nor Homo Sapien Mongoloid nor should there be. ‘Multi-racial’ should not even been on the census nor should it be a choice. ‘Multi-ethnic’ would be far more accurate. Black and White are nothing more than two of the many ethnic groups in America. As soon as people educate themselves on this the better off they will be. Black people are those who WANT to be Black. I will not accept a person forced to be Black by someone else. I will not take someone who is Black only because society says they are. And any person on this site who is proud to be Black shouldn’t accept it either. I don’t care how dark or light you are if you truly believe yourself to be Black with your head held high then Black you shall be.

  • http://newsone.com/nation/news-one-staff/african-american-churches-partner-with-u-s-census-bureau/ African American Churches Partner With U.S. Census Bureau | News One

    [...] Census Form Give Multiracial Americans More Options [...]

  • http://foxync.com/national/cyoung2009/african-american-churches-partner-with-u-s-census-bureau/ African American Churches Partner With U.S. Census Bureau | FoxyNC – Foxy Hits

    [...] Census Form Give Multiracial Americans More Options [...]

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