On Jan 7, 2008, at 10:43 AM, Dwayne Monroe wrote:
>
> Perhaps I should compare him to George Washington. One was the
> 'father of our country' and the other can be described as the father
> of our multi-cultural, "post-race" country.
Poor Newt Gingrich, the forgotten pioneer. He argued back in 1997 that race in America had moved far beyond black and white and into the realm of Tiger Woods!
Speech excerpt from the Congressional Record reprinted at
<http://www.multiracial.com/government/categoric.pdf>
Representative THOMAS PETRI has introduced a bill, H.R. 830, which would establish the legal right for individuals such as Ryan [a Roswell, Ga., student who's the child of one "black" and one "white" parent] to accurately describe himself as ''multiracial'' on such forms. Ryan was officially labeled ''black'' on school forms and ''white'' on the 1990 U.S. census.
It is time to stop forcing Americans like Ryan to choose between different heritages. In addition to increasing accuracy, recognizing the multiethnic race would also likely lead to health benefits for these individuals, who are routinely excluded as samples in pharmaceutical tests.
I was very disappointed by the recent recommendation by a Federal task force to not add such a designation to the 2000 census form. In a technicolor world, the Clinton administration can only see in black and white.
Like Tiger Woods, millions of Americans of mixed ancestry have moved beyond the Census Bureau's divisive and inaccurate racial labels. In the absence of Presidential leadership, it may be necessary to advance Congressman PETRI'S legislation to overturn this misguided decision and take a major step toward a country in which the only box to check reads, ''American.''