• sweet_cookie01 said on Sep 28, 2007....

  this is the first time i heard that you are suppose to be what you fathers race is... i agree with you that if the parents are of different race than they are biracial... i am sorry but i NEVER thought that at this age and time when multiracials are abundant and marrying from someone outside your race is not an issue anymore there would be such questionnaires out there like that...

• botoni said on Sep 28, 2007....

  As far as I m concerned if the authorities are attaching the ethnicity question to the information about your child the questionaire is totally out of line. As to what we call ourselves as far as racial heritage I think you re right. In our world there are many people who have multi-racial backgrounds. It should not be important unless the issue is medical. eg.....Those of Irish decent may be more subject to celiac than others.

• exhibit_c said on Sep 28, 2007....

  This is one of the idiocies that gov't has thrust upon us. Often when the parents are of different race, the parents end up checking the box that they think will give their kids the best access to the best schools, or some other coolly analytic choice of the options. We had a neighboring family with a South American Husband (born in the US) and wife of Irish descent. They had two beautiful girl children who seemed to be little Irish colleens, but who got labeled Hispanic.

• wombat said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I had never heard that one, either--about being the race of what your father was.  I detest those little questionaire things, too.  I might have gotten mad and put "Human."

• queenparanoia said on Sep 28, 2007....

  oh my... this is so sad. i thought racis is ceasing... but in this case... i agree why can't your son be both race?

• Grantlin__Graham said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Law is not my strong suit but I can tell you one thing for absolute: Any question by any governmental entity must put a disclaimer in there that any discussion of or claim to be of a certain racial background is purely optional.
   
  If you do not answer the question it is within your right not to do so.
   
  Is that clear enough? If you have questions please address them to me and I shall forward that directly to the chairman of the ACLU personally.

• princessbitch65 said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Isn't optional??? I would be questioning the Board of Ed on this one. I'm with wombat: I would have wrote "human".

• husbandhater said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Wombie I've done that on more than one occassion.he he he.

• husbandhater said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I just told my hubbie and he said you know in this day and age.......He said I hope you checked both anyway. I told my other sons to also never check 1 box either b/c they are 1/2 hispanic. I always do HUMAN!

• silverwhisper said on Sep 28, 2007....

  i have a suspicion that the reason they ask the question is related to school funding initiatives and gauging their effectiveness, and i definitely think you should contact the board of ed and demand an explanation.
  
  ed

• Expendable said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I write in "none of the above". Nobody's questioned me yet on it.

• skald said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I must say that I find this unfair and out of the question, but maybe I just don't understand this coming form a country that has been all white until now that we have people coming in and I guess we don''t register like that yet. Ant we all human and is that not what counts. Is this not out of date? But I can see that this is hurting. 

• PassionTraveler said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Gone are the days of segregation as well as should be demographic segmentation for census taking. Many of those forms are incredibly antiquated, and perhaps it's high time to petition for a revision to those.
  
  To play devil's advocate for a brief moment, I must say that I can see that to permit check-boxes for more than two races might be opening a can of worms.
  
  But in support, surely it can't be that difficult to include a box that says "biracial" or permit each person to check two boxes, one for each parent's race.
  
  Perhaps it's the tallying of the demographics that makes such an implementation difficult, but again, maybe it's time for an overhaul of that as well.
  
  Anyone interested in starting some such petition for the steps of our Nation's Capitol?
  
  PT
  

• *daisy* said on Sep 28, 2007....

  normally such forms have an option of other, but I can never understand why it is, I had to fill in a form the other day which wated to know all the usual stuff like age and gender but then it asked my what my sexuality is. Now yes i am a heterosexual, although I have absolutely no problem with homosexuality, be what you want to be I say, but I just find that that question is a complete invasion of privacy, it's like who actually cares if I am gay/straight/bi/black/white, what does it matter, surely it is who you are as a person that counts, not what ur sexuality is or what colour your skin is.

• dyingman said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I liked your answer.

  There is a word in Japanese, I forget which that means "unask the question".

  If I were to remember, I might suggest you add an entry and check it off.

   

  Race is a thoroughly arbitrary and artificial invention of man.  Science doesn't recognize it as a valid tool of categorization.

   

• mOOn_platOOn said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I wrote a feature article for The Washington Post on this very subject back in the 80s. The classifications are so arbitrary that past records are useless in determining "racial" populations. Once upon a time (around 1890) race was "determined" for legal purposes as a percentage of blood...

• mOOn_platOOn said on Sep 28, 2007....

  ...sorry got interrupted
   
  Anyway, used to be if you had 1/8th black ancestry you were "Negro," in the good ol' USA. At one time, later in the 20th century, census considered you the mother's race, whatever she was. Then it mysteriously switched back.
   
  You also have to consider that states (in the U.S.) make up their own criteria for measuring race.
   
  The big political issue here is the lack of a biracial lobby.
   
  Biracial confuses the Monoticians. They have quotas to fill, and "biracial" ain't one of them.
   
  Will you get behind me in starting up a "biracial" lobbying effort on behalf of your child and others like him?
   
  The numbers are growing...
   

• namyogrl said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Ohhh I hate those forms, I am black and my ex husband is white(danish). When my daughters started school there was a box that said "race"  I put HUMAN the school resent me the registration and said I had to choose one.  I was told that if one parent is black they hve to choose black, I later found out that the federal goverment(USA) bases a lot if their funding on race. It is so sad that we are still judged on race after all these years. why should it matter what race a child is to get funding for public schools?

• namyogrl said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Ohhh I hate those forms, I am black and my ex husband is white(danish). When my daughters started school there was a box that said "race"  I put HUMAN the school resent me the registration and said I had to choose one.  I was told that if one parent is black they hve to choose black, I later found out that the federal goverment(USA) bases a lot if their funding on race. It is so sad that we are still judged on race after all these years. why should it matter what race a child is to get funding for public schools?

• namyogrl said on Sep 28, 2007....

  sorry computer went nuts :)

• Mamie said on Sep 28, 2007....

  my nephew and niece have a sister that is biracial. I know that she checks both when asked...it used to bother her when she was small but now she is in high school and it doesn't bother her anymore. BTW, she is a beautiful girl and I am so proud to call her my niece even though we aren't truly related!!
  Mamie

• husbandhater said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Moon Halley Berry and others have tried in vain to get them to include a Biracial box on such forms. To me what makes you more of one than another? If you have one black parent you must put black? BullShit I say. If you have two white parents of different ethnicities what makes a child more jewish than irish. More Italian than Irish? This is crap they are allowed to pick both ethnicities so WHY not a child that is white and spanish,black and white, or Spanish and black.

  I'll share a story. There was someone I know that got together and married. Both white as far as they know. And when they went to have their child he came out black. The husband was very angry as was the wife. They thought that this was a terrible mistake and HE thought the wife cheated on him. Dna test was done turns out it was both their child. So they went back and traced the famiy history and on HIS side they found out that his great grandmother was BLACK and married to his grandfather. When she died he raised his daughter up and never discussed the wife. So she married a white man and so on and so on. This was family history that was never discussed until the birth of his son.

  So now are they both considered Black seeing as this was so many relations removed? Two parents =Two nations. even in math 1/2 and 1/2 make a whole. I'll sign anything if it gets people to open up their eyes and get with the times.

  Even Senator Strung had a Biracial daughter(and he was a segragationist from the south who provided for and took care of her and her kids). We proved Jefferson was getting it on with Sally Hemmings through DNA of their decendents(Kids they produced). And we know  that at least two of those kids passed in White Society and never discussed their parentage as they feared the mistreatment in those times.

  I want my son to feel loved and to know the good & bad of each race that is his and I don't want him to have to choose. He shouldn't have to. Saying he's "both" should be O.K. and excepted. Halle Berry is now pregnant from her boyfriend(Who is as Aryan as it gets). As she is Biracial what does HER child claim on a form like this?

• Brenda_Birdsong said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Dying man. Sorry but you are so wrong. Race is a definite and objective measure of certain  DNA facets. Skin pigmentation's, growth factors, head size, feet, legs virtually every part of the human anatomy is identifiable as a race. Now what we call race as to colors or labels is an entirely different matter but make no mistake race is a huge factor in many different ways and I for one am very proud and glad for it. BB

• wombat said on Sep 28, 2007....

  "Race" continues to be an issue, in many aspects of government and nature.  Until it is resolved, maybe we should stick to scribbling "Human" in that blank space.  Sorry.  I just like it better.  No.  Not sorry.
  My right to speak.
   
  For a second there, I thought I should hit "cancel editing", re-think, and re-post.  Then, couldn't improve on what I was saying.  Race is race, all of them good and special in their own ways.  But all of them, in the end, Human. 

• Brenda_Birdsong said on Sep 28, 2007....

  Race should never be an issue. There are on here, blacks, browns, browners, yellows, brown-yellow, white, pink and even toast. Those are colors.

  When race becomes an issue is when one asserts supremacy over another because of that difference. Even the Christian Bible talks of the blacks being subjugated to  others because of their blackness?

  It is almost laughable when we look at what the civilized populations of Europe brought to the Americas. Death, disease, prisons, in- or un- human treatment of others. The savagery of the yellow races against their own in early recorded history. Today in Africa Black vs Blacks. Race? What is that? Intolerance, ignorance and greed. All that and more shall happen more and more until we once again see the Earth as our one true master.

   

• Battycat said on Sep 28, 2007....

  It's ridiculous in this day and age to ask, who cares what race anyone is.

• hotaka said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I like the biracial option. My kids are going to be biracial. There are going to be more and more of those kids in the future too, I think. As for "you are what your father is", that sounds like pretty antiquated thinking. 

• ALIENated said on Sep 28, 2007....

  The main deal with any race is the winner. If your child looks white, put that down.
  If your child looks black put that down. Yellow, brown, green, put that down. It
  is just the government's way of pretending to care what you are. As bad as I
  hate to admit it, I figure silverwhimper is right. It probably has something to do
  with funding. If you have enough Hispanics and Latinos (the PC group du jour),
  your school will be lavished with "see we care about you the most" money. If
  you do not check a box, they could care less, I would imagine. And that was a
  trick answer. There is no box for green. Take it from me. Seems like there is
  usually an Other box though. That is the one I check. What they should really do
  is put a color deal on there, kind of like a rainbow, that goes from black to 
  white with every color in between. And we could circle the color that best 
  suits us and they could use that. Hey, this school has 510 blacks, 223 yellows,
  350 browns, 10 reds, 2 whites, and 1 purple. What the ... ? We are talking
  public schools, right?
  

• JohnyBottom said on Sep 28, 2007....

  I'm tired of being called 'white'. Everybody else gets a special title, so I want one too. On all questionaires, I write in "German, Irish, French, Russian American"

  Maybe I can get some free college money, I'm probably a minority.

• soleme said on Sep 29, 2007....

  I'm sorry your son has to face the race issue at an early age.

  School of all places should do away with the race question! But I think it has something to do with government funding or the no child left behind program?

   My 9 year old daughter is also biracial, hispanic. When other students learn that she is hispanic, they start with their two cent questions, well why don't  you look hispanic, can you speak spanish, your parents don't look hispanic.

  For know I check both hispanic & white on all school forms, just for the hell of it.

  At an early age we had to teach her to ignore and/or walk away from these idiots. As well as to respect all races, sizes, shapes, color, just everyone and anyone, since we are all human.  

• hotaka said on Sep 29, 2007....

  When I tell people I was born in Montreal they all think I can speak French. Hell, after fives years of French in school I still struggle with the simple present. If you are from somewhere or look like something then you get the whole baggage of assumptions that go along with it.

  I agree with what ALIENated said about "see, we care about you the most" money. That I am a white Anglo-phone puts me at the lowest priority at home.

  Careful which box you check. Your son's college education could depend on it!

• husbandhater said on Sep 29, 2007....

  My son favors my husband he has curly hair and olive tone skin. But even though he favors his white side more and people think he is that or hispanic. I still want him to have the option to choose both. For me it is about the exceptance of ones self whole heartedly. Many Biracial children struggle with this as an issue b/c they have a hard time being excepted amongst their peers. So they reject one side and love the other whatever that side is. Or one parent rejects them so they reject that side. I want my son to love and have pride in ALL his sides for it IS what makes him who he IS!

  Soleme is right to teach her daughter to love both sides and to ignore people who are ignorant. I think if more kids raised with two different cultures had this upbringing you'd have less confusion amongst them and happier people in the world. Just a thought!

• rosetry845 said on Sep 29, 2007....

  As I shed my final eggs, grateful to have had two fertilized, incubated and hatched --now flown to question & explore our racially divided society --I regret not nurturing an imagined biracial child with my first love. 
  Our actions, conscious or not are statements and protests. We impart our legacy to our children and trust them to run a peaceful course despite our selfish statements of survival.

  You are correct to check both and look past bureaucracy's ignorance.    

• mOOn_platOOn said on Sep 29, 2007....

  Amen rose...

• MsBradford07 said on Oct 03, 2007....

  I thought they had a biracial option.

• husbandhater said on Oct 04, 2007....

  Ms.B even in this politically correct climate they actually did not.

• simplyklo said on Oct 04, 2007....

  I hear you ... things like that are very frustrating.  Hell, I even get annoyed with forms where you have to select your marital status ... why can't I be "single" instead of "divorced"?!!!!  I usually check "single" because I choose to forget I was married, but same type of thing.  Anyway, back to your question rather than my ramblings ... your son is biracial and should be proud of it - I think checking both boxes was the right thing to do. 

• rosetry845 said on Oct 04, 2007....

  Simplyklo -- Married, divorced, single...it's usually none of their business, that's why MS. was invented and it's still an uphill battle for women to maintain our privacy. Cheers.

• rosetry845 said on Oct 04, 2007....

  simplyklo -- Married, divorced, single... it's no one's business. This is why MS. was invented and it's still an uphill battle to maintain our privacy.
  Young women take note; respect the work of Gloria and other pioneers.
  Peace.

• mOOn_platOOn said on Oct 04, 2007....

  Today I checked a form that included the category "Two or more races" -
   
  I guess they haven't heard the simple phrase "biracial" yet...
   
   

• Tink11464 said on Oct 24, 2007....

  Hi - I too have gone through this same situation with my daughter. This needs to end - - this is what I recently posted on my Myspace:
   
  Okayyy - - so I'm just a little tired of having to check these boxes showing which race my daughter is...
  
  We went to her asthma specialist - and everytime we go they go through the whole procedure of putting in her name, age, height, weight, race, etc... And everytime they put "B" for african-american.
  
  I was so angry this last time when they did it again - and had to be corrected AGAIN that she is OTHER (since that was the only box she fit in), I was so tempted to pull her out of there and find another specialist!! WHY DO WE NEED THESE F-ING BOXES???
  
  The nurse was like - "ohhhh really" - I was like "uhhh - yes REALLY"!! She seemed pissed that she had to start her procedure all over - but I don't give a shit!! I mean really - - I did most of the work in having her damn it - I want some credit!! She is Jamaican and Caucasian. Black AND White!!! She is no more and no less one race or the other!! How can these people continue to put one race over another??
  
  They did the same thing on her paperwork that goes to the state when the baby is born, they did the same thing at her school when I enrolled her for 1st grade (there wasn't even an OTHER box - I made one). They told me she would be classified as black - which was the minority in the school. This is ludicrous. This needs to stop!!
  
  These children need to be accounted for what they are!! They are not one race - sometimes they are 2, 3 or more... Let them be who and what they are - - CHILDREN!!! DO NOT CLASSIFY MY DAUGHTER ONE WAY OR THE OTHER!!!! She is a beautiful little girl -- that's it!!!

• princessbitch65 said on Oct 24, 2007....

  @ Tink:   *Standing up and applauding*

   

• husbandhater said on Nov 27, 2007....

  Tink I hear you. I say respect all heritage not just the one that's going to get you a bigger check and don't make a decision on my child's race for me or him.
  He shouldn't nor should your daughter be told that b/c one parent is black that this is what sets the status quo. In this regard this is something that goes back to the constitution and the bigotry of the old world. I think we should all get together to change this.

• Scottish_GRRL said on Mar 22, 2008....

  Dear HH,
  The liberal in me says "SUE 'em".  How totally ignorant, especially in today's society.  The number of multi-racial folks in this country is growing; even the Government recognizes this.  And in my area, we have many mixed couples with children.  I say it is up to the individual family to decide how to define themselves, and what, if any culture they want to choose.  What I find puzzling is that if someone chooses to embrace both/all of their genetic culture, they somehow seem to be condemned for wanting to be inclusive.
   
  As a mother, I would be outraged, and perhaps even get a little postal if someone were to tell me that I or my kids needed to "choose" between their hill country roots on Dad's side, or their freestyle, suburban CA mom.  Ridiculous!
   
  Stay strong HH ~ you have many challenges, and I admire your ability to keep confronting them.  Cheers, SG

• hottips4u said on Jun 27, 2008....

  I am so glad my children will not have to go through this.
  
  I am younger than most in here (26 soon 27) and having been to school less than a decade ago, I can assure you that biracial children in school talk to thier peers sometimes unlike they might at home.
  
  Yes they mostly do identify one way or the other and if they don't decide, the opinion of peers will decide it for them, cold as that is, its a fact.
  
  As to the forms, rarely I see Native American and that puts me and mine in other.
  
  Normally biracial isn't available to even consider, but I have seen that designation.
  
  So even though remaining with my own race was very important to me, its not so important to government when I am provided no less than ...other.... then I write it in to specify.
  
  But I am so glad I didn't put my children in such a position in life, in a world already full of pitfalls, I am glad thats one they can avoid.  Being American Indian is something I think our Government would rather forget than point out, even w/ a lil box other than ......other.
  
  jessi.
  
  

• hotaka said on Jun 27, 2008....

  hottips4u, that is quite shocking to read that in a nation such as the U.S., the first inhabitants are not even recognized. I mean, if they are going to distinguish race then why not include Native Americans (First Nations, Aboriginals or however you want to classify the original inhabitants).
  
  As for classifying partly African American kids as African American I think that is silly. Why is a person of mixed race always classified by the minority race? Is a half black half white person any more black than white? "He's less brown than his dad but he's still not white so he must be black." I get it. Pink is closer to red than white so pink must be a shade of red. Hey, it works for colours so why not skin colour too?  Maybe this whole race issue is an outdated way of thinking. Why do kids need to be classified in schools anyway? Separating the ultra-smart from the less-than-average makes sense educationally. But skin colour? Who cares?!
  

• hottips4u said on Jun 27, 2008....

  Why should it be so shocking, it was the White man after all that took it in the first place.  I don't find it shocking at all.
  
  As for other nationalities who decide to engage in biracial relationships as the example you gave as black and white, there is a position one takes and genetics plays but part of it.  Obama is faced with the same situation and identifies with the Black rather than the White ( which is viewed by some White I know as him abandoning his White Heritage) while other Whites I know say they wouldn't vote for him if he was all white or all black, they just don't trust him to deliver.  But they won't vote for McCain either, rather they won't vote at all.
  
  Listen, I wasn't raised prejudice, and I do not see myself as such today, but we do have a couple Doctors in the family who has always pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of genetics, the DNA of humans.
  
  For instance, Native American's have a problem with blood sugars (mostly low) where White have like a better than 10 % advantage over American Indians in this area.  Blacks have heart problems and sickle cell which no other race has.  Indians hearts and lungs are strong, we can not carry sickle cell.  Every race on earth has significant differences in dna strands.  Nothing can change that, not acceptance or prejudice.  But the genetic precursors are undeniably present in each races DNA.
  
  The medical field is finally accepting these differences in order to provide more targeted treatments.  Race has every part in those decisions.
  
  I believe it is prejudicial to hold ones race out or above any other, but  I believe it is equally prejudice not to acknowledge medical evidence via bigoted ignorance as we are all human treat me with what the majority gets, despite better medications more applicable and useful in treating any particular race.
  
  At one point in America's history you may well see racial equality, but not in my life time I am sure.  I believe with the passage of time, the biracial children may well faces serious adult medical decision due to their individualized dna unlike any known prior in medical history to the degree of which it is understood today.
  
  Biracial dna may well hold a key to curing diseases due to their racial duality, then again it may well be the the opposite proving detrimental.  Nothing I've read or discussed in this regards alleges neither but one or both dependent upon the variables in mixed dna.
  
  Finally, I also do not disassociate myself from the animal kingdom either in that human is a man made term perhaps of selfish embellishment.  As I recall, history shows we were not always thinkers or log cabins to condo's wouldn't have evolved so slowly and distant from one another not to mention cave to condo.
  
  Were animals, and as such we were given the tag of human by a man.  Man made the distinction.  The animal world sees us no less than another animal evidence by the fact  we are on their food chains some of them eat us and we eat some of them, that hasn't changed despite the human tag.
  
  Jessi.
  
  
  

• Tink11464 said on Jun 27, 2008....

  Wellll - - Finalllyyy - Our school sent home paperwork at the end of the school year - showing the new forms that were now being used in the district to gather information on the students. There was a block for all of the following:
  White (not Hispanic)
  African American
  Hispanic/Latin
  Asian
  Indian
  Native American/Alaskan Native
  Multiracial
  Other
  I would say that they have covered it all - - - We now have that multiracial box - and they will now have to GUESS what my daughter is before putting a LABEL on her!!

• hotaka said on Jun 27, 2008....

  Jessi, that was a really interesting read and an excellent point was made about DNA differences. If for that purpose the schools want to know what race a child is from I can understand to a point.
  
  As for humans being animals I most certainly agree, though there are some things that distinguish us from the rest, the obvious being the ability to create culture, religion and technology for example. But we are still born from the same progression of evolution and just because we can think of more clever ways and reasons to hurt each other doesn't mean we are so far above other species. The bulk of human thought is not devoted to quantum physics or existentialism. We still think mostly of what to eat and when to engage in procreation activities. And as some people say, it is easier to get along with their pets than with other people.
  
  Tink, yes it seems they got all bases covered. Good thing there are no extraterrestrial kids at your school too.
  

• dyingman said on Feb 16, 2009....

  Ms. Birdsong,  (and any who doubt my premise)

   

  Observe the facets of the 1950 UNESCO statement:

   

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Race_Question#The_statement

   

  Race is not a sc\ientific concept.  It is anthropological.  Artifical.  Arbitrary.  Make-believe.  You may well be proud of it.  The two observations are not exclusive.

   

• one_wired_kitty said on Mar 11, 2009....

  If you wanna be technical ... I'm considered by racial because of the Native American in my family.

• mOOn_platOOn said on Mar 11, 2009....

  O

  The practical use of the term only applies visually, in social situations. Everyone, arguably, has "mixed blood" if we look far enough back. Evenly mixed quantities of distinctly "visual" races like black and white or Asian and Native American are what is commonly thought of as "biracial." As far as I'm concerned, the only reason to use such terminology at all is to combat the remnants of racism head-on. Obama, for example, is biracial, or as I prefer, "mixed race." Yet honky and nigga alike keep calling him "America's first black President." The Man  and The Hood want him black. Keep him black, it's still a distinction. Otherwise we have to admit...we're all the same after all.

  O

• ampbox said on Mar 16, 2009....

  wow, thank god my biracial combination is accepted here.
  i've always liked exotic mix race and even wishes to find a
  partner like one. hope no extreme conflicts for me,
  when that happens!

• Taffy000 said on Sep 17, 2009....

  I always smile when I think of my father's family.  He's got a sister who's as lily white as the driven snow but she's "Black."  I laugh when I remember conversations my father had at the nursing home with new aids.  I could hear him through the door saying "I'm Black."  I'm not sure why that conversation would come up. 

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