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White American? Or Asian American?

R S Shankar

For nearly two decades the Mirandas have lived together, they had no problem filling the census forms. But this year the members of the family -- rather, the children -- are having a hot discussion: Are they going to call themselves Asian Americans or are they also going to call themselves Americans when they fill the form?

Their father is an Indian Christian while their mother is a second-generation Irish American. If the children are going to check more than one box, they won't be counted as Indians.

For the first time, the census forms have given in to many years of pressure from interracial couples with children and from adults who thought that having to choose a single racial label failed to identify them accurately. Census forms have just begun arriving in millions of homes.

But many immigrant advocacy groups are pleading with minorities to choose only one box. They say filling in the multiracial box will go against the minorities. For instance if someone is voted in black and white boxes, s/he will be placed in a separate multiracial category.

"The country is turning a corner in terms of how it's going to deal with itself along racial categories, and the Census Bureau is simply a reflection of that," Kenneth Prewitt, head of Census 2000, said. "The people who have that as their experience don't want to be ignored."

"We use the numbers to let the policy makers know that we have enough clout," says activist Tito Sinha.

Leaders for Asian Americans and African Americans are among those who ask the products of mixed marriages to fill in only one box -- Asian and African American respectively.

Racial numbers are used to study the gap in income, wealth, educational achievements and prosperity between whites and non-whites.

The numbers are also used to study job discrimination, affirmative action and equal access to bank facilities, including credit, mortgages and insurance.

Community activists give vivid examples of how things could change if multiracial box is filled.

African Americans constitute about 12 per cent of the US population but if more than one box is checked in, the new census figures show there are just about eight million African Americans.

Many Asian American organizations are distributing a video in areas with high Asian populations, including Flushing and Jackson Heights in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles, requesting people to be counted and to check only one box.

But the Washington Post quoted leaders of advocacy groups for people of more than one race, though, say that checking only one box would erase their identity. They say that more accurate census statistics will help track discrimination against people of mixed-race and assess their status in society.

Census Bureau officials believe one to two per cent of Americans will be recorded in more than one race category on the 2000 Census form. In numbers, it translates to something like 5.3 million people.

Meanwhile, Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt says the US is the first country in history "which is going to have to reinvent itself as a microcosm of the entire world".

The Census Bureau already has forecast that the number of foreign-born people will more than double between now and 2050, from 26 million to 53.8 million.

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