Aren’t We All Multiracial?

William Frey, an oft quoted demographer with the Brookings Institution, recently commented on the skyrocketing growth among Asians and Latinos in the U.S. “This was a pivot decade (2000-2010). We’re pivoting from a white/black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural.” According to the 2010 Census, about 3% or 9 million people say they are multiracial, a small but substantial increase from 2000.
Whether this represents growth in the multiracial population or an increase in people’s comfort-level when it comes to identifying with more than one race, the response of people to this question merits attention and analysis. Why do so few people see themselves as multiracial, when it has been convincingly argued that all of us are a mixture of races? It just depends on how far back we want to go in our family tree.
Racial purity is in our minds, it’s not in our genes. And this is not a surprise in light of our history.
Given the power and prestige of the Office of the President of the U.S., it would have been interesting had Barack Obama stated that he was multiracial rather than African American. Would this have encouraged even more people to identify as multiracial in the last Census? Or perhaps Barack Obama’s “multiracial classification” would have cost him the election. Maybe he would have been criticized for not being “multicultural enough.”
Lastly, some diversity publications have made the argument that Barack Obama was not our first Black President. Neither was he our first multiracial President.