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Students May Get Multiracial Option
'Choose
one race over the other, or check the 'other' box'.
A controversial new proposal from the federal government may
allow students to officially be recognised as 'multiracial'.
After almost nine years of study and planning the U.S. Department of
education has issued draft guidance calling for colleges to revamp the
way they collect and report data on student ethnicity, allowing students
to choose multiple racial categories.
Many students feel that the present system ignores the presence of mixed-race
individuals and that by forcing them to tick only one racial box they
are being denied the right to acknowledge all of their racial identity.
Proof that there was need for a change was shown when more than 6.8 million
respondents picking more than one racial category in the 2000 U.S. Census,
according to census statistics.
Though the idea of including a physical 'multiracial' check box drew
heavy criticism when proposed in 2004, some UC officials say they support
allowing students to check multiple racial categories.
'I think the idea of accurately representing one's racial heritage and
identity strikes me as a good idea,' said P. David Pearson, dean of the
Graduate School of Education. 'Having students identify with a multiracial
box would be more accurate in representing our students' races.'
But Yvette Felarca, director of the local chapter of civil rights group
By Any Means Necessary, said the new proposal sounded constructive.
'We support students being able to self-identify with their race as long as it's specific and it can make campuses accountable for the demographic makeup of their student body,' Felarca said.
UC Berkeley senior Jennifer Chen, who is Chinese and white, welcomed the proposed change. 'I choose not to answer the ethnicity question at all, because it's either choose one race over the other, or check the 'other' box, but this actually acknowledges that I'm mixed.'
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