In week 6, New Frontiers in Mixed Race Studies, I read “The Current State of Multiracial Discourse” by Molly Littlewood McKibbin. The peer reviewed article was about the language of multiculturalism and how multicultural discourse is being developed in the present day. Mckibbin emphatically describes the confusion within multicultural people as politicians and scholars try to find a way to actually describe becoming multiracial. This confusion lead to many theories like how race in genetic and ethnicity is a choice or the argument of becoming multiethinc is not a special condition. This made this discourse confusing as it would disingenuous for people like Barack Obama and Tiger Woods. They are associated on becoming African American but they are at the core multiethinc. In fact it was so confusing that it was made for debate on the census. Mckibbin cites that "During the census debates of the 1990s, Republicans (most notably Newt Gingrich) supported multiracial category because it would mean that social support as well as legal protection for non-white groups could be suspended in a “color-blind” society." Congress and scholars are trying to make becoming multiethinc as a special condition. The truth is that we are all multiethnic. It really doesn't matter what ethnicity you are because that is your story. In the realm of politics and academia, race and ethnicity can be confusing at first but unifying once we know that we have different stories to tell. It sould be about whiteness or even blackness but it should help tell a person their story of themselves. Ethnicity is just an origin story and becoming multiethnic just makes that story even better.
For this reading, I was wondering about the multiethnic box. Did congress modify this style? Was it ever put on the census in 1990?
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