Which Box to Check? Categorizing Multiracial America Is Getting Complicated
If you’ve only lived in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, or another major American city, it can be easy to think the whole country is a peaceful mélange of people of all races and backgrounds. Of course, this isn’t the reality. In many of our major cities, homogenous communities proudly thrive alongside pockets of diversity. The fabled ethnic and racial melting pot has long been engrained in the American identity, but so has our obsession with putting people into easy-to-digest categories.
Enter the Pew Research Center, which on Thursday delivered a voluminous report on America’s multiracial people. This group—if we can call it that—is growing three times as fast as the population as a whole. More than 9 million Americans chose two or more racial categories when asked about their race for the 2013 census. ...
Posts
