A few days ago The New York Times published an article, Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race. Who are the multiracials? Because of the history of black-white relations in the United States, and Barack Obama’s own background, the term is often framed so that that dimension is front & center. But what do the numbers say? Census 2000 found that 2.4% of Americans selected more than one race; i.e., they identified as multiracial. The breakdowns were:
| Rank | Multiple Race Selection | % of Total Pop. | % of Multiracials |
| 1. | White × Some Other Race | 0.78% | 32.32% |
| 2. | White × American Indian | 0.38% | 15.86% |
| 3. | White × Asian | 0.31% | 12.72% |
| 4. | White × Black | 0.28% | 11.50% |
| 5. | Black × Some Other Race | 0.15% | 6.11% |
| 6. | Asian × Some Other Race | 0.09% | 3.65% |
| 7. | Black × American Indian | 0.06% | 2.67% |
| 8. | Asian × Hawaiian or Pac. Islander | 0.05% | 2.03% |
| 9. | White × Hawaiian or Pac. Islander | 0.04% | 1.65% |
| 10. | White × Black × American Indian | 0.04% | 1.64% |
“Some Other Race” usually means Hispanic or Latino (nearly half of Hispanics or Latinos identify as white, but 2/5ths identify as Some Other Race). When it comes to how race is lived in America the fact that the major media is based out of the east coast has a distortionary affect on the discourse. Granted, The New York Times piece profiled a woman of mixed Chinese & white heritage, but she was predictably tacked on after the primary focus on the new biracial America.
P.S. Did you know that Herbert Hoover’s Vice President, Charles Curtis, was about 1/4th to 1/2th Native American (depending on which source you trust) and spent some of his youth on a reservation?
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