Hello,
I'm interested in people's opinions on the new option to declare oneself of mixed race in the US census. This has been of personal interest for a long time, because my father's second marriage was to an African American woman and I have half-sisters who don't really identify fully as either black or white. But more recently I've learned that my own whiteness has an asterisk, since I descend from four families who were classified as "free mulatto" in colonial records but white thereafter.
It's probably better for American society as a whole if the "white" proportion shrinks, so in light of my new genealogical information I intend to claim mixed racial heritage in 2010. But I understand that this new designation had some resistance from African Americans who saw it as threatening, perhaps because it would shrink the number who call themselves A-A. I will do my part to counter that by leaving the "white" population, but understand the demographic-political objection.
What's your opinion?
This article contains a summary of the arguments pro and con:
http://interracialvoice.com/zack.htmlCYD