In the previous post’s comments, MARCH asks:
How do you fill-out the “etnicity/race” part of paperwork (like school stuff, passports and all that)…you fill-out for M? How will that affect M’s identity??
I think this is a good question. Every time I have to fill out that kind of paperwork, I select both Asian and Caucasian. Even if it says select just one, I ignore it, select both of them and figure that the beaurocrat that has to do the data entry can figure out what to do with their stupid forms. If there is a “multiracial” option, I select that and pick Asian and Caucasian.
As far as Mr. A and I are concerned, M will never have to pick just one or the other race. She is both. Selecting just one would be denying half of her heritage, so we pick both. When she gets older, I hope she will be comfortable selecting both Asian and Caucasian, but it will be up to her. She may go through a period of time when she identifies more as one or the other, but that is part of developing her own identity. For the new baby, I will select Asian only.
MARY asks:
What will M be for Halloween?
We really thought we would either be traveling or getting ready to travel this Halloween, so we picked the easiest costume ever: Dora the Explorer. M’s haircut already makes her look a little Dora-like and we bought her a Dora Backpack. It is totally a cop out costume, but she is happy about it. If she changes her mind, we also have a Snow White dress left from this debacle.
I’ve worn my BlackLava “Check Other” shirt into threadbare-itude, I guess I should buy another.
BTW, I’m sure you’ve read this before, and I’ve linked to in around the blogosphere, but here’s Dr. Maria Root’s Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed People again:
http://www.drmariaroot.com/doc/BillOfRights.pdf
Regarding the race question, I encountered this while doing paperwork for my son’s birth certificate. However, it wasn’t multiple choice and provided a BLANK instead. In the end, I put “human”.
I tried checking both, but the obnoxious lady that was receiving the paperwork was annoyingly insisting on my picking just one…
I just wish we could eliminate the so-called need to identify people by races/etnicity….
my daughter will be a clown sans make-up, a friend made the outfit and I just got her an oversized hat… the make-up I find creepy (I’ve always felt weird about clowns…) but its not an issue with her, she loves the hat and the outfit…
Dora is a good option, her being happy with it is what matters…
I always check both too, for exactly the same reason.
I don’t know what official gov’t agencies do, but I spent a summer checking surveys for a market research company. When people gave non-standard answers, we were instructed to put ‘None/Refuse to answer.” I used to have fun fucking with them and changing them to Caucasion…or Black…or Asian…pretty randomly.
I hated that job.
Like the website, though!
The paperwork should never influence the identity, it should be the other way around. Amazing that with as many multi-racial and multi-ethnic people in this country that this even needs to be discussed.
I wonder how the school systems deal with the multiple answers though – and don’t like what I think may happen, which is that they choose the one they think will benefit them most financially.
My husband and kids are Arab, and in the U.S. they’re supposed to check “white” even though other people don’t see them that way and my husband in particular (an immigrant) does not feel at all white. The categories have not kept up with the times, and there should always be a category for “multi-racial” or “other” or “fill-in-the-blank,” or people should be able to check as many as they want. What can be the purpose of requiring people to choose a category that they don’t feel they belong in? I like the way Margie, above, said that “the paperwork should never influence the identity, it should be the other way around.” It isn’t right to force someone to choose a category that makes them disappear.
Yup – we always check both for the hapa boys and Asian only for Jayden. And white only for me and Asian only for Jeff. AND we refuse to select a “head of household” That 50′s relic question I HATE.
DS-L
Yup I wonder that too. I am just figuring out that being one quarter Cuban might make Hispanic the first choice, then Black; but I am not sure I have that right. Clueless over here.
There’s an interesting exhibit going on here in L.A. at the Japanese American National Museum, that touches on this issue, called “Part Asian, 100% Hapa.”
Here’s the link: http://www.janm.org/exhibits/kipfulbeck/
Funny about M’s costume. Leah was Dora two years ago (she had a little bob cut at the time). I bought her the backpack and she was ready to go! Cheapest costume ever.