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Meet Michelle López-Mullins, a student of Peruvian, Chinese, Irish, Shawnee, and Cherokee descent. Under new Department of Education requirements that take effect this year, Ms. López-Mullins—who acknowledges partial Hispanic ethnicity—will, regardless of her rainbow-hued heritage, be reported to federal officials only as Hispanic. Multiracial students with no Latino blood will be labeled with the vague catchall “two or more races.” As the Times notes, these new designations for K-12 students will probably “increase the nationwide student population of Hispanics, and could erase some ‘black’ students who will now be counted as Hispanic or as multiracial.” This sort of racial classification, we are told, is necessary: It’s the only way the nation can judge how a certain race is doing academically, and whether or not its members are being “left behind.” But in a society where one in seven couplings are now interracial or interethnic, where these types of categorizations can whimsically change from year to year, maybe it is time to move away from outdated classifications and toward a post-racial society.
“Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers,” by Susan Saulny, New York Times, February 9, 2011.
“Take the Politics out of Race,” by Shelby Steele, New York Times Room for Debate, February 14, 2011.