Report: U.S. multiracial population growing

     As of 2013, 9 million Americans chose two or more categories when asked about race by the U.S. Census Bureau, notes a Pew Research Center report released June 11. Like President Barack Obama, the child of an African father and white mother, more and more Americans identify as multiracial. And 60 percent of multiracial adults are proud of their mixed-race background, the center found.
     In 2000, the Census Bureau allowed people to choose more than one racial category, the report points out. The multiracial population has grown since then: The number of biracial Americans who are white and black more than doubled between 2000 and 2010. The number of white and Asian-Americans has increased by 87 percent, the report noted.  
     But the center also said that generalizations about multiracial adults don’t work. Here are five findings from the Pew report, Multiracial in America: Proud, Diverse and Growing in Numbers.

• The percentage of multiracial babies has increased from 1 percent in 1970 to 10 percent in 2013.

• Census figures show 2.1 percent of the adult population is multiracial – but that’s probably too low. Pew estimates that 6.9 percent adult population is multiracial. “This estimate comprises 1.4 percent in the survey who chose two or more races for themselves, an additional 2.9 percent who chose one race for themselves but said that at least one of their parents was a different race or multiracial, and 2.6 percent who are counted as multiracial because at least one of their grandparents was a different race than them or their parents,” the Pew report says.

• Most multiracial adults – 55 percent – have been the target of racial slurs or jokes. The experience varied. Seven out of 10 adults who identified as black-American Indians have been subject to racial slurs or jokes, the report said. A similar percentage said they had received poor service in restaurants or other businesses, and 39 percent said they had been unfairly stopped by police.Among adults who identified as white-black, 61 percent had been subject to jokes or slurs, 57 percent had experienced poor service at restaurants and 41 percent had been unfairly stopped by police.

• Multiracial Americans are politically diverse. Those with African-American background favor the Democratic Party, Pew reports. White and Asian adults also favor the Democratic Party. But biracial Americans who identify as white and American Indian reflect political attitudes that parallel white Americans – and favor the Republican Party.

• Is it an advantage to be mixed race? Actually, about 76 percent say it makes no difference, 19 percent say it has been an advantage, and 4 percent say it is a disadvantage.

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