The Study of Racialism

chasbyrd · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 389 } Location: NYC

This article suggests that there exists a multiracial Census category, and, of course, that is a lie. Additionally, check-all-that-apply furthers one-drop racism, so what is Susan Graham so proud of?

Project RACE aims to educate

By Aetna Smith

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

When Ryan Graham applied to the University of Florida, he remembers marking his race as both white and black on his application. He later changed his race to "black" with school offices to be eligible for certain minority scholarships.

Graham, 20, understands that some people might say you can't have it both ways.

"This is not exactly something I chose - to be multiracial," said Graham, a Chiles High School graduate. "But you play the cards in your favor. I'm using scholarship money to get an education."

Graham's mother is Susan Graham, a white freelance writer, who married a black TV journalist in 1981. They live in Tallahassee with younger daughter Megan. Unlike some multiracial children - who tire of the constant questions and stares - Susan says her children are well-adjusted and happy.

But in 1990, she was unhappy about the U.S. Census' refusal to add a multiracial category. Speaking with census workers, she was told her children should be counted as "white" because she is white. Upset about the arbitrary determination, she started Project RACE (Reclassify All Children Equally).

The census, she said, was forced to add the category after her organization lobbied for 10 years to convince officials that multiracial people are a big population and that "people should be able to embrace all of their heritage."

Doing that has been an issue for Ryan most of his life. Years before his college experiences with race, he had to make racial choices in elementary school. He recalled feeling alienated before taking a standardized exam.

"Having to choose one race or the other is more like having to choose one of your parents over the other," he said. "Other children didn't have to choose."

He testified before Congress at the ages of 8 and 12. He and his sister addressed the issue again last year on John Walsh's talk show. Ryan now is the president of Teen Project RACE, the more youthful arm of the organization. At UF, where he's studying broadcast journalism, he's also a member of a biracial and multiracial student group.

Ryan, who says he "looks like Tiger Woods, only 2 inches shorter," is constantly asked to describe his heritage. "People will ask, 'Are you mixed?'"

One of Project RACE's goals is educating people about using the term multiracial instead of "mixed race."

"If you're not mixed, then are you pure?" Susan Graham asks. "So then you get into the idea of purity. ... I don't think people want to go there."

When curious strangers ask Ryan about his racial makeup, he doesn't get exasperated. "With my position with Project RACE, it's my duty to tell people how I feel and about the correct way to say multiracial," he said, "because a lot of people just don't know."

Besides educating the public on multiracial terminology, Project RACE also hopes to persuade businesses such as the College Board, which owns the SAT exam, and officials such as Florida's election supervisors to include the categories on their forms. But Susan Graham says that an especially dire need is for changes to medical forms.

"When a (hospital) asks for race, it needs to know what the makeup of the race is," she said. "Multiracial children who need bone-marrow transplants are dying" because the pool of multiracial donors isn't large enough.

She said her organization is working with Northwestern University's medical school to create a medical form with multiracial distinctions.

Project RACE and Teen Project RACE now report members in 46 states and six continents. Members promote their causes by speaking to groups as diverse as Boy Scouts and medical professionals. Education not only informs the public, it also gives multiracial people a sense of belonging, Susan Graham said.

And with the proliferation of famous people like Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter and Mariah Carey identifying as multiracial, she said, "it's becoming much cooler than it ever was."

Contact reporter Aetna Smith at (850) 599-2382 or arsmith@tallahassee.com.

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2462 }

"Graham, 20, understands that some people might say you can't have it both ways."

Hispanics CAN have it "both ways." You can be "white" and "minority" at the same time - IF you're "Hispanic."