Colin Powell is not black. Nor is Halle Berry. Tiger Woods, with an Asian mother and mixed-race African American father, isn't black either.
At least, this is the reductionist assumption underlying Proposition 54, the so-called Racial Privacy Initiative, on the Oct. 7 ballot. The initiative would prohibit any government agency in California from collecting data on race, ethnicity, color or national origin.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday September 09, 2003 Home Edition California Part B Page 13 Editorial Pages Desk 1 inches; 35 words Type of Material: Correction
Proposition 54 -- A Sept. 1 commentary incorrectly stated that Proposition 54 prohibits "any government agency in California" from collecting racial and ethnic data. There would be exceptions for some medical and law enforcement reports.
Supporters argue that, among other things, there's no longer a rationale for collecting racial data because the number of mixed-race citizens is growing. They claim that "a remarkable blurring of racial lines" has rendered the concept of race meaningless. And they say that by asking Californians about their race, the government "sanctions racial classifications," forcing an increasingly multiracial populace into traditional categories of "hyphenated Americans." Yet neither race nor its effects will be dissipated by a ballot measure that seduces with a simple message of a "colorblind society."
Race-mixing has undeniably changed the racial landscape. Web sites like www.mixedfolks.com allow people of mixed heritage to post photos and share their stories while reading about neither-black-nor-white entertainers like Mariah Carey and Vin Diesel. Many Latinos hail from complicated mixtures of African American, Native American and white ancestries. The simple dichotomy of black and white no longer captures the entire story of race in America.
But despite race-mixing, fixed notions of race persist, and strongly. In some cases people of mixed race freely choose to identify themselves with their minority group heritage. In others, lingering social prejudices choose for them.
Halle Berry has said that, as a child, schoolmates would taunt her about her mixed heritage, asking, "Why is your mommy white and you're not?" Yet in 2002, she accepted the Oscar for best actress with obvious joy at being the first African American woman so honored, her white mother applauding in the audience. In her acceptance speech, she thanked other black actresses and said, "This moment is so much bigger than me."
Berry's chosen identity differs from that of Woods. Some African Americans disagreed when Woods described himself as "cablinasian," a word he constructed to reflect his Caucasian, black, Native American and Asian heritage. He dismissed critics by saying, "I don't want to be the best black player or the best Asian player. I want to be the best golfer ever."
