Project RACE participated in "Unity in the Community" recently in Tallahassee, Florida. We had an area where we could put out information about Project RACE. We shared the space with the Tallahassee Multicultural Support Group and a representative for foreign exchange students. "Skin tone" crayons had been donated by Hunt-Scanlon Publishing and Laura Kangas, Executive Director of the Institute for Corporate Diversity. We sincerely thank them both. Our children sat at a table, making faces with different skin tones on paper plates. A stick attached to the bottom made them into masks. We are a poor nonprofit with nothing to give away and only volunteers to help. All we can do is talk to people and let them know we can help them understand how multiracial people still face discrimination.

In contrast was the area just two spaces from us.

Bright red balls, pins, posters, cup holders, refrigerator magnets and rulers were being given out by the U. S. Census Bureau to get people to fill out their census forms. They have a 180 million dollar plus advertising budget. At most times, at least four government employees staffed the booth-most likely drawing overtime pay.

Diverse America is the theme of the Census 2000 Advertising Campaign. It is designed to reach all English-speaking media consumers. These targeted campaigns include messaging to the African American community, Spanish-speaking populations, Asian audiences (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Asian Indian, Hmong, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian), and emerging communities such as Arabic, Russian, Polish, Haitian, Jamaican, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Pan-African, and Pan-Caribbean.

In all their "diversity awareness" the Census Bureau has left out one group: the multiracial community. The U. S. Department of Commerce has established the following Census Advisory Committees: The African American Committee, the American Indian and Alaska Native Committee, the Asian and Pacific Islander Committee, and the Hispanic Committee. Gee, they left out the multiracial community again!

A representative of the Census Bureau wandered over to our display and we began to talk. I asked for her interpretation of how the "check two or more" responses would be tabulated. "They are still working on that, " was her answer. I asked how the enumerators will handle the race question and whether they will be allowed to check more than one race. She didn't know. I gave her my card and asked her to let me know when she finds out. I don't expect to hear from her again.

The term "multiracial" does not exist to the U. S. government. If they make the multiracial population numbers available, they will most likely be "the people who checked two or more boxes," or something similar. We are thought of as merely parts of the other communities, but those communities have always been against any form of counting multiracial people. Are they really going to go to bat for us? Never. Are they going to suddenly set up a Multiracial Advisory Committee? Not likely.

So, we have the Census Bureau handing out free merchandise, covering the news media with their hype and telling people that Census 2000 is "our future." Some leaders of the multiracial community have not been heard from since they rejected a multiracial classification with sub-identifiers and embraced the "check two or more" scheme. They claimed total victory and went home, leaving the mess of tabulation of data to others and remaining "friends" with the Washington bureaucrats. Some jumped on different bandwagons, and others sat back and became philosophers and pundits without doing any of the actual work. But our job is not done. It will take more of us than ever before, working harder to gain recognition for the multiracial community. Let me know if you're up to the challenge.

Susan Graham
Executive Director
Project RACE, Inc.