Things are heating up again for the multiracial community. Racial and ethnic data are due out any day from the Census Bureau. In his last days in office, President Clinton cemented the one-drop rule by sanctioning the reallocation of the multiracial population by the Office of Management and Budget for the Census 2000 figures. Then he allowed the Department of Justice to jump in and authorize those bogus figures for purposes of civil rights actions. Those political moves were as suspect as...well...as a Presidential pardon.

Were these moves made public? Sort of, if you read the Federal Register daily. Even then, they were hidden amid legalese and governmentese. Even a bad activist would know to watch for such things and where to find them.

But where have all the activists gone?

Some of them gave up. Some of them gave up and still have "activist" in their names. Some of them gave up, but somehow consider themselves a "voice" of the multiracial community. Some of them gave up and are planning cute sounding conferences instead of doing something for the children. Some of them never really were in this battle, and are merely selling subscriptions and t-shirts on Web sites. Some of them are still "bridging the divides" with groups like the NAACP who came out completely against us with the help of those "activists."

Others have become groupies of Ward Connerly, the California guy who wants to do away with racial preferences under the misnomer "American Civil Rights Institute." Ward was wooing the multiracial community when his book came out. Coincidence? I think not. Now that the book tour is over, Ward has suddenly forgotten about the multiracial community. The latest addition of his newsletter, The Egalitarian doesn't even use the term "multiracial" and in fact, it has this quote in it:

"No wonder Al Gore thinks he is president-this is a most confusing time. The leading rap singer is white, the world's best golfer is black, and Bill Clinton just got back from Vietnam."

Paul Harvey

Sorry, Paul and Ward, but the world's best golfer is multiracial, not black. Bet you just forgot that.

Project RACE still believes that as long as our government is going to count by race, multiracial children and adults should be counted and tabulated accurately. Project RACE still monitors federal agencies and will continue to take action for our community. Project RACE is still actively pursuing legal remedies. Project RACE is still talking with people in Washington who can make a difference for our children. We just won't go away. Thank you, Project RACE members.

Susan Graham