The New York Times Magazine published an interesting cover story about Florida in its April 21st issue. Writer Michael Paterniti delved into racial and ethnic statistics in the state and how they compare with national numbers. This is what he wrote:

"Furthermore, the state offers a close reflection of the nation's ethnic breakdown. Where 75 percent of Americans today are white, in Florida 78 percent are white. Where nearly 13 percent are Hispanic, in Florida 17 percent are. And where 12 percent are black, in Florida more than 14 percent are. (The United States census numbers here include persons representing themselves as multiple races.)"

The good news is that Paterniti even mentioned that the figures include multiracial people. But the bad news is that the multiracial numbers were aggregated back into the white, black, and Hispanic numbers, as the government loves to do. As Project RACE representatives warned in 1997, that is the exact reason (and the harm) in multiple check-offs instead of a true multiracial category.

Actually, we know that the number of persons who checked off two or more races in the 2000 census was 2.4 percent nationally. We also know that ironically, 2.4 percent of Floridians chose to check off two or more races. That's the kind of information that would have been more useful and interesting than to have the single categories inflated somehow by the multiracial numbers. Even more important, it would have been more accurate.

Susan Graham
Executive Director
Project RACE, Inc.