LAST CHANCE TO TELL THE GOVERNMENT WHAT YOU WANT!

DEADLINE APRIL 27

 

In the 1990s, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) put out a notice asking for public comment on the changes to racial and ethnic reporting. They received over 600 letters from people like you who wanted to see some changes in Multiracial reporting. That was considered a very influential number of responses at the time.

Now the Census Bureau is asking for comments for the 2030 census. The more, the better! We each need to write letters to the Census Bureau. The deadline for letters is April 27, 2023, but the sooner, the better. The time has come for all the Multiracial activists and advocates to give our input to the Census Bureau.

You can write a personal story or as little as one sentence. Or if you’d like just send in our sample letter below or combine the two. They are looking for comments on every race and ethnicity, so feel free to write about any of the races. We are stakeholders and advocates and deserve to be heard.

If you are happy that we can just check two or more races, you are wrong. Yes, we got that ability in the 1990s, but the job is not done. If you are not worried that your child or grandchild will be called mulatto, mutt, or worse, you are in for a big surprise. We need the terminology of MULTIRACIAL on government and private forms in this country and we need to do it now. If you still wish to fight, you can comment to OMB this way:

To write to OMB, follow these directions:

  1. Go to Regulations.gov
  2. Search in the search bar for OMB-2023-0001
  3. Click on the “Comment” box, you can write as little as one sentence.
  4. Let OMB know that you want “Multiracial” to appear on the US Census and government forms.
  5. Deadline is APRIL 27, 2023.

 

SAMPLE COMMENT

It is my understanding that you are soliciting comments from the public regarding race and ethnicity on the 2030 census. I consider myself a stakeholder in the census and would like to see some necessary changes to the United States Census.

Although we now can choose two or more races, we still do not have a true Multiracial category. An answer along with the other races should be included, which is “Multiracial: Write in two or more races.” Words are important. Self-identification on the 2030 census was an improvement, but the Multiracial population is not always certain of the place they belong on the census.

The instructions should be changed to make them more understandable. Instead of this: Mark (X) one or more boxes AND print origins, they should read:

Mark (X) one or more boxes. Biracial and Multiracial people can mark (X) as many boxes as necessary AND print origins. Biracial and Multiracial people identify as two or more races.

This improvement would not disturb any comparisons to previous census numbers and would also lessen the number of people who just skip to “Some other race,” which has become a catchall category. It is extremely important to Biracial and Multiracial individuals that we clearly see the words Biracial and/or Multiracial being used. Thank you.