Kelly Anderson Wright

The census asks each of us to check a box called “race,” perpetuating the notion that we’re a nation of hyphenated people different from each other. Yet the very definition of race is “a family, tribe, people or nation… unified by shared interests.” So why aren’t we members of the “American race?”

Why does the government insist on separating us?

I was born in Oakland, a fourth-generation native Californian. My sons were born in Reno and Las Vegas; they are native Nevadans. We three were born in America, so we are native Americans, aren’t we?

The census has a box for American Indians, African Americans, Native Hawaiians and Alaska natives, but no box for native Americans, the people born here and proud of it.

With no “American” box, my race choice on the census is limited to one, “White.” My great grandmother immigrated to America from a small town in northern Italy, and my skin color is light, yes, but I don’t think of myself as a “White,” and I certainly wouldn’t say, “I’m a member of the White race,” ever.

My sons sport natural tans, two shots of espresso with a dash of cream. A Census worker would call my sons “Black,” but they are blessed with an inherited mixture of many ethnicities, including African, Mexican and Italian, but mostly, American. My oldest son sometimes calls himself a “Blaxican,” to remind a few narrow-minded Latinos at his high school that he shares their ancestry, despite the color of his skin and the kink of his hair.

Why must my sons and I label ourselves “black” or “white?” And if we must pick a color, why not “red, white and blue?” We were born in America, and America is the culture we’ve known since our birth. Yes, my sons and I can claim a variety of cultures, inherited from ancestors long gone, but why are the nationalities of dead people more important than our own nationalities at birth? My sons are fourth-generation Americans. We are proud of that fact.

So what race box should we check? According to our federal government,

The Census Bureau collects race data … based on self-identification. The racial categories included in the census form generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country, and are not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically or genetically…. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian and White.” People who identify their origin (emphasis added) as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish may be of any race…. You may choose more than one race category.

We could check every race box for every ancestor then, if we wanted to. I don’t want to. I just want a box that says, “American.” To use the government’s words above, I “identify my origin” as America.

America is a melting pot… isn’t it time we melted?

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