As Mixed-Black folks endlessly debate which identifiers to use and boxes to check, the GOP is fighting all the way to the Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act and reshape congressional voting districts based on a narrowing definition of Blackness, starting in Alabama and Louisiana.
According to NPR, “a broad definition of Black” has been used in “voting rights cases focused on Black voters … Since a 2003 ruling by the Supreme Court, that definition of ‘Black’ has included every person who identifies as Black on census forms — including people who check off the boxes for Black and any other racial or ethnic category such as white, Asian and Hispanic or Latino, which the federal government considers to be an ethnicity that can be of any race.”
After the 2000 U.S. Census offered the “some other race” option to Mixed folks who wanted to acknowledge their full ancestry, the government had to figure out how to sort and apply this new category of racial data.
As the Census Bureau reports, “Based on that guidance, census responses from people who marked both the “Black” and “white” boxes should be counted with the Black population. And when focused on discrimination specifically against Black people, responses marking boxes for two or more minority races including ‘Black’ should also be counted as Black.”
‘…this current legal battle over Black identity in redistricting has nothing to do with people’s identity. It has to do with power and how different populations use exclusion or inclusion to promote the political power of a person or party.’
For years, I’ve cautioned Mixed folks to be informed and strategic about which identity boxes they check on census forms.
Why is that?
Because, as the Census Bureau states, “The data collected by the census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives (a process called apportionment) and is also used to adjust or redraw electoral districts based on where populations have increased or decreased. The results also inform decisions about allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding to communities across the country—for hospitals, fire departments, schools, roads, and other critical programs and services.”
If the SCOTUS votes to allow this narrow definition of Blackness for redistricting, it could work against the Voting Rights Act and prevent People of Color from determining who we want to vote for and participate in the political process. It limits our options. Dilutes our power. Restricts our rights.
We need to pay attention as Louisiana and Alabama Republican leaders seek to manipulate definitions of Blackness to advance their agenda. Regardless of how we identify on forms or otherwise, there are ALWAYS political ramifications to consider.
Wendy Gaudin, a Xavier University of Louisiana historian who researches on race and racial mixture, told NPR that the “blood math” to define “racially ambiguous” people as Black was done to preserve white wealth and political power. She adds that definitions of Blackness have shifted in Louisiana due to its “Indigenous history, its pasts as a French and Spanish colony and ties to the circum-Caribbean region.”
Gaudin said this current legal battle over Black identity in redistricting “has nothing to do with people’s identity. It has to do with power and how different populations” use exclusion or inclusion “to promote the political power of a person or party.”
‘Identity is not a mutually exclusive zero-sum game.’
A Mixed Perspective
What do folks who have long advocated and worked hard for Multiracial designations and options say about this latest development?
I turned to a trusted organization, Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC), who recently released a statement articulating their position on this very matter. Note: I indicated essential points in bold, and upper-cased identity categories.
MASC's STATEMENT ON ARGUMENTS BEFORE FEDERAL COURT BY THE STATES OF ALABAMA AND LOUISIANA
October 23, 2022
Multiracial Americans absolutely rejects the cynical political argument by the States of Alabama and Louisiana to not accept Black people as Black if they identify with more than one race or Latino for the purposes of setting congressional district boundaries. Before the US Supreme Court and lower courts, the States of Alabama and Louisiana tried to argue that their congressional representative district maps were not discriminatory against Black people in part because Mixed-race Black people were not actually Black. To be specific, Louisiana officials called the current legal interpretation of Mixed-race Black people as being Black to be an "independent legal error warranting this Court's intervention,” as reported by National Public Radio.
We insist that the US Supreme Court and all lower courts respect US Supreme Court precedent and Office of Management and Budget guidelines that direct Mixed-race people to be counted among singular race reporting groups for the purposes of enforcing provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Failing to do so causes harm against Multiracial people on multiple dimensions.
The proposed policy by the States is based on the erroneous assumption that Multiracial people cease to be members of the communities from which they were birthed. Identity is not a mutually exclusive zero-sum game. Multiracial identity is certainly a valid form of identification, but Multiracial Americans has been advocating for decades the ability to simultaneously identify with multiple groups at the same time. In fact, it is generally considered more psychologically healthy to identify with all of one’s heritages.
Psychological damage may also occur when Multiracial people are questioned about their loyalties if identifying as Multiracial may result in harm to singular racial communities, especially People of Color. The irony is that it is not self-identification that determines discrimination. Studies, case law, and common sense establish that it is the perception of someone’s race by the perpetrator of discriminatory acts that determines what happens to people.
Finally, using Multiracial people as political pawns in this way can take us back in time as a nation to dark days when individuals had to quantify their identity in numerical terms. Black ancestry was used to deny people their rights under a policy colloquially known as the “one drop rule” assigning multiracial people to solely a Black identity. American Indians were treated in a similar but reverse methodology where minimal Indian ancestry could lead to the denial of benefits meant for Indians such as access to reservation land. Multiracial people have been the victims of wielders of privilege and control. The States of Alabama and Louisiana are seeking to perpetuate this awful tradition.
So, in light of all this, what are we supposed to do now?
First, we recognize that racial / ethnic identity in the USA is NEVER truly neutral or one-dimensional. Many people and institutions are deeply invested in our backgrounds and categories, which they sometimes create and manipulate to reach their various goals.
Next, as we Mixed folks consider, adopt, reject, and sometimes redefine various terminologies and identifiers, we MUST remember that our existence and our choices represent valuable political capital. And we need to work together to ensure that our mixedness and identity journeys aren’t weaponized to serve any aspect of white supremacy and anti-Blackness.
The boxes we do or don’t check often have consequences far beyond our desire to express our whole selves or honor our complex ancestries. We cannot let ourselves become pawns in this dangerous political maneuver.
Let’s recognize the value and power of our identities and resist ALL attempts to use them as political fodder to restrict or oppress anyone.
The votes — and lives — we save may be our own, and those of our families, friends, neighbors, and communities.
This is no time to be neutral, passive, or disengaged. There is simply too much at stake.
As our Mixed-Black Ancestor, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass taught us way back in 1857:
We must DEMAND our rights to identify our truths AND protect the voting rights that give us a fighting chance at a more equitable country. The struggle continues. And each of us has a vital role to play.
Thanks for clarifying.