for years jorge delpinals job as assistant chief of the census bureaus
population division was to fit people into neat distinct racial and ethnic
boxes white black hispanic asian or native american as the son of an
anglo mother and a hispanic father however he knew all along that the task
was not always possible
for the 2000 decennial census that will no longer be the case for the first
time the census forms will allow people to check of as many races as apply
as a result the census bureau should obtain a better picture of the extent of
intermarriage in the united states in the absence of such a direct method
a few years ago veteran demographer barry edmonston used sophisticated
mathematical modeling techniques to calculate how intermarriage is changing the
face of the united states as part of an immigration study he directed for the
national research council of the american academy of sciences his research was
summarized in a report entitled the new americans economic demographic and
fiscal effects of immigration but as the canadianborn white husband of
sociologist sharon lee a chineseamerican edmonston really needed no computer
to understand the transformation under way in this society he and his family
are living breathing participants the face of america is changing literally
as president clinton has said within 30 or 40 years when there will be
no single race in the majority in the united states but afoot behind the scenes
is another trend that if handled carefully could bring the country closer
together rather than drive it apart this quiet demographic counterrevolution
is a dramatic upsurge in intermarriage edmonstons study projected that by 2050
21 percent of the us population will be of mixed racial or ethnic ancestry up
from an estimate of seven percent today among thirdgeneration hispanic and asian
Americans exogamymarriage outside ones ethnic group or tribeis at least
50 percent he and others estimate exogamy remains much less prevalent among
african americans but it has increased enormously from about 15 percent in
the 1960s to eight to 10 percent today such a profound demographic shift
could take place while no one was watching because officially no one was
watching federal agencies traditionally collected racial data using a formula
one person one race similar to the timehonored voting principle thus the
census bureau could estimate that on census forms no more than two percent of
the population would claim to be multiracial in the absence of a more
straightforward count no one could know for sure what the demographics are