Transcriber: Ngọc Tuyền Reviewer: Emma Gon
When I was in first grade, I remember learning my colors.
We started by learning about the primary colors:
red, yellow and blue.
Our teacher taught us how they were the pure colors of the rainbow.
No two colors could be combined to create them.
Our next task was to mix them into something more complex.
Green, purple and orange.
These secondary colours, especially green, stood out to me.
I was fascinated by how two primary colors could be mixed together
to create something nuanced and completely unique.
When our teacher told us
that our next task was to draw a picture of our family, I couldn’t wait.
I started by drawing my stick figure mom, dad and brother,
but then filled in the white space with something else.
I’d used the washable paints
I had mix just a few minutes ago to create the colors of my family.
I colored my mom yellow, my dad blue, and my brother and I, green.
Every time someone asks about my background,
I'm reminded of that art class.
My mom is 100% Ashkenazi, Russian, Jewish,
and my dad is 50% Korean and 50% Belgian.
So what does that make me?
How should I describe myself?
Where do I fit in among the color spectrum
we were all taught in first grade?
By definition, race is a categorization of humans
based on physical and social qualities.
The term was first used to refer to speakers
of a common language or to denote national affiliation.
But by the 17th century, the term referred to physical traits.
So am I white or am I Asian?
The question of race has followed me around for as long as I can remember.
Ever since I started taking standardized tests
or filling out online surveys,
I’ve been asked to select my race.
And every time I take a pause to think about which box I should choose.
I'm white and Asian, but I'm not allowed to click both. So which do I pick?
Well, when I was younger, I would always choose white.
I simply concealed a portion of my identity to make my life easier.
Instead of having to think about what other meant on those surveys,
I would compress my identity into one single box.
It was quick and easy fix.
But as I got older, I realized
that other better reflect my multiracial background.
But that choice of other comes with a cost.
Even though I’m surrounded by loving and understanding people,
every time I go to check that box,
I'm forced to think of myself as other
or someone who doesn’t exactly fit in
like I’m some sort of anomaly or evidence of something strange.
I don’t want the world to see me as other
or the giving box on the surveys.
I know there’s so much more to me,
but clearly society doesn’t see it that way.
They want a simplified view of who each of us are.
But these days, are any of us that simple?
One of my best friend says it perfectly.
People are like an entire rainbow
and shouldn’t be defined by just one of the colors.
The one box rule from test to surveys
has confused multiracial people
since the beginning of the U.S. Census.
For the longest time in America,
you could only select one box from being asked about your race.
The Census Bureau didn’t start to allow
choosing more than one box until the year 2000.
2000, that was only 22 years ago.
Every multiracial person living in America before the year 2000
had to, at some point, fill a form
stating that they identify as one singular race:
white, black, Asian, Indigenous Pacific Islander.
For everyone in that situation, you probably chose one of those
reducing your racial makeup into one box,
or you chose other like me
because you’re in the secondary color of the rainbow.
So what does other mean?
The definition is literally someone
who is different than one already known about.
But these people who choose other aren't different.
We're comparing apples to oranges.
10% of the American population is multiracial,
which measures out to about 33.8 million people.
Within that number, there are so many combinations of cultures and races,
yet we’re all forced to fit into one box.
Not only is a multiracial person’s experience
different from those who are of one race,
but that experience also varies from person to person.
There’s a wide spectrum forcibly contained into one small square,
an effect that minimizes the racial experience.
Look what just happened.
The same color, five different ways.
Categorizing all multiracial people as other is just like saying
that Navy and Periwinkle are the same shade of blue.
And that number in America is rapidly growing each year.
In the last ten years, there’s a 276% increase
of multiracial identifying individuals.
And it’s estimated that by 2050 that number will grow by four times.
At some point in the future, there will be more people
choosing other than the handful of giving boxes on those surveys.
Though this ever expanding rainbow is a beautiful thing,
having all of those people have to categorize themselves
as other in society is not.
That’s why I introduce a new idea of racial categorization
in the form of an open ended question.
It would recognize a spectrum that’s lacking in our world today.
One study done by scientist Alicia Chen and others
showed that an open ended question provided an experience
once deprived when being asked about race with only a few options.
An open ended question would give people an opportunity
to express pride in their multiracial backgrounds.
As our world continues to racially intertwine,
we will reach a point where it will become impossible
to categorize people by a handful of outdated and pre-determined boxes.
Even now, we're seeing a declining population of reds, yellows and blues,
and an increasing community of oranges, purples and greens.
As such, we can no longer expect people to define
who they are by simply checking a primary colour.
Although race is a social construct built on
a structure of assumptions and stereotypes,
we cannot simply get rid of race altogether.
However, the simplicity and ease of an open ended question
could truly lead our society into a more inclusive
and accepting world that acknowledges the spectrum of racial identities.
A world where all the shades of greens, purples and oranges
are justas recognised as the reds, yellows and blues.
Thank you.