Ryan ChartrandImagine this: You are filling out a form. On this form, you are forced to choose one word. That word is your only form of identity.
Only one word, two if it’s a conjunction, to describe yourself for the government’s statistical data. What did you choose? Was it hobby-related? Was it religious? Was it ethnic?
How many times have you had to choose “other”?
If you’re confused, I’m talking about those little lists they give you to describe your ethnic background. Your choices are usually Caucasian, Hispanic, African, Asian and so on. And then there’s “other.”
“Other” generally implies that you don’t fit into whatever ethnicities are mentioned, or that you have more than one ethnicity. Sometimes it’s listed as “mixed.” You’re of mixed blood; mulatto is the more derogatory term for it. Not much better than “other,” I feel.
Is it just me or does “other” have some kind of bad stigma attached to it? Interracial marriage used to be frowned upon, I know, but does this taboo still persist?
Today, no one is limited to just one identity. Our identities come from everywhere. Hobbies, personalities, where we live or have lived, who we were born to, etc. These days it’s no surprise that our individual racial identities are becoming multi-racial identities at the speed of light.
I have the unique pleasure of being of Jewish and Peruvian descent at the same time. Two separate identities from two separate parents, each with a different cultural meaning. Both a part of one person.
I am Latina and Caucasian. I have a history with both. One side of my family are Holocaust survivors and the other literally conquered Peru more than 500 years ago. I may be the whitest Latina I know, but I can’t just pick out one without feeling like I should have put down the other one too.
What I’d like to know is why am I and countless others limited to only one? My friends who are Mexican, Italian and Jewish or Korean and French, why do we have to choose one or the “other” when both are equally strong to us? We embrace all our ethnic parts and pride ourselves on being in those cultures.
It’s not my idea to somehow slight those who fit neatly into one category or to suddenly include every type of ethnicity known to man, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to choose more than one? Why can’t there be a “check all that apply” option?
Of course, as soon as these words come out of my mouth, some people will try to brush off a “check all that apply” option off reasoning that you can’t do that because it would create 3/5 of a person or some other kind of fraction. My answer to that is, not if all the other 2/5 are counted too. And imagine what kind of data we would have! It would be child’s play to count how many people are multi-racial and we’d have a much better idea of how American diversity works.
Some could say that it would be too big of a hassle or that it would take up too much taxpayer money or something silly like that, but honestly, the U.S. probably just spent about a billion just to push daylight savings time earlier by three weeks, not to mention how badly we’re in debt from the war. Politics aside, it doesn’t seem like our government wouldn’t be willing to change this.
It comes down to this: It’s time we stopped our European colonial period thinking. It’s not just those of European descent and those who are not anymore. Those of mixed blood are not looked down upon like second-class citizens, nor should they be forced to choose one side so they can fit in the world’s sheep pens.
America, I don’t want to be an “other” anymore. Comprende?
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber is a journalism sophomore and Mustang Daily staff writer.