Race Remixed: Shades of Grey Shining Like the Colors of the Rainbow

The Multiracial Influence

Being multiracial shouldn’t become a factor that prevents you from reaching your goal. This list of multiracial celebrities should encourage you to embrace the beauty of a multiracial background and continue striving for your dreams.

Amarie: Singer: Korean mother and African American father.
Halle Berry: Actress: Caucasian mother and African American father.
Naomi Campbell: Model: Black Jamaican mother and part-Chinese father.
Mariah Carey: Singer/Actress: Irish mother and Venezuelan/African American father.
Faith Evans: Singer/Actress: African American mother and white father.
Kelis: Singer: Chinese/Puerto Rican mother and African American father.
Alicia Keys: Singer: Italian mother and African American father.
Rachel Lampa: Gospel Singer: Irish/Hungarian mother and Filipino father.
Tia & Tamara Mowry: Actresses: AfricanAmerican mother and Caucasian father.
Tina Turner: Singer/Actress: African American and Native American.

A Blending of the Races

You may already know that many different races surround you, but in the 2000 Census, for the first time Americans could check off more than one race. Though we can’t know how many people took advantage of this opportunity, the results help us see the population of certain mixed races in the United States and give us a better idea of the variety of races that a person can have.

People who checked off:
• two races: 6,368,075
• three races: 410,285
• Caucasian and Asian: 868,395
• Caucasian and African American: 784,764
• African American, Asian, and another race: 8,069

Did You Know?

The census is used to watch and enforce laws that protect people from discrimination in areas like voting and employment. Although the census in 2000 is great by showing how multiracial we’ve become, following trends in certain racial groups is more confusing since people now identify less with a single racial group. Civil rights organizations are also concerned that as people identify more often as multiracial, they will become less effective in protecting single racial groups.

• Whereas only 1.9 percent of American adults are multiracial, that figure rises to 4.2 percent among Americans younger than 18.
• There were four times as many heterosexual interracial couples in 1995 than back in 1970.
• One in 19 children born in the United States today is multiracial as compared to only one in every hundred children born thirty years ago. In some states, like California and Washington, one in ten children is of mixed race.

Things to Think About

• Have you ever been judged by your physical appearance? How did that feel? How often do you judge others by their appearance?
• Do you and your friends ever try to guess a person’s race using common physical stereotypes?
• Are you aware that many of the faces you see every day have multicultural backgrounds?
• Do you tend to stick with people of your own ethnicity or do you try to keep a diverse group of friends?
• Have you ever discussed issues related to multiracial identity with any of your friends? If you have, what was it like? If you haven’t what do you think it would be like?

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