Biracial Identity

Kristen A. Renn

Biracial individuals are those people who have racial heritage from more than one socially or legally recognized category (the U.S. government considers Hispanic or Latino ethnicity and five races: African American or Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, White). Also called, among other terms, multiracial, mixed race, hapa, or mixed heritage, individuals reporting more than one race comprised 2.4 percent of the total population estimate of the 2000 U.S. Census, and 6.3 percent of the Hispanic/Latino population. Four percent of the population under age 18, and 7.7 percent of those under age 18 with Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, reported more than race. A substantial number of these multiracial youth are school age, and the percentage of primary, secondary, and postsecondary students who are multiracial is expected to continue to grow throughout the twenty-first century. Because changes in the collection and reporting of data on race ...

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