March 5, 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times
On March 5, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that Census 2000 "is the first in which Americans were invited to mark one or more races, creating a total of 57 new categories with anywhere from two to six races... The census' formalizing of multiple-race answers...explodes the most basic notion of race: that there are discrete bio-cultural groups of human beings," and reflects four decades of "vast demographic shifts." Multiracial data will, among other things, complicate statisticians' calculations, the issue of voting rights and reapportionment, and anti-discrimination monitoring and enforcement."