2000 United States Census
In 1989, AMEA issued a letter illustrating the concerns of their constituency to Congressman Thomas Sawyer, Chairman of the House subcommittee monitoring the census. AMEA was subsequently invited to present testimony to the ‘Census, Statistics and Postal Personnel’ subcommittee. AMEA was represented by its president, Carlos A. Fernandez and executive board member Edwin Darden.
As with classification within the school system, federal classification of mixed-race individuals was criticized in the mid-1900s for not allowing a person to “check more than one box.” AMEA was appointed as the only federally recognized multiracial advocacy group to the “Census 2000 Advisory Committee” to explore possible solutions.
While public opinion was diverse, initially many advocacy groups supported one "multiracial" box for mixed-race individuals. Many media sources such as Mademoiselle in its article "What Race Am I?" urged its readers "to express an opinion on whether or not a 'Multiracial' category should be included in all federal record keeping, including the 2000 census."
AMEA was at the forefront of the Office of Management and Budgets (OMB) decision to revise its standards for collecting racial and ethnic data by allowing persons of multiple racial heritages to check "one or more races" on the 2000 Census Race Question. After much debate, the Federal Interagency Committee recommended allowing Census respondents to “check one or more boxes.”
AMEA retains a permanent seat on the census advisory committee.
Read more about this topic: Association Of Multi Ethnic Americans
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