by Eileen Schmidt

Created on: September 19, 2009

Caucasian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, African American, Native American, these are our options on most forms. Those same forms generally tend to specify to please only check one. Why? We no longer live in a world that is specifically black and white. It just is not that simple anymore. We live in a world of many colors. So why is it that on a job application or a lease agreement or any other form that we have to fill out for that fact, must we only pick one.

I am Caucasian and Native American, yet I am expected to choose one over the other. My daughter is African American and Caucasian, yet even in the hospital when she was born, when I tried to mark both it was unacceptable. I was told that I had to mark African American only.

Multi-racial should be an option on any application as every person should be able to recognize both ethnicities. We should not have to choose one over the other. We should not have to deny any part of who we are, even if it is only on an application. It seems as though officials almost want for us to deny who we are as a whole in order to keep this world more "black versus white". To some, it simplifies things. But it doesn't.

For example, I had a very dear friend who was only two percent African American and ninety-eight percent Caucasian. That two percent was her skin tone (just dark enough to not be a tan) and her curly hair (not even a coarse texture, just curly), yet when she marked Caucasian on a job application she was immediately turned away for being deceitful. Being very proud of her culture and her daughters culture, she chose to mark African American on her daughters enrollment papers at school. This created many problems for her child from some of the teachers. My friend had a smooth and creamy complexion and her husband what white as white can be with red hair and green eyes, freckles and all. Her daughter turned out to have the same skin tone as she, and had very curly soft black hair with plump lips and a widened nose with bright green eyes. She is very exotic looking. For some reason the school would not accept African American on her enrollment forms and insisted that she must be of Native American culture. A teacher even told this little girl that she could not be black because all black people have brown eyes and hers were green, therefore making it impossible for her to be any part of the African American culture.

The point is, that so much of this world is ignorant along with so many in it. It should not be so hard to believe that so many of us are from different genetic makeup, from different worlds, different ethnicities all rolled in one. That is what makes everybody so unique and beautiful. Such a small change on applications that may seem so insignificant to others is what we need in todays society. That small change may mean a lot to many people and turn out to be a big step towards understanding and more importantly, acceptance.

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