Today I went to the DMV in Bryan, TX (my local area) to renew my license. I thought things went pretty smoothly until I looked down at “race and ethnicity” and didn’t see myself there. I never do… this is something people don’t care about if they’re not mixed. There was no mixed, mixed-race, not even “other.” I checked all the boxes and wrote in parentheses (“More than one.”) As I approached the counter, I gave my application to the lady there. 

After she looked at my application, she said loudly, “What race is your dad?” I said, “Black?” (And he was not JUST black) she said, “Okay. When you fill this out, you are whatever your dad is! That’s who you are.” I think she even said, “…then you’re not Hispanic/Latino (or she said I couldn’t put Hispanic/Latino as well?) I can’t remember which combination of words she used, but my brain shut down. She immediately started to take a White Out pen and cross off my other ethnicities. 

I know I’ve seen on MANY government applications that you can either be “Hispanic” and not anything else, OR “Black" (or some other race) and not Hispanic. I am both! 

What box am I supposed to check?! 

I wanted to cry. I know my eyes watered. My thoughts: “Why was she so aggressive?” “Didn’t she see my “race” was not identified on the application?” “She was trying to tell me who I was?” “Why was she so loud too?” “So I’m not allowed to put my race there?” I felt so embarrassed, betrayed, hurt, and numb.

I hadn’t heard anybody speak to me like that since I was a kid. Trying to tell me, “YOU are what your Daddy is.” That whole segregated mentality. I was angry, I wanted to school her, right there. But I said, “Okay, that’s a little strange but alright.” I didn’t know what to say. I just wanted to get my license and go. 

Why should they be in control of my race? I am not one OR the other, I am MIXED. I should be allowed to have that on my Driver’s License and identify myself as “Mixed” on ANY government application.

This is something our government CAN change. The US Census Bureau CAN change. If the US Census can't change this by itself, they seem to need assistance from the OMB, which works for the President. 

Here’s what their website says: “...The U.S. Census Bureau must adhere to the 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards on race and ethnicity which guide the Census Bureau in classifying written responses to the race question…” 

I had never gone to their website before today, but even their definitions of “Race” look wrong. They consider North Africans to be “White.”  I am sure if you asked a North African how they would identify that’s not how they would see themselves.  https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html

Whether I deal with this locally or nationally is unclear. Currently, I'm in the process of filing proper complaints and working with Change.org to make this better. Hopefully, this will change something. 

Thank you for your support.