Biracial Identity

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 and ethnicity in education mandated by the federal government in 1997 are still in process, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of multiracial students in K-12 and postsecondary education.

Multiracial individuals may identify themselves in a number of ways, and research suggests that there is no one most healthy or more correct identification. Biracial youth and college students may identify with just one of their heritage groups, with both or all of their heritage groups, as part of a biracial or multiracial group, outside of racial categorization, or in some other way, according to the context. Gender, social class, religious, and sexual orientation identities may interact with biracial identity by contributing to the contextual cues. Physical appearance is also a major factor in multiracial identity, possibly more so for women than for men.