WASHINGTON (AP) — Non-Hispanic whites with American Indian ancestry make up a full half of the current population of mixed-race Americans but are among the least likely to say that they are multiracial, according to a study released Thursday.
This population is also the more likely to be Republican-leaning and conservative than the rest of the multiracial population, finds the study by the Pew Research Center. But they may someday be eclipsed by other multiracial Americans, with the majority of mixed-race babies born in 2013 being either biracial white and black or biracial white and Asian.
The Census Bureau estimates the number of multiracial Americans at 2.1 percent of the adult population. During its survey, Pew asked people about their race, the race of their parents and the race of their grandparents. With those numbers, however, the “Multiracial in America” report finds that 6.9 percent of the population in the United States is of mixed race.
That’s a big jump from the past and points to a population that is expected to grow, said Kim Parker, Pew’s director of social trends research. In 1970, among babies living with two parents, only 1 percent had parents who were different races from each other. By 2013, that share had risen to 10 percent.
“From 2000-2010 that multiracial population grew three times as fast as the overall population,” Parker said. “And when we look at the number of babies being born that are mixed race and the rise in interracial marriage, we can see that not only is it continuing to grow but the growth could accelerate in the future.”
The largest group of multiracial adults is biracial white and Native American, the report said, with 50 percent of the multiracial adults claiming that dual ancestry. Black and American Indian adults make up 12 percent of the multiracial population, while those with a white and black background make up 11 percent.
The biracial white and American Indians are also the one group “whose members are the least likely to consider themselves ‘multiracial,'” the report said. Biracial white-Asian adults were the most likely to say they were multiracial and to consider themselves multiracial.
For many multiracial adults, their experiences are similar to those who identify themselves as single races. For example, 40 percent of mixed-race adults with a black background said they have been unfairly stopped by the police because of their racial background. However, only 6 percent of biracial white and Asian adults and 15 percent of white and American Indian adults said they have had this experience.
Racial identity can be fluid for some people and fixed for others, Parker said. Thirty percent of the multiracial adults said they had described themselves as something other than multiracial earlier in their lives, she said.
“Being multiracial is not just a sum of the races in your family tree,” she said. “It’s also part of experiences and upbringing and it also can be fluid and change over the life course or when an individual is in a certain set of circumstances.”
Biracial white and American Indians are the only multiracial group that leans toward the GOP, with the Republican Party holding a 53-42 percent advantage over the Democrats, the report said. All of the other mixed-race groups — white-Asian, black-white, black-Native American, and black-white-Native American — favored the Democrats by large numbers.
Like the rest of the United States’ demographics, the composition of the mixed-race Americans is changing, the report noted. Thirty-six percent of mixed race babies born in 2012 were biracial white and black and 24 percent were biracial white and Asia. Only 12 percent were white and American Indian, Parker said.
“That doesn’t necessarily dictate how they will identify when they grow up, but it’s sort of an indicator of maybe a shifting composition,” she said.
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Jesse J. Holland covers race, ethnicity and demographics for The Associated Press. Contact him at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland
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Multiracial in America report: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/06/11/multiracial-in-america
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Unless you have a tribal affliliation those of us who are white and Native American are not considered to be of Native American Heritage, by the government…My father was traveling in Ohio in the 60s, in uniform, and was forced to ride in the back of the bus, because he was Native…yet officially he wasn’t…
On December 4, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Hidden in the defense bill was a package granting an illegal land swap near Superior, AZ, for the benefit of a foreign company Rio Tinto PLC who seek to mine copper. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as part of the Senate Armed Services Committee was instrumental in pushing to get the provision language included.
All 2,400 acres are part of Apache ancestral and ceremonial lands. So although Republican lawmakers have tried for years to secure the transfer of these lands, they have always run into strong opposition from the San Carlos Apache Tribe and Democratic lawmakers and conservation advocates.
Apache leaders learned of the inclusion of the provision to the NDAA while attending—ironically—the White House Tribal Nations conference.
Yeah sure PEW…you nailed it. Native Americans just love Republicans.
This is why no one believes silly polls
“Biracial white and American Indians are the only multiracial group that leans toward the GOP [while] all of the other mixed-race groups — white-Asian, black-white, black-Native American, and black-white-Native American — favored the Democrats by large numbers.” Isn’t this the important take-away from this article? Why follow the AP in going with the head-line about leaning GOP? (And I notice too that they give precise numbers for the GOP -favoring group–53-42–but only vaguely refer to “large numbers” when referring to the groups favoring the Democrats.) Or, alternatively, why not say that the only biracial group that denies that it is biracial is the only one that favors the Republicans?
I find this particular topic fascinating.
I presently live in an area of Louisiana where mixed race individuals hold an interesting space in society. And, the situation sets itself as one where the European white held the top rung of the ladder, the mixed race of European ancestry held the next rung, the local American Indian held the rung under that, the Caribbean black holds the rung below them, and the African black were required to stand at the bottom and hold the ladder upright. Those of mixed racial heritage would be spaced somewhere in there, depending on ancestry.
Locals of mixed race ancestry tell me that, when they were in school, they were required to fill out paperwork that indicated their race, but, there not being a box for mixed race, and their not wishing to be identified as black (many times indicated as “Negroid” in the forms) because they didn’t identify with that group, they would not check anything. Teachers and school administration would check unfilled boxes to give them any advantages they thought would be gained by a particular classroom racial makeup.
This confusion and social reluctance at self identifying still influences many of the political decisions made here. It intrigues me and I am interested to know what social science has been done in this vein and how we can eventually move beyond a need to identify as any particular race.
Could there be a greater degree of self-reporting error in the mixed white/native American group? I have known a couple of people who claimed to be mixed Indian and European, but both had siblings who denied the story. It’s possible that the denying sibling had internalized racism that impelled them, but Americans like to romanticize NAs at the same time they’re racist toward them, so there’s more cachet to claiming that mix than, say, AA and White. Not to mention that it’s a little easier to ¨pass¨.