7/97 Open Letter to Congress

July 1997

Dear (Senator or Representative):

A time of racial healing and reconciliation is upon us. Race has become a big issue again and has captured the country's attention. With that in mind, I would like to discuss a group often overlooked, the children of multi/inter-racial unions. I am writing you as the father of two multiracial children.

Currently, government and state forms which ask for race, with the exception of Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio, require multiracial children and adults to either pick one parent's race (demeaning and incorrect) or mark "other" (also demeaning) on forms that collect information on racial classifications, rather than being allowed to pick multiracial or multiethnic..

Representative Thomas E. Petri WI-6 has introduced legislation, H.R. 830, to rectify this problem. I am asking for your support in introducing or co-sponsoring legislation in the Senate which will achieve this goal. The full text of H.R. 830 is attached below. Your support in this effort will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Sincerly,

James A. Landrith, Jr.

105th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 830

To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, popularly known as the Paperwork Reduction Act, to require that collections of information that ask a respondent to specify a racial classification or ethnic classification from among a list of classifications shall provide an opportunity for the respondent to specify, respectively, `multiracial' or `multiethnic'.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

February 25, 1997

Mr. PETRI introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight

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A BILL

To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, popularly known as the Paperwork Reduction Act, to require that collections of information that ask a respondent to specify a racial classification or ethnic classification from among a list of classifications shall provide an opportunity for the respondent to specify, respectively, `multiracial' or `multiethnic'.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE OPPORTUNITY TO SPECIFY `MULTIRACIAL' OR `MULTIETHNIC', RESPECTIVELY, AS RACIAL OR ETHNIC CLASSIFICATION.

(a) IN GENERAL- Section 3507 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(k) The Director may not approve a collection of information that would request or direct a respondent to specify a racial classification from among a list of racial classifications, or an ethnic classification from among a list of ethnic classifications, the approval of such a collection of information by the Director shall not be inferred, and an agency shall not sponsor or conduct such a collection of information, unless the list provides an opportunity for the respondent to specify `multiracial', in the case of a list of racial classifications, or `multiethnic', in the case of a list of ethnic classifications.'.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect January 1, 1998.

James Landrith is the notorious editor and publisher of The Multiracial Activist and The Abolitionist Examiner, two cyber-rags dedicated to freedom from oppressive racial categorization. Landrith can be reached by email at: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or at his personal website/blog.

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