The idea of claiming more than one racial heritage has much more appeal among young people than older generations, said Wilson, who predicts that as today's children of intermarriage mature, they will be more likely to acknowledge their multiple racial heritages on the Census and other official forms.
Ideally as time passes, the nation will not have to deal with racial counts so strictly, he said, but with racism so alive and entrenched in this country, Wilson doesn't foresee that happening soon.
Many groups are waiting to see what proposals the OMB task force will develop before taking a stand on the new decision.
"We haven't really taken a position on that particular one," said Angelica Santacruz, associate director of government relations for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).
The net impact of the decision on members of HACU is difficult to determine, Santacruz said, because so much of the data used comes from a different source than the Census.
"The Department of Education has a form which these institutions have to fill out saying how many students have enrolled in a given year. They have to be more accurate [than the Census] because [they are completed more often than] every ten years."
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