CENSUS DOESN'T NEED NEW CATEGORY.

Byline: Sharon Woodson-Bryant

DEBATING the words ``multiracial'' and ``biracial'' for the census disturbs me and I wonder about the real motivation behind those now rallying for a new category.

The government needs to have clear racial categories to address problems in housing, school desegregation, voting rights, credit protection, law enforcement and mortgage lending as well as employment. The existing racial classifications are crucial for monitoring and reporting discrimination against African-Americans as well as other racial and ethnic groups.

Regardless of Tiger Woods' celebrity endorsement of a mixed-race identity, I find it problematic to have ``part black'' labels for some people. These terms suggest something slightly better than black, like the ``coloreds'' of South America. And I question whether these new categories are any different from the old terminology such as ``mulatto,'' ``mixed'' or ``cafe au lait.''

The irony of this debate is that most African-American people in this country - with various estimates of at least 75 percent - have some mixed ancestry. So what troubles me is the insidiousness of this most recent controversy over color classification.

It reveals how thoroughly and effectively Americans, black and white, have been conditioned by centuries of racial bias. Because they attach so little value to anything African, individuals with a duality or plurality in their genetic parentage are rushing desperately to embrace the establishment of a new racial classification.

In truth, the black world and the white world are still two very different places. That hasn't changed.

There are economic tensions and cultural differences that go beyond racism. Regardless of one's parentage, we are still part of the larger society that has a long way to go.

With job and school applications now offering new categories, I fear that some people are really hoping that checking any one of these new labels will somehow dilute the stigma they believe comes with African-American identification.

In America, a biracial or multiracial child may have mixed white, Asian or African genetic parentage, but he or she will have only one culture: black.

It's a bloodline that cannot be denied. No African-American, Hispanic-American or Asian-American will ever be acknowledged as white by American society, as we know it today. And checking off the biracial or multiracial box won't make it so.