AXIOS Seattle: Nearly 11% of Washington state is multiracial
Former President Trump’s false attack last week against Vice President Kamala Harris, questioning if she can identify with more than one race, comes at a time when more people in Washington state and around the country are identifying as multiracial.
Why it matters: Trump’s comments illuminate how some Americans misunderstand the complexities of people from multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds and how those identities shape their lives.
Catch up quick: In an exchange with reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention last week, Trump suggested falsely that Harris “became a Black person” after identifying primarily as Indian.
- “I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” he said.
Reality check: Throughout her political career, Harris has regularly cited her background as the daughter of a South Asian immigrant mother and a Jamaican immigrant father.
By the numbers: Between 2000 and 2022, the percentage of people who identify as two or more races in the Seattle area rose about 147%, to 246,495, per census data.
- Across Washington state, the multiracial population sat at 10.9% in 2020 — higher than the national average of 10.2%.
What they’re saying: Jasmine Mitchell, a professor of Puerto Rican and Latino studies at Brooklyn College, said there’s a common misconception that the mixing of races is new in the U.S., though it has been common in the Americas for centuries.
- Given that reality, “People should not have to pass a litmus test about their identity,” U.S. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Tacoma), the first Black person elected to Congress from Washington state, told Axios.
- Strickland also became one of the first Korean American women in Congress when she was elected in 2020.
- “It is entirely possible to strongly identify with all the identities that are part of who you are from your parents,” Strickland said.
The big picture: Nationwide, people who identify as more than one race are among the fastest-growing segments of the population, according to the U.S. Census.