They've also heard from people telling them that racial and ethnic categories are divisive and should not be used. The reason they are taking so much care, they say, is because the stakes are high for the various groups seeking their own categories. The federal government organizes data about mortgage lending, health care, voting rights and educational and employment opportunities by its racial categories. This is the data that can show whether people are being discriminated against as a class. They know that, unless you've been identified as a group, you can't show that you've been harmed.
Many people now say the short form needs to allow for more options, too.
In 1970, there were fewer than 500,000 children of inter-racial couples, and by 1990 there were an estimated 2 million, and some of them would like a category all their own. But some civil rights groups, like the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, fear the creation of this new category would diminish the clout of black Americans, and as a result, their political influence. Others say the effect would be destructive. It's not a classification that satisfies Mr. Barbosa either. And so the debate is extremely complicated.