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12 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAYJUNE 2016 Less than 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws prohibiting mixed-race marriages. And only 15 years ago the U.S. Census Bureau first allowed Americans to choose more than one race when filling out their census forms. The multiracial population has grown significantly in recent years. The Pew Research Center has decided to use a different method than the Census Bureau for determining racial background. In addition to self- reported race Pew took into account the racial back- grounds of parents and grandparents. With that ap- proach they estimate that multiracial adults make up 6.9 percent of the American adult population and its growing three times as fast as the population as a whole. Using this definition the Pew Research survey found that biracial adults with a white and American Indian background make up half of the countrys multiracial populationby far the largest multiracial group but also the one least likely to consider themselves multiracial despite their mixed-race background. However not all adults with a mixed racial background consider themselves to be multiracial. In fact 61 percent do not. One reason for the complexity of racial identity is that it can be fluid and change over time even from one situation to another. About three in 10 adults with a multiracial background say that they have changed the way they describe their race over the yearswith some saying they once thought of themselves as only one race and now think of themselves as more than one race and others saying just the opposite. Demographically multiracial Americans are significantly younger than the country as a whole. According to Pew Research Center analysis of the 2013 American Community Survey the median age of all multiracial Americans is 19 compared with 38 for single-race Americans. Other findings A majority of multiracial adults are proud of their mixed-race background 60 percent. About the same number 59 percent feel their racial heritage has made them more open to other cultures. 55 percent say they have been subjected to racial slurs or jokes. One in four 24 percent have felt annoyed because people have made assumptions about their racial background. Only 4 percent say having a mixed racial background has been a disadvantage in their life. About one in five 19 percent say it has been an advantage and 76 percent say it has made no difference. Blurring the Lines Race is not just a black and white issue