Racism in Uniform Birth Record States Until 1989

Here’s a little tidbit that didn’t make it into Classified.

For uniform birth record states:

Prior to 1989, for statistical purposes, classification of the child’s race or national origin was based on the race or national origin of the parents. When both parents were not of the same race or national origin, rules had been established for coding various combinations. If only one parent was white, the child was assigned the race of the other parent. If neither parent was white, the child was assigned the race of the father…

So if your father was white and your mom was black, you were tallied as black on your birth record. However, if your father was Asian and your mom was black, you were classified as Asian. Amazing (and appalling) that this was the law in many states until 1989!