Number of mixed-race Southern Californians has more than tripled

America the melting pot continues to bubble and brew, and California is, of course, on the front burner.

Multiracial Heritage Week is officially June 7-14, and data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the number Golden Staters claiming heritage of two or more races has more than tripled between 2010 and 2020.

The statewide average of folks claiming multi-racial heritage was up 217%, and was even greater locally. In Orange County, the number of folks claiming two or more races leapt 250%; in Los Angeles County, 239%; in Riverside County, 288%; and in San Bernardino County, 254%.

Imperial County had the greatest leap of all at 588%, an almost seven-fold increase.

Now, much of this is a counting game. The census used two separate questions on the 2020 census for the first time — one for Hispanic or Latino origin, and one for race — which “enabled a more thorough and accurate depiction of how people self-identify,” the Census Bureau said.

Hawaii had the most people claiming multi-racial heritage, at 25%. California ranked No. 5, at 14.6%, behind New Mexico, Texas and Florida. Mississippi had the least number of mixed-race people, at 3.7%.

Researchers at UCLA summed it up this way:

“California only continues to grow more multi-ethnic and multiracial. Latino and Asian American communities are driving the state’s population growth, and these communities will only grow more important in the state’s politics and economy. … (M)ore Californians are identifying as ‘two or more races’ or ‘other race,’ including Latinos who were less likely in 2020 to identify themselves as ‘White’ than a decade ago.”

In the rather fractured political landscape where we find ourselves, this may be seen as a threat by a certain sliver of the population. We’ll remind those folks of the metaphor that has defined America for hundreds of years.

The melting pot.

It means that the many different people who make the U.S. home are like metals melting together, transforming into an even stronger alloy.

Diversity has always promised a more tolerant, just and interesting world.