Perhaps “class-ist” is the more appropriate term (for assuming that the Asian kid is a poor farmer and not the urban elite).

The hat actually looks like it might have been added on as an afterthought. I imagine it went something like this:

Volunteer: “Sure, I can draw some kids.”
(Draws disembodied heads of children)
Program overseer: “Is that three white children and one black kid?”
Volunteer: “The one in the lower right is supposed to be of Asian descent… but I didn’t want to give her slanty eyes, because that’s racist.”
Program overseer: “Right, right. Well… give her one of those Asian hats. We don’t want people to think our idea of multicultural is all white people and one black kid.”
Volunteer: “Um, okay…”

reading from left to right, from up to down, the hierarchy is white boy, white girl, non-white boy, non-white girl.

WE

AND THEM.

“The cultures of Ditmas Park are reflected in programs at local schools. P.S. 139, with 1,620 students in pre-K through grade 5, is ”a multi-ethnic school focusing on understanding the diversity of our children,” according to its principal, Ivy A. Sherman.

The Brotherhood Institute minischool within P.S. 139 ”focuses on the diverse cultures that make up our school,” said Mrs. Sherman, whose own daughter will be attending classes at the school next year. Last year, 63.8 percent of third-grade pupils were reading at or above state minimum levels.

P.S. 152, with 1,615 students, also emphasizes multicultural programs and has minischools for the arts and for sciences and technology. Last year, 72.6 percent of third-grade students read at or above the state minimum, up 13 percentage points from two years earlier.

THE principal of P.S. 217, Mary Buckley Teatum, refers to the school as a ”mini-United Nations.” It has 1,146 students of over 30 nationalities in pre-K through grade 5 and special programs in art and music, computers and physical education; 77.8 percent of third-grade students were at or above minimum state levels in reading.

I.S. 62, the Ditmas School, where 1,400 students are enrolled in grades 6 through 8, has a Russian bilingual program and four ”institutes of choice” including one for performing and visual arts. Last year, 79.9 percent of 8th-grade students were reading at or above the state minimum standard, slightly lower than the city average.”

The signage is certainly ill-conceived, but it’s also almost certainly an amateur job–doesn’t look like something that went through a design committee or any much discussion.

Except this was for an asian chain restaraunt. Instead of a scooter it was bicycles, and the riders had those triangle hats over their helmets.

Everyone else thought it was hilarious. I was trying to see what it was advertising so I could write a letter of complaint.

Anyway –
Is the term “multiracial” really preferable?

There are socially constructed and maintained racial categories, obviously. The phrases “multiple non-biological racial categories” or “multiple social racial categories” (which wouldn’t fit so well on a sign) begin to point to some crucial nuances.

But standard notions of ‘races’ are a crock, of course (as this post indicates, for instance – http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/09/18/a-simple-lesson-on-the-social-construction-of-race/ ). It seems like people tend to consider “racial” categories to be biological rather than — or, at least, more so than — social.