CHICAGO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The daughter of a Jamaican

father and Indian mother, both immigrants, Kamala Harris

reflects the United States' changing demographics.

When she steps onto the stage Thursday evening in Chicago to

accept the Democratic Party's nomination as their presidential

candidate, she will represent the country's fastest growing

racial category.

Some 42 million Americans now identify as multiracial, or

13% of the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is

up from 2% in 2000 when the census first allowed people to

select multiple races.

America has long been a self-styled "melting pot" of people

who trace their origins around the world, but in practice some

states legally segregated citizens by race until the civil

rights laws of the 1960s and laws prohibiting interracial

marriage were not overturned until 1967.

Social change since, though, has been rapid. Barack Obama

was elected as the country's first Black president in 2008, and

Harris would be the first Black woman and South Asian if elected

in November.

"We're living in a situation 50 years later where we could

be looking at our second mixed-race president, and it's

beautiful," said Svante Myrick, president of People for the

American Way, an advocacy group, whose father was Black and his

mother white.

America's future will look even more diverse. The vast

majority of multiracial people are younger than 44 and a third

are still children.

The trend has been met by confusion, upset and worse from

some of the U.S.'s shrinking white majority. Republican

presidential candidate Donald Trump drew groans at a gathering

of Black journalists last month when he falsely portrayed Harris

as pivoting from Indian to Black.

"I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black," Trump said.

"But you know what, I respect either one."

Harris has long identified with both her parents' ancestry.

In Trump's remarks, some multiracial people saw echoes of their

own experience of being asked to choose one or the other.

Harris' upbringing makes her a better leader for America,

Democrats in Chicago said.

"When you have individuals who carry multiple experiences in

the same person, that's an asset," said Representative Maxwell

Frost, who is Lebanese, Puerto Rican and Haitian, speaking at a

Politico event on the sidelines of the convention. "That

enhances her ability to legislate and advocate" on behalf of a

broad range of Americans.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for

comment, nor did spokespeople for Trump.

As the U.S. becomes more diverse and multicultural, white

nationalist groups continue to thrive online, pushing conspiracy

theories such as the "The Great Replacement", while some

Republican lawmakers have focused on banning books and canceling

classes focused on racial history.

Thousands of racial hate crimes are reported yearly, with

232 aimed at people of multiple races in 2022, the most recent

year for which FBI data is available.

"Unfortunately, we're really into a period of backlash,"

said Matthew Belmont, a Dartmouth College history professor who

has studied the demographic trend, despite the 2020 election of

Harris as vice president and her administration's elevation of

racial justice priorities.

"So much of that was push back that really emerged in

response to the Obama presidency and it was really stoked among

people who are scared by the demographic trends in the United

States."

Tara Betrayer, an Afro-Latina and white conservative

co-founder of political action committee the Seneca Project,

said she was once attracted to the Republican Party in part

because of its emphasis on color-blind policies.

"Do Democrats take it too far at times with the racial

identity politics? Well, yeah," she said.

Now an independent, Betrayer said some of the Republican

Party's recent rhetoric on issues including illegal migration

carried undercurrents of racism. Republicans reject those

criticisms, saying their focus on border controls are aimed at

securing the country for all Americans.

"This is really their last gasp at trying to stop the

country from evolving, and I think they're missing out on

something that's beautiful," Betrayer said.