Race is a way for people to classify one another, usually just by looking at them. According to the text, “race is considered a primary aspect of personal identity.” I think that race is a good way for the government to easily classify a group of people as a whole; however, I don’t think that it’s the best or most accurate way. The way that we perceive race is far too flawed for us to generalize the people of that group. They might have some similar characteristics (where stereotypes come from), but there’s no way that every person will have those same traits. Plus, as Western society develops there are more interracial children being born which makes it hard for them to identify with just one race. Because of this, I think that Census Bureau should definitely allow people to check multiple races to define themselves. Of course, there has to be a limit on how many boxes can be checked otherwise people will get carried away, but I think three is a good number.
I agree you with Tiziann. Race is an easy way to classify people but being able to classify people can also mean in negative ways as well. The drawback from being able to classify people is that it causes negative attributes to stick out more than the positive ones. Using race as a way to classify people only generates stereotypes but it's the best way so far that we have to "label" people. I also agree with three being a good number because sometimes people abuse their diverseness within their family genes for benefits that do not necessarily apply to them.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you that race is a way we can classify two people when in a crowd. Race is a way we can easily distinguish people, but at the same time I often find myself being rude or racist even, if I use the terms “white” or “black” to describe a person based on their color, especially if I do not know them. In our era I feel like people throw out these terms far too often, and at times can be an offensive description. I too believe that this is where stereotypes can be derived from. In terms of the Census Bureau, I definitely feel that checking multiple boxes is fair; we all come from many backgrounds.
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