Posted: Mar 23, 2010 5:39 pm
katja z wrote:Cursuswalker, that's a good point. I don't usually have to identify my race, except on the internet, and there I simply put "human". But choosing mixed/other is also a good way of rejecting racial categories.
I also agree with most of the answers you give to possible objections, except with point 4 as regards medicine. As far as I know, descent (not particularly race) IS relevant here - certain conditions are more likely in certain groups (such as sickle-cell anemia in African-descended people - uh, African in the conventional sense of course), and that is potentially valuable information in a medical context. It's like being asked if there is any history of cardiac diseases in your family. Of course, it has no relevance for your identity, why should it?
Yes, and I agree that ones race/descent does have relevance in such areas. As does age/sex etc.
But that this does not mean that it has to become an inherent part of your self-identity.