As a culture we still grappling with our previous history of "Racism" and the fact that most cultures of the world are still racist.
Scientifically we are all humans. Yet, for some of us, our physical and ethnic characteristics are significant and affect our belief systems regarding a person's character and capabilities. Since all humans can interbreed, what is really being discussed is not "race" but genealogy, ethnology and how people refer to themselves or want others to refer to their genetic and ethnic histories. For many people this is a touchy subject and possibly some are overly preoccupied with the subject.
As an arrogant young computer scientist, I believed that if there is any decision that you can't figure out how to program, the question is wrong. I couldn't figure out how to program racial classification, so I concluded that there isn't such a thing. I subsequently reviewed some scientific literature that confirmed this impression. “Race” is, at best, a fuzzy concept about typical physical characteristics of certain populations. At worst, of course, it provides a basis for more contemptible conduct than any concept other than religion. In answer to the race question on the security form, I decided to put “mongrel.” It would have been slightly less provocative had I said “human,” but I've always enjoyed diddling forms a bit.
the above was excerpted from:
"Can computers cope with human races?"
by Les Earnest <
les@cs.stanford.edu>
© 1989 by the Association for Computing and Machinery
http://www.stanford.edu/~learnest/mongrel.htm" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
Personally I don't know my pedigree with sufficient accuracy, so I check "other", "none of the above" or write in "mongrel" when forms ask for my ethnicity or race. Someday these questions will stop appearing on forms.
Stan
