^5 !
And when asked on a form to "select race," I won't until I see the box for "Human Race."
I refuse to check the box for "white." It's absolutely unacceptable for those of us with light skin to be lumped into one generic, vanilla-ice cream mold. I always check "other." After all, what continent/nation is known as "White?"
She offered them a chance to participate in a focus group regarding mascot ideas, and for their participation, they would receive either $40 cash or a Jaguars wristwatch. I thought that was a great idea and said yes.
She need some statistical data and asked the kids names, birth dates, grade, sex, and race. I rattled off all the info and then when I got to "race", I stated "human". She chuckled aloud for a moment, then asked again, "what is their race?" I replied, there is only ONE race, the HUMAN race. Silence greeted that reply. She asked a third time, and again I gave her the same answer.
Finally she said, "Sir I really need to know what race your kids are for our demographic survey".
I asked her what her race was, and she promptly said "African-American". I told her that my children were a "garden variety of anglo/spanish/malay/filipino and God knows what else", and I bet she didn't have a box for that on her survey.
She chuckled again and said "I guess I am a garden variety mixture as well. I will put down 'other' for your kids, and I won't ask that question to any other participants. Thanks, you really helped me to see how foolish it is to classify people."