I agree that it's not necessarily racist for individuals to categorize people. But, when the gov't adopts official categories of people, it's either institutionalized racism or, at the very least, a misguided effort (IMO).
I expect, but I don't see how that contradicts the above.
You're right that triumphing individualism and personal accountability doesn't contradict the position that the gov't shouldn't classify people by race for affirmative action and so on. But, then supporting the gov't in classifying people by race for crime statistics is a contradiction. The Left has its own contradictions which I don't need to mention here (everyone knows them). But, I did want to point out that one rather frustrating contradiction on the Right.
I agree that geographical area, socioeconomic class, and age are all factors to be considered. But, "race" is so subjective. It is dependant mainly on the individual's own self-definition or on others to define an individual based on appearances that cannot be altered (skin color and facial features). What I'm saying is that "race" is not purely based on genetic construction. It is more a product of socialization, as far as I can tell.
Let's put it this way: A "national origin" category for immigrants might provide accurate information. A newly-sworn American can tell us the country from which he emigrated. But, terms like "black" and "white" are merely social - not genetic. I remember reading that approx. 75% of "African-Americans" can trace their roots back to Europe, but most probably just check-off the "black" box on the Census.