Which Race should I select?
- Thread starter chiks
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Feb08Filer
Registered Users (C)
camp12, I'm not disagreeing with you, in fact I whole heartedly DO agree with you ... Just thought to have some fun 
my immigration process is tearing my innards quite apart from anticipation / stress / delays / RFE / ... and then NO MOVEMENT for over a month while others are moving along smoothly. I find using humor about some of the rediculous questions on the forms helps me cope.
and people tend to get offended when I say i'm African American Even though i'm far more African than any African looking American who has never left their neighborhood. Oh well.
my immigration process is tearing my innards quite apart from anticipation / stress / delays / RFE / ... and then NO MOVEMENT for over a month while others are moving along smoothly. I find using humor about some of the rediculous questions on the forms helps me cope.
and people tend to get offended when I say i'm African American
Even though i'm far more African than any African looking American who has never left their neighborhood. Oh well.Feb08Filer
Registered Users (C)
ahahahhahha ... I just thought of something else ...
this hypothetical German African looking person we made up who is applying for immigration purposes cannot possibly go and state "african American" ahahhahaha because he/she is not YET american
I have to keep myself entertained. I hope I don't offend anybody, because that is not the intent.
Asian also applies to folks from the Indian subcontinent. So why not select this?
immigration and race have been linked very closely in US history.
In the late ninetenth and early twentieth century when millions of eastern and southern europeans were migrating to the United States they were considered a different and inferior `race'. A whole new psuedoscience was developed measuring skull diameters and other facial characteristics to determine who the superior and inferior races were. Now the descendeants of all these immigrants are considered `white'. The race choices at Ellis Island were vry different than on today's N-400.
Race is a unscientific concept based purely on pheotype or external appearances and has no genotype (DNA based) validity. In fact thee are more tra race genetic differences than between races(as they are generally perceived).
Race is based on external appearance, not really on country of oirgin. My own country on India is really multiracial, with caucasian (some anglo indians, arguably Kashmiri), south asian(a large majority), negroid ( some indegenous tribes, siddhis's who were brought in by portuguese in the 1600s), mongoloid(north eastern india, Chinese settled in the counry for several genrations) people inhabiting the country. Most large countries similarly have people with differing phenotypes.
The question was what race to chose on the N-400 form. Coming from a country where race identity is not really asked anywhere, one does not identify oneself with any particular race. That is compunded by the popular perception in the USA of Asian race being synonymous with mongoloid characteristics.
In short there is no easy answer.
Race is a redundant form of self identification and the uSCIS sould display some progressive thinking(am I deluded? maybe) and get rid of it altogether.
In the late ninetenth and early twentieth century when millions of eastern and southern europeans were migrating to the United States they were considered a different and inferior `race'. A whole new psuedoscience was developed measuring skull diameters and other facial characteristics to determine who the superior and inferior races were. Now the descendeants of all these immigrants are considered `white'. The race choices at Ellis Island were vry different than on today's N-400.
Race is a unscientific concept based purely on pheotype or external appearances and has no genotype (DNA based) validity. In fact thee are more tra race genetic differences than between races(as they are generally perceived).
Race is based on external appearance, not really on country of oirgin. My own country on India is really multiracial, with caucasian (some anglo indians, arguably Kashmiri), south asian(a large majority), negroid ( some indegenous tribes, siddhis's who were brought in by portuguese in the 1600s), mongoloid(north eastern india, Chinese settled in the counry for several genrations) people inhabiting the country. Most large countries similarly have people with differing phenotypes.
The question was what race to chose on the N-400 form. Coming from a country where race identity is not really asked anywhere, one does not identify oneself with any particular race. That is compunded by the popular perception in the USA of Asian race being synonymous with mongoloid characteristics.
In short there is no easy answer.
Race is a redundant form of self identification and the uSCIS sould display some progressive thinking(am I deluded? maybe) and get rid of it altogether.
TheRealist
Registered Users (C)
Delinking of race from genetics is simply wrong, not to mention ludicrous. Nobody has ever denied or attempted to deny this linkage. Though, I have seen many people misinterpret research findings (as in that PBS hogwash posted on here earlier) and others happily lapping it up.
Race is controlled by genes, period. The child born of a black man and black woman is also black for a genetic reason.
But don't go looking for millions of races just because there are millions of genetic combinations. There is NOT a 1-to-1 mapping. Genes control more than just a person's native physical appearance. (Keyword is native.)
Race is controlled by genes, period. The child born of a black man and black woman is also black for a genetic reason.
But don't go looking for millions of races just because there are millions of genetic combinations. There is NOT a 1-to-1 mapping. Genes control more than just a person's native physical appearance. (Keyword is native.)
realnewbie
Registered Users (C)
Wrong. As someone else has pointed out, basic external appearance is a result of genes. Why do offspring resemble parents?
We should not be politically extra-correct at the expense of scientific facts.
I hope you are aware that Anglo-Indians are the offspring of natives and British. They are not 100% Caucasian. Anglo-Indians would be about as Caucasian as Punjabi Jatts.
Also, what do you mean by 'south asian' being at the same level as the three primary races - Caucasian, Mongoloid and Negroid?
don't you guys have anything else better to do?!
no one is looking for a dissertation on race/characteristics or anything even coming close.
the original poster asked what he should put. the person asking is uscis. for this purpose, the simple answer is asian.
seriously wtf.?
no one is looking for a dissertation on race/characteristics or anything even coming close.
the original poster asked what he should put. the person asking is uscis. for this purpose, the simple answer is asian.
seriously wtf.?
Feb08Filer
Registered Users (C)
c'mon camp12 ... while we are all anxiously awaiting our immigration cases to proceed, aren't we allowed to bond a little in friendly debate ?
Thoughtful
Registered Users (C)
Your race and your genes are linked. Race is phenotypical true. BUt your phenotype to a great extent is dictated by the genes that are in you. THat is how the concept of African Americans came about
Africans = Born of african parents
Americans = Born of american ?? parents
African Americans = Born of an african + american parents.
Does this sound foolish to you. It sounds really crazy to me. I choose AA although I am a full blooded African (whatever that means). Caucasian is not equal to white although we like to think so.
Bottom line, the categorizations are arbitrary, choose other and write in Indian if that is what you want. I do not see that as a qualifying/disqualifying piece of information.
This is both informative and entertaining. Keep it up.
lol
Africans = Born of african parents
Americans = Born of american ?? parents
African Americans = Born of an african + american parents.
Does this sound foolish to you. It sounds really crazy to me. I choose AA although I am a full blooded African (whatever that means). Caucasian is not equal to white although we like to think so.
Bottom line, the categorizations are arbitrary, choose other and write in Indian if that is what you want. I do not see that as a qualifying/disqualifying piece of information.
This is both informative and entertaining. Keep it up.
lol
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so long as you identify that it's offtopic banter, banter away. maybe i'm reading the thread wrong but it seems as though a lot of people are arguing the specifics of the question vs. just taking what the question is and answering it.
no worries here...
Is there option for some MONKEY race... coz we all are originated from there (Monkey's Arse)!
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Can a Russian(even if he has blue eyes and blonde hair) check "Asian"
in the race selection box?
