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UO wants to know *exactly* what race you are

No word on the rumors all employees will be required to undergo 23andme DNA tracing to help us complete this form accurately.

Strangely, there is no option for you change your “legal sex”.

20 Comments

  1. Amanitore 06/30/2022

    Nubians are White? You learn something new every day at UO.

    • just different 06/30/2022

      They’re as “White” as Berbers or indigenous Egyptians. From the point of view of the socio-economic history of race in the US–which is the only purpose of racial classifications–this is perfectly reasonable.

    • honest Uncle Bernie 06/30/2022

      the race obsession careens toward its frenzied climax, probably just about as the Supreme Court declares it all unconstitutional.

  2. bojack 06/30/2022

    I love that there’s two plain whites. Even Miller Paints doesn’t have that.

    • CSN 07/01/2022

      Yeah but go to Sherman Williams and I’m sure you’ll find all kinds of whites.

  3. Mike 07/01/2022

    If the breakdown is that finely tuned, I think the different Euro heritages should be detailed as well. Why should a Portuguese be lumped in with a Swede?

    • just different 07/01/2022

      A hundred or so years ago, there probably would have been different categories for some European ethnicities as well as for Jews. In 2022 they’re all equally “White.”

      _
      Race is nonsensical as an anthropological classification, but it’s meaningful as a sociological one. This is the thing the “I don’t see color” denialists don’t want to face up to.

    • Anonymous 07/01/2022

      Agree. Ridiculous classification. Why not classify North African or Middle Eastern simply as regions, like the other categories.
      I didn’t know that Algeria was in the middle east. Berbers are from North Africa, not the Middle East. A large country like Russia gets to select a color rather than a region. And what about so many people (e.g., Hispanics/Latinos) who are mixed and don’t know their exact admixture? Why have a label “white” that is not an accurate descriptor of many of the people in that category? Apparently, if you are of African origin, you are either “white” or “black”. No gradations, nothing in between.

      • just different 07/01/2022

        Because Hispanics in the Americas group THEMSELVES into White/Black/Indigenous. Just because a classification isn’t exhaustive doesn’t mean it isn’t useful.

        • Anonymous 07/05/2022

          I am Hispanic and I don’t have an accurate estimate of my mixture, which goes back over 1000 years. The autosomal tests don’t go back far enough in time and will often tell you that you are similar to a certain population that itself is mixed. So, not so simple. Not so black and white.

  4. Woody Guthrie 07/01/2022

    It took a while, but I checked all of them.

  5. Slowly Boiled IT Duck 07/01/2022

    God knows “White Europeans” are just one big happy indistinguishable family.

  6. Slowly Boiled IT Duck 07/01/2022

    We all know in our hearts that there are personal attributes far more important than ethnicity and race. Just broaching the edge, I’ll mention “attractiveness”. I hear the kids refer to “look-ism”.

    Your correspondent will admit to being butt ugly, life-long. If there’s someone here from HR/DEI, I think there should be a box for this. At least in the USA, it matters far more for personal and professional purposes than these other boxes.

    If this seems beyond the pale, well, ask yourself, why is that exactly?

  7. Amy Adams 07/01/2022

    I love how there are two possible boxes to check for:

    “Asian” or “Asian”
    “Pacific Islander” or “Pacific Islander”
    “White” or “White”
    “Black or African-American” or “Black or African-American”
    “American Indian” or “American Indian”

  8. anon 07/03/2022

    I pointed to the work of Randy Thornhill on human facial attraction.
    He has also done a lot of work what we would term ‘racial relations’, in-group/out -group behavior.
    All from a human behavioral-ecology [ aka, Sociobiology] perspective.
    Its very good scholarship.

  9. thedude 07/04/2022

    I’m 3 percent north African based on 23 and me. What do I pick?

    • Slowly Boiled IT Duck 07/04/2022

      So, “hexadecaroon” (which I probably am) would be close, but that’s about six percent. This page mentions “QuarteronnĂ©”, but that might not be appropriate unless you’re from the French Antilles.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadroon

      Do most people actually have a good handle on their fifth generation ancestors’ racial background? (And perhaps more relevantly, do they still carry that grudge around?)

      Anyway, I think “quadroon” is near enough in time that it should be on this list. Can someone from HR add it please?

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