I came across a thought provoking article on one of my favorite sites to go to for news and opinion pieces, salon.com. The article entitled, Is race dying?, addresses the changes that have taken place in the United States with respect to racial issues. It focuses mainly on the reported apparent changes in beliefs among many black Americans about the 'black' racial category.

Since taking cultural anthropology in college, I've come to firmly believe that mainstream notions of the concept of race are illogical, divisive, oppressive, and have no real scientific basis. I can't really speak for non-Americans, but I was born and raised in the U.S. so what I do know is that the terms black, white, Asian (formerly Oriental, but don't get me started on that), and Hispanic (or more often used, Spanish/Latino) are commonly used by people to describe themselves as well as other people. I often refer to myself as Asian mostly because from my experience, that is how most people perceive me. But when asked specifically about my ethnicity I always acknowledge that I'm 'half' Filipino and 'half' Irish.

I can identify with many people of 100% Asian descent because of negative attitudes towards me or offensive stereotypes I have dealt with because of my appearance. But categorizing myself as Asian really means nothing else to me, and I'm not sure if other people realize that. And, I am not trying to distance myself from other people, I'm just trying to point out that these words that are used (usually without thinking about what they actually mean) are really shortcuts. In the introduction to Kip Fulbeck's book Part Asian 100% Hapa, Fulbeck writes "Our country is lazy. And I'm not talking about obesity levels...We're uncomfortable with people who don't fit neatly into boxes because when they don't do so it requires effort on our part...Compartmentalization is easy, even inviting".

The article also touches on the influence that mixed-race people are having on concepts of racial identity because many refuse to place themselves in traditional racial categories. When filling out any sort of application that asks me to check a box to indicate my race, I usually skip it altogether, and sometimes will choose 'other'. I feel that it is quite often where I feel like I have to explain myself or get irritated with others because of either their ignorant comments or rigid thinking. I simply do not want to get into a discussion about this topic every time something regarding it comes up. It's annoying. It's tiring. And people don't always get it or don't even care to explore it. So I usually let it go. But now I'm tired of writing about it, but if you're interested in reading the article, here's a link: http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/11/27/race/index.html