On my way home from work one morning I was tuning to NPR when I heard something that new and thought sharing with readers here would come in handy to some researchers when doing their next research, if at all race will matter significantly in their study and conclusion of racial disparities, as well as to a tip to some critics if this in anyway will boost their skills in constructing an argument.
That, while in some countries with diverse population, Governments, schools and companies keep track of people’s race, but did you also know that someone who identified him/herself as White, Black or Asian at one time may identify him/herself otherwise? – This much I didn’t know.
But, as the NPR host Steve Inskeep spoke to the NPR’s social science correspondent, Shankar Vedantam, I came to learn that a person identified his/her race not necessarily based on their genetic and phenotypic composition, but circumstances could change the way they perceived their race or that of others.
Yeah, even family members and society that the person grew in, put them in a different category of race not by their physical look, but by random circumstances they went through (emphasis on the word ‘random’ there because if it were not the case, then the effect of those defining themselves as belonging to one race one year only to change it in the following years, would not have had a affected much of the study findings.)
It is confusing, I know. But head on to the NPR website and listen to the conversation/read transcription, it may come clear to you with examples given, if you were as confused as I was.
