Can someone from the US explain what race even means in this context and how it is determined?

_--__--__ 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It is self reported according to the US census recognized racial categories: white, black, asian, native American/Alaskan, native Hawaiian or Pacific islander, and other (or two+ categories). Hispanic/latino identification is a separate box you check for reasons that are hard to explain without going over decades of bureaucratic decisions.

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krior 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> US census recognized racial categories

Thank you for a googleable term.

Are there any guides on how to decide which "race" you are? Because I cannot imagine that everyone knows exactly which part of the earth all of their ancestors originate from.

	▲	_--__--__ 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It is not a perfect or rigid system, but it's the one we have (and any attempt to improve it would get caught up in the weeds of how much 'racial science' can be endorsed by the US government). Practically speaking, most Americans over the past 300 years knew of specific near ancestors who came from somewhere else (with little interbreeding among immigrant populations) and answered based on that. The obvious exceptions were descendants of slaves and Native Americans, which is why those were the first non-white (where 'white' includes all Europeans as well as large parts of the Middle East and North Africa) categories tracked by the census.
	▲	trallnag 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		They can pick "mixed" or the race they identify with the most.

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nomel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

All levels of the US education system teach (now at least) that race is a social construct. There's no concept of population-genetics taught, until much later, in hard science classes.

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BowBun 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, this is a common point of confusion when talking to Europeans about racial issues in the US (as I found out myself recently). Race in our contexts refers to your background/birthplace/heritage. On our government forms: "What race are you?" "White, black, hispanic, etc."

This is fundamentally different by intent than in Europe (using french here) where we refer to 'la race humaine' which is the _species_.

The nuance is critical during debates. While I was discussing racial differences to some Swiss folks, they thought I was talking Nazi propaganda! We are all part of the human species, the human species has many races. We are all equal!

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Ylpertnodi 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Most Europeans are NOT confused by this. Sheesh.

	▲	BowBun 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I am European, I have had this discussion with Europeans back home from various countries. This is a common point of confusion. Do you have something to add?

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krior 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> background/birthplace/heritage

Are those slashes AND or OR?

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rf15 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> they thought I was talking Nazi propaganda!

well, I mean, listen, if it's part of the census, that's... still government-level racial discrimination. It might not be a duck, but this thing has a certain duck-shaped silhuette.

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ButlerianJihad 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are various risk factors, and some lab tests, that differ among racial groups.

For example, my labs include at least two that have different specified thresholds for "African-American" or "non-AA" patients.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_disease#United_Sta...

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durkie 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

i believe it is self-declared.