When asked for your race, answer "mongrel" http://yarchive.net/risks/mongrel.html http://yarchive.net/risks/mongrel.html Quoting from the anecdote: All of my

When asked for your race, answer "mongrel" http://yarchive.net/risks/mongrel.html http://yarchive.net/risks/mongrel.html Quoting from the anecdote: All of my known forebears came from Europe, mostly from Southern Germany with a few from England, Ireland, and Scotland. A glance in the mirror, however, indicated that there was Middle Eastern blood in my veins. I have a semitic nose and skin that tans so easily that I am often darker than many people who pass for black. Did I inherit this from a Hebrew, an Arab, a Gypsy or perhaps one of the Turks who periodically pillaged Central Europe? Maybe it was from a Blackfoot Indian that an imaginative aunt thinks was in our family tree. I will probably never know. As an arrogant young computer scientist, I believed that if there is any decision that you can't figure out how to program, the question is wrong. I couldn't figure out how to program racial classification, so I concluded that there isn't such a thing. I subsequently reviewed some scientific literature that confirmed this belief. "Race" is, at best, a fuzzy concept about typical physical properties of certain populations. At worst, of course, it is used to justify more contemptible behavior than any concept other than religion. In answer to the race question on the security form, I decided to put "mongrel." This seemed like an appropriate answer to a meaningless question.