When you say things like "American notions of race", I think it's good to point out that much of that is specifically codified in government policy and regulati

When you say things like "American notions of race", I think it's good to point out that much of that is specifically codified in government policy and regulation. American notions of race when referring to the citizenry is quite different than the constructs the government puts us in. We have mixed-race marriages between people of already mixed races, genetic testing that undermines any illusions of a concept of "racial purity", and if your family has been in America for more than say, four generations, you probably have family lore of interracial marriages and dalliances. There are also broad studies[1] indicating some boilerplate assumptions of mixed race. So maybe better to refer to the American government's notions of race when we're thinking about the checkboxes, because that's who publishes the stuff. Many, many American citizens have views that are no more nuanced than this narrative, but I think that's decreasingly the case, and enough so that painting "American" views on race with such a broad brush is.. overly broad. If you're sensing some defensiveness here, I think it's frustration that we all know the checkboxes are inherently flawed, they don't reflect lived experiences, but somehow we as a country keep having this national conversation that can't get outside the boxes. Very frustrating. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4289685/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4289685/