"These classifications rest on incoherent stereotypes. Take the “Asian” category. It sweeps into one pile East Asians (e.g., Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and South Asians (e.g., Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi), even though together they constitute about 60% of the world’s population. . . . This agglomeration of so many peoples paves over countless differences in “language,” “culture,” and historical experience. . . . It does so even though few would suggest that all such persons share “similar backgrounds and similar ideas and experiences.” "
"If anything, attempts to divide us all up into a handful of groups have become only more incoherent with time. American families have become increasingly multicultural, a fact that has led to unseemly disputes about whether someone is really a member of a certain racial or ethnic group. There are decisions denying Hispanic status to someone of Italian-Argentine descent . . . as well as someone with one Mexican grandparent. . . . Yet there are also decisions granting Hispanic status to a Sephardic Jew whose ancestors fled Spain centuries ago . . . and bestowing a “sort of Hispanic” status on a person with one Cuban grandparent."
