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Race Obsession harms those it is meant to help
Malik, Kenan
http://www.kenanmalik.com/essays/st_monitoring.htmlDate Written: 2009-03-29 Publisher: Sunday Times Year Published: 2009 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX11429 Ethnic monitoring does not just produce misleading data. The process of classification often creates the very problems it is supposed to solve. Local authorities have used ethnic categories not only as a means of collecting data but also as a way of distributing political power - by promoting certain 'community leaders' - and of disbursing public funds through ethnically-based projects. Once the allocation of power, resources and opportunities becomes linked to membership of particular groups, then people inevitably begin to identify themselves in terms of those ethnicities, and only those ethnicities. Subject Headings |