A chara, – Dr Dermot Quish (April 27th) is incorrect in his assertion that classifying people by their ethnic background in the census is an "outdated and unscientific" practice. Social scientific disciplines such as sociology consistently identify people by their race and/or ethnicity, and there is a growing movement in other scientific disciplines, such as psychology, to do the same. This is not mere "colour-coding", as Dr Quish implies, and nor is it an attempt to create or amplify differences between people with different racial, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds. Those differences already exist. They exist within individuals in how they construct their own identities, and within society in the multitude of ways that people from minority backgrounds are treated differently than those from the majority group.
While I wholeheartedly agree with Dr Quish that as a society we should move beyond racism – just as I believe we should move beyond sexism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination – conducting a census without a question on ethnicity would be about as sensible as conducting a census without questions on gender or age. – Is mise,
CADHLA McDONNELL,
State College,
Pennsylvania.