Describing people by their skin tone.

Here in the United States, it is very common for people to describe their ethnicity, or really, who they are by their appearance.  For example, if you take a person from England, or France, and move them to the United States, any children born in the US will be indistinguishable from any other American.  These people when asked, which they usually aren't, will likely respond that they are white, or American, not French or English.  Take instead someone from China or Mexico.  After several generations, their appearance may be very similar to that of someone still living in China or Mexico.  These people will likely associate with the group of people that looks most like them, Chinese, or Mexican, or possibly Asian or Hispanic.  While I don't have a problem with this and believe that people can associate however they feel is most accurate, I believe that classifying a person by their appearance, even yourself, is racist and doesn't do anyone any good.

When someone associates with a specific group, saying "I am ", this appears to claim a lot when too many people use it in a shallow manner.  I think that claim should come with requirements:  
1.  Speak the language.
2.  Participate in cultural traditions.
3.  Live with 1st generation immigrants from that area, or keep close contact and visit with relatives or friends from the origin country or area.
4.  Visit the country.

I recently had a co-worker that I challenged on this.  He claimed he was "Chinese".  He didn't speak Chinese, had never been to China, and did not celebrate any Chinese traditions.  In fact, his parents and grandparents did not do any of these things either.  My claim was that he was no more Chinese than I was.  He disagreed strongly.  I believe he cheapens the term Chinese and uses it solely because of how he looks.

My children are very white with red hair and freckles.  They are 1/4 Mexican.  They will probably never describe themselves as Mexican even though they do speak Spanish, have visited Mexico several times and have close relatives that still live in Mexico that they visit.  It really does come down to appearance.

The solution:  Let's do away with these kinds of labels.  If you claim "I am ", think hard about what that means.  Is that really the single overriding characteristic you should use to describe yourself?  When you describe others, are you assuming someone is from a specific area or are you labeling them based on appearance alone?  My children have rarely heard us use labels the way many of our friends do.  Because of this, we never hear them describe people by their appearance.  I know this won't last long as it is a societal norm, but the more people we have thinking about this and trying to behave differently, the better we will be as a community.  Learn about people.  Describe them in words that really tell who they really are.  And if you mean to describe their skin color, then by all means, say that instead of labeling them.  "The tall sensitive man with the light skin..." or "An inquisitive older man sat next to me..."