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>>>>A fellow called into the radio the other day and said his 7 year old anglo daughter informed him that she is really black, but was born the wrong color LOL

Now imagine the hub bub that would ensue, if she and her parents marked her race down as black on all the goobermint forms and demanded that she get all the considerations that, that brings in this insane word.<<<<

I’ve used this same line not only with my colleagues, but also with some of my students in casual conversation.... if I can say that I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body, why can’t I say that I’m a Native American trapped in a white man’s body?

There’s actually an example of this in a person named Iron Eyes Cody, the actor who was “the crying Indian” in that famous commercial showing the Indian standing on the side of the freeway with a tear running down his cheek after having trash thrown at his feet. I use this commercial when we’re learning about bias and propaganda. Since most of my students are Alaska Native, they all assume that the guy is Native, too. He “looks like it.” Then we find out he’s Italian! This leads to all sorts of interesting discussions, including the question posed up above about being Native guy trapped in a white man’s body.

The good news is that my students invariably come to the conclusion that, for God’s sake, you can’t change your ancestral history just because you want to. The same goes for gender, according to those same kids - when you’re born one sex or the other, it is what it is. Your denial of that fact doesn’t change reality, and if you’re born a hermaphrodite, well, that’s what it is.

I agree with Jacques Barzun that the “choose your gender” thinking is the product of a dying culture that has gone overboard with the concept of individual rights. (He places animal rights, gay rights, and a host of other “rights” in that category of individualism gone amuck.)

As far as race goes on government forms, I always write “human being.”