How to request your US Border file (and what you're likely to get)

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2014/05/27/how-to-request-your-us-border.html

I find it interesting that they have a field called “Hispanic: Y/N”, instead of “What does this person look like?” with several options. What does being hispanic triggers in the system?

I find it amazing that they still use the somewhat antiquated word ‘race’. In New Zealand we would use ‘ethnicity’ - not a perfect replacement and it has its own issues but at least it is more about personal identity. Race on the other hand is a largely arbitrary label based on skin colour and nose shape and whatever other criteria the observer chooses. I’m happy that our law enforcement officers don’t use the word ‘white’ too but the drop in replacement euphemism ‘caucasian’ is also troubling.

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