The Importance Of Categorization On Institutional Forms And It's Problems

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The Importance of Categorization on Institutional Forms and It’s Problems
America is a place of varied races and ethnicity. Everyone who resides in the United States are supposed to be viewed as equals, yet we are asked to categorize ourselves on many institutional forms. Whether it is for school, for a job, or while applying for a Social Security Card, we are asked to pick a category to put ourselves into on these important forms. It is only because our identity is crucial in the multi-racial country today, to ourselves as well as the government. The categories on most institutional forms can lead our views of race, ethnicity and other aspects of our identity into mistaken judgments because of insufficient information.
America today has become a diverse nation with many different backgrounds ever since the early 1500’s. The categories on institutional forms, which ask the addressee to categorize his or her race, are not sufficient enough to satisfy the people of America today and cause people’s views of other races, ethnicity, and aspects of our identity into mistaken directions. The categories leave out people with more than one ethnicity. There is not one category for a multi-racial person except for the option of the “Other” box. A man who is of two different racial groups can be offended when there is no other choice but to check off the “Other” box because being viewed as an “other” can lower one’s sense of worth. An “other” is someone not of the everyday norm, or in another word, a minority. Also, the person may feel angry since he is not able to state who he really is, being from two different racial groups.
Categorization on institutional forms keeps disorder in our society because it does not present everyone at the same level. The classifications on these forms imply a hierarchy, which have negative effects. People may keep the opinion of certain races or ethnic backgrounds as being be...