A news article describing a Taliban attack in Afghanistan caused me to think about who we identify ourselves. The article said: ...left five Afghans and nine foreigners dead, including an American woman, four Indians, two Pakistanis and an Italian...
Other recent news items stress the race or ethnicity of people killed by police. While some level of categorization is probably necessary for communication, it seems we sometimes overdo it.
Does a person's nationality, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, or profession really define a person? When I was in college, I referred to myself as a student. While working in my profession, I was a scientist, consultant, manager, etc. Growing up I was a son and later as an adult, I was a husband and Dad. None of these categories really describe my true self; they did tend to explain, and maybe reinforce or encourage, my egoic behavior.
As a scientist, I was really into classification of plants and animals. While I understand the benefits of taxonomy to botany, biology, and other scientific disciplines, I wonder whether society's tendency to classify people into so many categories causes adverse impacts to the individual and to society in general that we need to think about.
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