SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The daughter of a white mother and a black father, Veronica Keiffer has short, curly, dark-brown hair, brown eyes and olive-brown skin dusted with freckles.
People have called her ``exotic,'' addressed her in Spanish and asked to touch her hair. If Keiffer ever forgets about race, she's soon reminded by someone asking: ``What are you?''
To her, race is something that permeates life. But at the California Childcare Health Program in Oakland, where Keiffer works, her supervisor, Dr. Rahman Zamani, wants to stop using the term ``race'' and instead use ``ethnicity'' in staff training discussions and newsletters.
Their workplace debate is being echoed across the country as scientists, academics and advocates question race's role in research, medicine and data collection by the government.
Keiffer contends race is integral to shaping how people view themselves and are treated by others. She says downplaying it won't make it go away — it's better confronted head-on.
Zamani, who classifies himself as Afghan American, believes ethnicity is more scientifically accurate and that race is a broad, misleading term with no biological basis. He argues that ethnicity allows for more precise conversations about specific groups when discussing child care and health issues — for instance, talking about ``Chinese'' rather than ``Asians.''
While the 1990 Census allowed Americans to choose only one of five race categories, the 2000 count let people choose more than one of six categories, increasing the possible number of race classifications to 63.
But while those numbers highlight differences, scientists who sequenced the human genome announced last year that the DNA of human beings is 99.9 percent alike, regardless of race.
``This is proof positive that race is not a biological concept,'' says Monique Mansoura, a policy analyst for the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
Some are advocating against doctors' habit of beginning presentations by describing a patient's race.
In an article published this month in the journal Family Medicine, Dr. Matthew Anderson and his colleagues give an example of a presentation that started out by describing a patient as a ''34-year-old, black, cocaine-using mom who just delivered her 11th child prematurely.''
Anderson, an assistant professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, argues that pairing race with behavior perpetuates a stereotype that could affect the medical care other black women receive.
He and co-author Susan Moscou want patients to be presented ``as non-judgmentally as possible. ``The minute a person hears a person's black, Latino, white, that already comes with a set of assumptions,'' says Moscou, a family nurse practitioner at Montefiore Medical Group in New York.
The American Anthropological Association has recommended eliminating the term ``race'' in the 2010 census.
``The important issues between blacks and whites really have to do with equality of opportunity and access to health care and earning potential,'' says biological anthropologist Jonathan Marks, an association member. ``To talk about them as racial issues makes it sound like biology is the root of the problem.''
The Office of Management and Budget, which sets government standards for collecting data, has said the question of race likely will be revisited for the next census.
The American Sociological Association is working on a race statement of its own. Troy Duster, a sociology professor at New York University who is heading the committee that will write it, says his group will be ``more sensitive to the realities we live with. It's too easy to say, 'Let's just get rid of the concept.'''
Duster, who is working on an anthology of research about race's role in science, says researchers across the country are caught in a confusing contradiction.
``On the one hand, they're saying the human genome project tells us race is of no consequence and, on the other hand, we see massive health disparities between blacks and whites'' and other groups, Duster says.
In California, backers of a 1996 initiative that ended most government affirmative action programs are now preparing for a new campaign to prohibit state and local governments from classifying or sorting students, contractors or employees by race or ethnicity.
``It's an intrusive inquiry on the part of government, and government should have no business sorting or separating people on the basis of race or ethnicity,'' says Kevin Nguyen, executive director of the American Civil Rights Institute.
For John Tateishi, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, growing up in a government detention camp and experiencing discrimination has meant ``the distinction has always been race.''
Part of the challenge may be just figuring out how to shape the debate.
Charles Kamasaki, senior vice president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, says he doesn't think any of the current terms for discussing the concept really fit.
``We still haven't found the language of discourse about how to talk about these questions,'' he says, ``because they're all emotionally and politically charged.''
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On the Net:
American Anthropological Association's comments on race and ethnic standards: http://www.ameranthassn.org/gvt/ombdraft.htm
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