You have put me in mind of a wicked idea: race 100 metres breaststroke. (Or marathon, or race to bottom, or ball bearing race)

Thanks for the article. Seems to me my client put Jewish as it was her heritage and she definitely identified herself AND her groom as Jewish, but he entered Caucasian as his "race." Sounds like I'm not the only one confused. No matter, as it's just an optional box on a form, but it just piqued my curiosity.

@TheDoubter here's your definitive answer. It's a religion. Whatever religion you used to be were you a race? The US Census has the definitions it except for race. This site and no other person on it gets to pick a religion and single them out as a race. It's done for anti-semitic purposes only

People put all kinds of things in that box, sometimes running out of room for all the different races they are. Hawaii is such a melting pot of various races and cultures.

I'm guessing the state just likes to collect all the various statistics when they can. They also ask for age, gender, education level, birth place of parents, and the couple, current place of residence, number of past marriages and how they ended and where, etc. I'm sure some of the statistics are for the visitor bureau, to gauge how much money the wedding industry brings into the state.

@Julie808 Good I am pleased they run out of room. If the state is stupid enough to ask a stupid question, then they should realize that no matter how big the box, there will never be enogh room for all the stupid in the world. LOL

@Fernapple Well, the form is smart, the font size adjusts smaller the more they write until I can't read it anymore, haha!

National Human Genome Research Institute

Race is a fluid concept used to group people according to various factors including, ancestral background and social identity. Race is also used to group people that share a set of visible characteristics, such as skin color and facial features. Though these visible traits are influenced by genes, the vast majority of genetic variation exists within racial groups and not between them. Race is an ideology and for this reason, many scientists believe that race should be more accurately described as a social construct and not a biological one.

@ASTRALMAX Which means more or less the same thing as , folklore, thank you for the confirmation.

@Matias But would they think that a black West Highland Terrier, was any different from a white Westy, or would they recognize them as the same breed. And that is the point, because the human race passed through a genetic bottle neck only a few thousand years ago, we are all so closely related that we count as one family in genetic terms. There is in fact more genetic diversity in the average family of chimps than the whole human species. It is a very technical point but in biology our variations do not count as races, as technically recognized in other species, just at most, colour forms of the same race.

@Matias You miss the point, which is that word "race", as the scientific community use the term, is a technical term, with a strict definition, within, ( the admittedly subjective, ) science of taxonomy, and the human subdivisions made over the last seventy thousand years or so by accumulated mutation, ( Which is no time at all in evolutionary terms. ) simply do not meet the qualifications for that term. And neither I think do most dog breeds. Though dogs are much more diverse than humans, since genes from the grey wolf were probably intoduced several times.

If you wish to take issue with the scientific community, and have the rules of taxonomy changed, you are welcome to do so no doubt. Or if you want to use, what Astralmax in a serious comment calls a, "social construct", and I call, "folklore" in a humorous light hearted comment, since, social construct and folklore mean nearly the same thing, that is your privilege, then you are once again welcome.

I get a lot of mixed race marriages, by whatever degree they are measuring, so I suppose they could tell how many marriages would be affected if they ever outlawed inter-racial marriages again.

It's just optional to provide how marriage applicants want to describe their race, or maybe it should read ethnicity. She used a lot of Jewish terms, in a non-religious manner, in the vows she wrote to read to her sweetie.

You have just given me a wicked thought. I am ever so tempted to put "chimpanzee" in that box!

Well about half the people just say "refused" in that box, but I've yet to see someone enter "human" instead. I await that license to come through my desk!

I'm not sure my my state does, except maybe to keep track of things for curiosity sake. The license also keeps track of birthplaces, current residence, age, education level, gender, 1st, 2nd, 3rd marriage, etc., how previous marriage ended, divorce or death, etc. Could be they are curious how many Hawaiians are marrying Caucasians, Asians, etc., just for statistics.

I've only had one client enter "Mongoloid" in that box, but several for various parts of Asia, some getting pretty specific in the region they're from. I also get a lot of "Pacific Islanders" and of course Hawaiian. People enter their race however they want. I get "Latin American" and "Mexican" a lot.

@TheDoubter "They" are not just Caucasian, sorry. Sammy Davis Jr. was Jewish. Lenny Kravitz is Jewish. Are Catholics just Caucasian too? Is Lutheran a race? Jewish is a religion.

@lerlo Judaism is a religion. but they are not negroid or mongoloid. ergo they are caucasian

@TheDoubter Then I guess you don't understand that people of any race can be of any religion.

@lerlo of cour

@lerlo ofcourse they can. the issue is whether jews are a race. they are not.