This article aims to critically discuss racial categorizations by problematizing (1) their nature, namely through an ontologically based discussion; (2) their genealogy, using a historically oriented critique and (3) the problems posed by their current applications, which means taking into account their identificatory breadth. Consequently, the article advances three overarching claims that question the use of racial categories: (1) they represent the legacy of a complex system institutionalizing the notion of race, which initially led to economic separation and subsequently pseudo-scientifically categorized populations for the purposes of subjugation and exploitation; (2) even with the provision for self-identification, the employed categories are those that sustained a colonial structure, and the apparent autonomy implied by the suffix ‘self’ effectively aligns with these existing structures in operational terms and (3) they run counter to the prevailing trend embracing multiplicity and the ‘trans’ suffix as a means of transcending hyphenated identities.

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Census,Colonialism,Ethnicity,Genealogy,Identification,Interactive types,Ontology,Race

• Other Social Sciences - Social Sciences