Since Boas, anthropology has held that racial categories are made by societies rather than found in biology — the American Anthropological Association said so plainly in its 1998 Statement on Race. So the useful question is not what race someone is, but where the sorting happens. It happens at three levels, and mistaking one for another is the most common error in any argument about racism. Learn the three tests, then sort nine real cases.
Three levels, stacked
Where does the sorting happen?tap a level — on the list or on the diagram
The levels nestPeople act inside institutions; institutions stand on a structure built over generations. A case can register at more than one level — but only one level explains why it keeps happening.
Read the case, then chooseAsk the three questions in order: Who did it? → Whose rule is it? → How many institutions, over how long? The first one that fits is the level.