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Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America Kindle Edition

by David E. Bernstein (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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A call for the separation of race and state, backed by a deep dive into the surreal world of racial classification in America.

“The racial categories that the schools use are completely bonkers, an arbitrary mess mostly left over from the work of federal bureaucrats in the 1970s that can’t withstand the slightest scrutiny. The administrators who rely on these categories are beholden to senseless and unscientific distinctions—they aren’t even competent or rational racialists. Justice Samuel Alito raised this issue in the arguments, pretty clearly relying on the work of George Mason University professor David Bernstein, who eviscerated the categories in an amicus brief and has written a book on their origin and implications, Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America.”
–National Review

Americans are understandably squeamish about official racial and ethnic classifications. Nevertheless, they are ubiquitous in American life. Applying for a job, mortgage, university admission, citizenship, government contracts, and much more involves checking a box stating whether one is Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American.

While reviewing the surprising history of American racial classifications, Classified raises questions about the classifications’ coherence, logic, and fairness; for example:

Should Pakistani, Chinese, and Filipino Americans be in the same category despite their obvious differences in culture, appearance, religion, and more?
Why does the government not allow Americans to classify themselves as bi- or multi-racial?

How did the government decide that a dark-complexioned, burka-wearing Muslim Yemini should be classified as generically white, but a blond-haired, blue-eyed immigrant from Spain should be classified as Hispanic and treated as a member of a minority group?
Why does the government require biomedical researchers to classify study participants by the official racial categories, when the classifications have no scientific basis?

In an increasingly diverse society with high rates of intergroup marriage, the American system of racial classification is getting even more arbitrary and absurd. With rising ethno-nationalism threatening democracy around the world, it’s also dangerous. Classified argues that the time has come to consider abolishing official racial classification and replace it with the separation of race and state.

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250 pages
Language

English
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Publication date

July 19, 2022
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1696 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David E. Bernstein holds a University Professorship chair at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where he has been teaching since 1995. Known as a fearless contrarian, Professor Bernstein often challenges the conventional wisdom with prodigious research and sharp, original analysis. He is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and a John M. Olin Fellow. --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Review

A thorough, careful, magisterial work on a subject that's both of great practical and great theoretical importance in modern American law; highly recommended.

-- "Eugene Volokh, Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law"

We mock the racial-classifications schemes of the Jim Crow south, of Nazi Germany, and of Apartheid South Africa. But as David Bernstein ably demonstrates, our own racial classification system is just as risible, and no more scientific.

-- "Glenn Reynolds, Distinguished Professor of Law at University of Tennessee and founder of Instapundit.com"

Well-researched and clearly written, Classified explains how we got into this mess and why a rethinking of official racial and ethnic categories is long overdue.

-- "Jason L. Riley, journalist and author of Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell" --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09Z3894L6
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bombardier Books (July 19, 2022)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 19, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1696 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 250 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #574,666 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #38 in Civil Rights Law (Kindle Store)
- #197 in Civil Rights Law (Books)
- #306 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Kindle Store)

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4.6 112 ratings

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David E. Bernstein

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David E. Bernstein holds a University Professorship chair at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, where he has been teaching constitutional law and other classes since 1995.

Bernstein is the author of five books, including the Amazon Top 50 bestseller, "You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Law," and coauthor of two more.

Professor Bernstein’s book Rehabilitating Lochner was praised across the political spectrum as “intellectual history in its highest form,” a “fresh perspective and a cogent analysis,” “delightful and informative,” “sharp and iconoclastic,” and “a terrific work of historical revisionism.”

Columnist George Will wrote that Bernstein’s most recent book, Classified, The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, may be “the most consequential American book of 2022.”

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J. Cone

Enlightening

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2024

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The author clearly and simply lays out the historical framework of racial categorization by the United States government over time. Very well done.

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2023

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David Bernstein's Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America is a timely and important book that offers a fresh perspective on the history and future of race in America. Bernstein argues that the current system of racial classification, which is based on the idea of discrete and mutually exclusive racial groups, is arbitrary, counterproductive, and ultimately harmful. He traces the history of racial classification in America from its origins in slavery to its current use in government, education, and other institutions. He also examines the ways in which racial classification has been used to justify discrimination and inequality.

Bernstein's book is well-written and engaging. He does an excellent job of explaining complex legal and historical concepts in a clear and accessible way. He also provides a wealth of evidence to support his arguments. Classified is an important book that should be read by anyone who is interested in race, law, or American history.

One of the most compelling arguments that Bernstein makes is that the current system of racial classification is arbitrary. He points out that there is no scientific basis for dividing people into discrete racial groups. Race is a social construct, and the boundaries between racial groups are constantly shifting. For example, people who are considered to be white today were once considered to be non-white.

Bernstein also argues that the current system of racial classification is counterproductive. He points out that it reinforces the idea that people of different races are fundamentally different. This can lead to prejudice and discrimination. For example, studies have shown that people who are asked to check a box indicating their race are more likely to be discriminated against in employment and housing.

Finally, Bernstein argues that the current system of racial classification is harmful. He points out that it stigmatizes people of color. It also makes it difficult for people to identify with their own culture and heritage. For example, people who are of mixed race may feel like they don't fit in anywhere.

Classified is an important book that challenges the way we think about race in America. Bernstein's arguments are persuasive, and his book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in race, law, or American history.

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Alan Hohn

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Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2022

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The specific racial categories that Americans see when filling out the census, government paperwork, and financial industry forms are so familiar that it is easier to slide over them than to think deeply about them. When one has checked or left blank dozens of boxes labeling oneself as "Hispanic", or "White, Non-Hispanic", or "Black or African American", then even if one recognizes that there are people who don't easily fit these categories (or fit more than one), one is unlikely to spend much time thinking about whether these categories ever made sense in the first place.

For this reason, a significant benefit of this book is the way it shows the contingent nature of our current ways of categorizing people according to race and ethnicity. But for the specific series of decisions made by individual agencies and judges, whole groups of people could have been categorized differently. Most interesting was the discussion of the relative success or failure of some groups to have themselves categorized, or once categorized, to include or exclude certain people from their category in search of maximum advantage.

Both supporters and opponents of our current system of affirmative action will benefit from reading this book. No matter what one thinks of differential government benefits based on racial or ethnic group membership, this book convincingly demonstrates that the process by which our current collection of racial and ethnic categories are defined reflects political power as much or more than a desire for justice. And as a result, whether one supports or opposes affirmative action, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that our current system is ill-suited to accomplish the stated objectives from the era in which it was first established, much less to adapt itself effectively to America's changing landscape.

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Chrysippo

More a catalogue

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2023

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David Bernstein's session with Michael Shermer on the latter's podcast was engrossing, so much so that I was prompted to buy the book despite it featuring only American institutions. However, the book is rather a dry list of the legal processes that led to America's rather nonsensical racial categories with little of the nonsensical effects on people and institutions that featured in the podcast.

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