Livia (from Brazil) writes a comment to my Racial and Ethnic classifications as an example of classification challenges post: "Not because it's a bad or a good idea, but how they simply cloned it from the US, even though it makes absolutelly no sense to our population or ethnical background. We don't have a racial problem in Brazil (we have a wealth distribution problem) and it really upsets me that they are turning it into something it is not."
Classification systems really have a tendency to stick around, even when they're no longer useful or just not applicable to the situation (as in Livia's example).
# Nov 27, 2003