I was born and live in the United States. I am a descendant of African slaves. My motheru2019s family are US Northerners, and we are seven generations of Detroiters. My father, also a descendant of slaves, came to Detroit during the Great Migration. My nationality is American because I am a natural-born citizen of this country. Regarding race, I do not identify as anything because I think racial classification in the US is utter bullsh*t.I have black or sub-Saharan-African genetics, and I am classified as black despite that my known ancestors are Scots. u2018The one-drop ruleu2023 a legal policy used by the US Census Bureau until 1970, declared any person with at least one sub-Saharan-African ancestor (u201cone drop of black bloodu201d) as black.Which is cool, I love being me. But race in this country is used as a social and cultural determinant. In fact, on the first US census, race was defined as a social indicator. Persons in a 1790 household were either white, free-person, or a slave. As it happens, the US government did not account for black immigrants who entered the country with rights, so in order to document black free-persons, the US Census Bureau added a u2018coloredu2023 category to the subsequent census.I identify myself as black to government and non-profit organizations because these entities use demographic numbers for record keeping and programs. Even though, I do not accept my racial classification, my participation in this farce affects how policies are enacted and services in this country are distributed.