The World in Black and White. A Reflection on the Use of Racial Categories in the American Studies on Education

In this contribution some categories are analysed that are commonly used as background variables in the American studies to describe the population, with a special regard to the studies on education. These variables concern the division of the population in different races and ethnicities. It’ll describe the criteria for the choice of these variables, underlining the historical process and the discussion that has brought, in the course of time, to their definition and following adjustments, also with reference to the construct they represent. After an analysis of the documents that shows this diachronic development, a reflection is presented on the legitimacy on that use, basing on a distinction between perception and objectivity. What is underlined is that the use of the current terminology used in statistical studies may be based on misinterpretations of the concepts of race and ethnicity and may allow further discrimination. Science shows that such distinctions are based on a misled common sense but, besides being inconsistent, they also have real consequences in perpetrating social and cultural disadvantages for those who are considered as belonging to non-white races.