n illogical mix of national origin, tribal affiliations, and physical characteristics to distinguish groups. The ambiguity over what constitutes ôraceö is, said Tashiro (2001, p. 177), ôreflected in the contradictory and confusing construction of the racial and ethnic categoriesö in which race is often conflated with ethnicity, nationality, culture, or language. These constructs are used as social and political instruments rather than as meaningful determinants of population variations.
Similar ideas were advanced by Teresa Williams-Leon (2001), who used the example of Asians and Latinos in the United States to indicate how supposedly comprehensive racial categories are invalid. There is a tendency to speak of Asian-Americans and Latinos as though these groups comprised a specific and singular race. In reality, both terms are extremely broad and do not begin to capture commonalities in terms of essentialist features (e.g., skin tone, facial structure) or elements of ethnicity such as national origin, language or dialect, and cultu
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