Should a person's race (also called ethnicity) be identified by his / her last name?

Nope.

What you propose already happens. The trouble is when someone takes on a new name through marriage/adoption etc ... ethnicity cannot change as easily as your name since it's in your DNA. A name is just a human abstract that doesn't really have any significance compared the very essence of you.

You actually need to study the defintions.

Race is defined by the shape of your skull.

There are 5 groups and each group has subgroups.

For example:

There is no such thing as a white person.

The main group is called "Caucazoid"

Within that group are at least 13 types of "white people" that are from all parts of europe. The shape of their skulls/nose/jaws etc will tell you

where they would have originally came from.

Now an ethnic group at one time was a group of people who shared the same culture basically as well as race. But today that is no longer the case.

Today it means the same culture and way of thinking etc regardless of race. Therefore a group of people who grew up together learning certain values etc. (this means if an asian, black and white person went to the same school and hung out together..they are the same ethnic group)

For example....british people are an ethnic group.

Americans are another ethnic group. Both may speak english but both groups have different cultures and mannerisms.

But also if you really wanted to be more detailed..within the USA you can break it down even further....northern states have a slightly differnt culture then southern states...east coast versus west coast....etc etc.

The last names don't mean as much as it did centuries before as well the original definition of ethnic groups.

Just read more about it.

No, that's THE dumbest idea I've ever heard.

By the way, race & ethnicity aren't the same, genius.

So, by your proposed(lets just call it dumb, kay?) system, if I marry a Russian, my ethnicity is then Russian?

I don't think so.

First of all, if I tried to pass off as a Russian, people would probably think I was crazy, I haven't got the accent for it.

Second of all, what if an African with an African last name marries a white person, and takes on, say Johnson?

You think they would want to give up their ethnicity identification of African, and trade if for that white person's(since whites can be from Europe, America, Canada, etc)?

You will hear all sorts of last names of Christian people: Does that make Christianity a race? No. Just the same, Judaism is a religion, not a race. Anyone can convert to Judaism, and there are Jewish people of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds. My race is Caucasion, my ethnicity is Polish and Syrian, and my religion is Judaism. - Judaism is the religion. - Jewish people/Jews is the plural word for followers of the religion - A Jew or Jewish person, is the singular term for a follower One can be Jewish two ways: They convert to the religion, or they are Jewish providing their mother is. According to Jewish law, if someone's mother is Jewish, they are as well: However, should they decide to take up another belief they are considered an apostate and cut off from Judaism. ;)

No, because what if I take on my husband's last name and he's not Asian? What if I married a Smith? Will that make me a black or white person instead of Asian?

African-Americans have their own last names. You think their slave masters gave them their last names? This is 2009, not 1872.

No. I'm black and all my names are of English origin.

no but im cuban and my last name is Heims a german last name no relation to aribert heim.just wanted to say lol

uh no since I have a Scottish last name and that doesn't make me Scottish!

When most black slaves were freed, most of them just took the last name of their plantation/slave owner.

(My last name is not anywhere near British. )

No, that's a horrible idea.