Many citizens accept their racial label as easily as they accept their gender label. But should we? Recent scholarship shows us that the effect of using labels like Italian- American, Black, or Asian has rarely been benign. Karen Helm will trace the ideology that underlies our use of racial terminology and discuss how it shapes our understanding of history, events and behavior. She will explore the information that we actually convey when we use it and suggest ways to ensure we are saying what we mean.