> This seems a pretty US-centric conception. I for one wouldn't know how to assign a "racial identity" to myself, and most of my acquitances would surely say the same thing. I doubt that this study holds much meaning outside the USA.

I’m outside of the US (Australian born, resident in Europe for many years) and I wouldn’t find this difficult. If asked, I would assign myself a racial identity of white/European/caucasian. If someone else was asked what race I was, they’d probably say about the same.

I don’t think that my race is an important part of my identity, mind you, but it is ‘real’ in that it impacts how I am treated by others (that is, it has social consequences).