Editing Roth 2016 (section)

== Mapping the Multiple Dimensions ==
(See figure 1) Graph depicting typology of race dimensions with terminology used to describe said terminology. Non-exhaustive and more descriptive of scholars' race components they have studied. All of the components are fluid and may change across time as well as be influenced by contextual factors within society.
The fluidity within racial identity is conceptually different from the others in the graph. 
The first dimension is racial identity, which is how one identifies themself, unrestricted by pre-set options. It is typically measured with open-ended self identification questions. This dimension can be used to study political mobilization or social networks.
Racial self-classification is the race one identifies as on official documents and it is limited to a set of pre-set options. This includes the national census or federal financial aid documents. While it fails at capturing the nuances of one's race and forces people who don't feel adequately represented by the pre-set options to adopt a "census race," it is helpful for data analysis purposes. It aids in studying demographic change, disease and illness rates, etc. (1314).
Observed race is the race that others think you are. The context of the observation impacts what race others think you are. For example, one's attire can influence what race others believe them to be. Observed race can be both appearance-based, meaning people form beliefs about one's race based on readily-observable characteristics, and interaction-based, meaning people form beliefs about one's race based on interactions (for example, one's language, accent, family name, etc.). Observed skin color is influenced by the person doing the perceiving. Black and white interviewers saw more color variation within their own race than in others. Observed race is a useful tool to study discrimination, residential segregation, criminal justice indicators, healthcare/service provisions, etc.
Reflected race is the race that you believe others think that you are. It can be used to examine self-identification processes and perceived discrimination.
Phenotype is one's physical appearance. Contextual cues influence how one observes phenotype. For example, the inclusion of racially-coded names influenced how people rated one's skin color.
Racial ancestry is the last dimension. Known ancestry is what one believes their ancestry to be based off of known family history. Genetic ancestry is given by genetic testing that provides more information about the racial groups of one's ancestors. In the United States, it is considered taboo to assume a racial identity for which you have no ancestry, but in other societies, merely living the life of a group member is sufficient for inclusion in the racial group. Racial ancestry was used for determining who was Black for much of United States history (1319).