The study was cited on a podcast, so I have forgotten the source, but the results were as follows.

Given the question "to what extent is your race a defining characteristic of who you are"

80% of black folks surveyed said 'very high' or 'high' while only 15% of whites said that.

Whites, Asians and every Latino group rated "American" as a larger part of their identity than did blacks.

It's difficult to decide whether this self-identity trend is a symptom or might be the actual 'disease'.

I have an anecdotal verification of this result. Teachers in TX have 5 days of training minimum each summer, and sometimes we actually gain some skills and insight. I had to choose 5 words to describe myself once in a workshop.

I chose, Devoted Father, American, Libertarian, Tireless Educator, and Logical. Except for 'father' I made no reference to race, sex, age, religion, or family ethnicity, and for the few white men in the room, many also said 'husband' or 'father' but not one said 'white' and not one said 'man'.

Moving to the several Hispanic men, again not one said 'man' but a couple said 'Mexican-American' Hispanic women were the same in these respects.

White women never said 'white' but frequently said 'woman' in some form like 'proud woman' of 'strong woman'. Hispanic women also said these 'woman' phrases. Every mom seemed to say mom, of course.

The 5 or so black folks in the room ALL said "black (wo)man" or "proud black (wo)man" or "strong black (wo)man". None used the phrase 'African American'.

It was eye-opening for me to see some of the more educated and successful members of other races being so sub-group conscious and so little big-group affiliated.

Your observation does not surprise me. I believe that the root cause has been due mostly due to the "two party system" which causes the parties to jockey for voters and the most efficient way to do it is to appeal to a large block of voters.

Think about these very words that we constantly hear in all of the media, "Leading Among Black Voters". Isn't that strange? Why do we divide our analysis based on any race, creed or religion the way that we do.

People are inherently social animals (except for the few hermits and people like Ted Kaczynski). They want to belong to a group. They want to belong so strongly that they will do things with the group that they would never dare to do on their own. Do we think that those that burn down the stores do that everyday when they are alone or do they only do it when they are involved with a group of others?

By constantly using the identifying terms of race and ethnicity we are adding to the overall problems. By making packaging bilingual for example we are not encouraging others to acclimate to the society they came here to be a part of. In fact, it is doing the opposite.

I believe that we are treating society like the metal lunch trays I had in grade school where it was stamped in a way to make areas to keep the food from mixing with each other. Peas separate from the carrots, mashed potatoes separate from the mystery gravy covered meat.

Back to the two party system...there is a reason why it is deliberately kept that way....just ask Bernie.

I’m only guessing, but I think you are probably a lot more aware of your “blackness” than I am of my whiteness, unless we are at a nightclub where I’m the only white guy. Then I become a lot more aware in a hurry. Never occurred to me until I was dating a black woman, years ago and we went to a club she liked. I was the only white male there. It wasn’t a problem, but I was very aware of being white. White people don’t have the situations where they have to be aware of their whiteness. Since I’ve only experienced being white, I’m obviously guessing.