“Where are you really from?”: The blurred fences of the race and ethnicity data box

“Where are you really from?” is a question often asked when a person's name, appearance, or accent is different, or does not align with someone's expectations. While the question may seem straightforward, in the context of race and ethnicity data collection, this is not an easy question to answer. Take, for example, former United States Vice President Kamala Harris, a person of both Indian and Jamaican descent—“where are you from?” is a much more layered and multifaceted question than it may initially seem.