While the accepted answer seems to be "don't ask" -- the researcher in me wants to improve the corpus of knowledge in the world.

If you were hypothetically providing a quality of service that would genuinely be improved be asking for this information, a way could be as follows:

• Optional
• Checkbox

What's in the dropdown is what makes it interesting: Whereas the 3 major "race" descriptors are serious trigger words, the "subrace" descriptors have a level of granularity that makes it more interesting (without using the C, M or N words) and potentially less judgmental.

  Aryan
  Semitic
  Hamitic
  African Negro
  Khoikhoi
  Melanesian
  Negrito
  Australoid
  Dravida & Sinhalese
  North Mongol
  Chinese & Indochinese
  Japanese & Korean
  Tibetan
  Malay
  Polynesian
  Maori
  Micronesian
  Eskimo
  American

Also this level of granularity, being more technical implies that it will be used for a technical purpose.

Moreover perhaps while someone is a/antipathetic to listing their race (eg. "don't label me [asian|black|white]"), they may feel a sentiment closer to cultural pride regarding their subrace.

People are generally obsessed with themselves and may not even know what sub-race they are yet have a curiosity, so in that spirit provide the information.

Also the time to ask is not at signup -- that's asking too much for no return.

The time to as is the first time that the user makes a request to your system for what ever service you provide (diagnosis or whatever). This both:

• confirms that you're asking for technical reasons.
• is asking at a time when a service is expected to be returned.

While the accepted answer seems to be "don't ask" -- the researcher in me wants to improve the corpus of knowledge in the world.

If you were hypothetically providing a quality of service that would genuinely be improved be asking for this information, a way could be as follows:

• Optional
• Checkbox

What's in the checkbox list is what makes it interesting: Whereas the 3 major "race" descriptors are serious trigger words, the "subrace" descriptors have a level of granularity that makes it more interesting (without using the C, M or N words) and potentially less judgmental.

  Aryan
  Semitic
  Hamitic
  African Negro
  Khoikhoi
  Melanesian
  Negrito
  Australoid
  Dravida & Sinhalese
  North Mongol
  Chinese & Indochinese
  Japanese & Korean
  Tibetan
  Malay
  Polynesian
  Maori
  Micronesian
  Eskimo
  American

Also this level of granularity, being more technical implies that it will be used for a technical purpose.

Moreover perhaps while someone is a/antipathetic to listing their race (eg. "don't label me [asian|black|white]"), they may feel a sentiment closer to cultural pride regarding their subrace.

People are generally obsessed with themselves and may not even know what sub-race they are yet have a curiosity, so in that spirit provide the information.

Also the time to ask is not at signup -- that's asking too much for no return.

The time to as is the first time that the user makes a request to your system for what ever service you provide (diagnosis or whatever). This both:

• confirms that you're asking for technical reasons.
• is asking at a time when a service is expected to be returned.

While the accepted answer seems to be "don't ask" -- the researcher in me wants to improve the corpus of knowledge in the world.

If you were hypothetically providing a quality of service that would genuinely be improved be asking for this information, a way could be as follows:

• Optional
• Dropdown

What's in the dropdown is what makes it interesting: Whereas the 3 major "race" descriptors are serious trigger words, the "subrace" descriptors have a level of granularity that makes it more interesting (without using the C, M or N words) and potentially less judgmental.

  Aryan
  Semitic
  Hamitic
  African Negro
  Khoikhoi
  Melanesian
  Negrito
  Australoid
  Dravida & Sinhalese
  North Mongol
  Chinese & Indochinese
  Japanese & Korean
  Tibetan
  Malay
  Polynesian
  Maori
  Micronesian
  Eskimo
  American

Also this level of granularity, being more technical implies that it will be used for a technical purpose.

People are generally obsessed with themselves and may not even know what sub-race they are yet have a curiosity, so in that spirit provide the information.

Also the time to ask for this is the first time that a diagnosis is being asked for. This both:

• confirms that you're asking for technical reasons.
• is asking at a time when a service is expected to be returned.

Note: the more interesting question to me is that personally I'm straight-up 50%/50%* ... how do you handle that?

*moreover I just learned what my non-obvious half actually is!

While the accepted answer seems to be "don't ask" -- the researcher in me wants to improve the corpus of knowledge in the world.

If you were hypothetically providing a quality of service that would genuinely be improved be asking for this information, a way could be as follows:

• Optional
• Checkbox

What's in the dropdown is what makes it interesting: Whereas the 3 major "race" descriptors are serious trigger words, the "subrace" descriptors have a level of granularity that makes it more interesting (without using the C, M or N words) and potentially less judgmental.

  Aryan
  Semitic
  Hamitic
  African Negro
  Khoikhoi
  Melanesian
  Negrito
  Australoid
  Dravida & Sinhalese
  North Mongol
  Chinese & Indochinese
  Japanese & Korean
  Tibetan
  Malay
  Polynesian
  Maori
  Micronesian
  Eskimo
  American

Also this level of granularity, being more technical implies that it will be used for a technical purpose.

Moreover perhaps while someone is a/antipathetic to listing their race (eg. "don't label me [asian|black|white]"), they may feel a sentiment closer to cultural pride regarding their subrace.

People are generally obsessed with themselves and may not even know what sub-race they are yet have a curiosity, so in that spirit provide the information.

Also the time to ask is not at signup -- that's asking too much for no return.

The time to as is the first time that the user makes a request to your system for what ever service you provide (diagnosis or whatever). This both:

• confirms that you're asking for technical reasons.
• is asking at a time when a service is expected to be returned.