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Recent work on the fluidity of race and shifting racial classifications and identities in the United States has cast significant doubt on the subjective and cultural adequacy of fixed categorization schemes. This paper uses data from a unique survey-based experiment in which respondents were asked to type in their own racial identifications in an open-ended field which we are able to compare with fixed, pre-defined racial categories assigned at an earlier time. The results of this experiment show that most people know and understand the common "fixed choice" categories of Black/White/Hispanic and we find that a majority of respondents sort themselves into these standard categories without any direct prompting to do so. Within these standard, self-reported racial categories, there are dominant racial identifications (e.g., White, Black, Hispanic) and less dominant alternatives (e.g., Caucasian, African-American, Latino/a). For people using one of these common racial categories, we find that there are important differences between subgroups based on how they specifically respond to the open-ended race question (e.g. "white" vs. "Caucasian"). The respondents who chose to provide more complex racial and ethnic identities when allowed to self-identify on the survey varies greatly by racial group. Additionally, a small but very interesting set of respondents (just under 5%) either leave the answer blank or deny that racial classifications mattered. These findings add to the growing body of literature demonstrating the fluidity of race and raise important questions about the nature, meaning, and purpose of standard racial classifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]