On the nature of sef-identification

As I was coming back from work today by taxi, my taxi driver had a "black" radio station on. This is not my judgement, the little radio jingle specifically said that it was black radio, made by black people, for black people.
This got me thinking about the way I identify myself. I never do it based on things that I was given, but things that I made for myself. That way, I am an engineer before I am a woman, and even now that I am in a foreign country, I am a geek before an expat, or a knitter before a Spanish-speaker. Maybe it's because I don't really belong to any minority (although being a woman in engineering might come close), but the labels I put on myself are those that I acquired, rather than the ones that came given at birth.
Just a though.