difference+between+race+and+ethnicity?


 * __What is the difference between Race and Ethnicity?__**

The reason I chose to research this question is becuase when we had our first class discussion about race, we got ethnicity involved, and then I started thinking and asking myself the difference between the two. I thought at first they had the same meaning but after doing some research, I have come to a definite conclusion that their definitions and meanings are different.

My personal thought on race and ethnicity, race mainly refers to physical traits such as hair color, eye color, the color of our skin, our genealogy etc. Ethnicity on the other hand refers to social traits, such as religious beliefs, traditions/festivals, whether someone is monotheistic or polytheistic, culture etc.

Definitions: Ex. The German race, Indian race, Japanese race. []
 * Race**- It's a group of people classified together based on their history/ancestry, or geographic distribution. We have shared language, culture, and traditions( festivals, something you celebrate yearly)

Ex. American ethnic groups include American Indians, Latinos, Chinese, African Americans, European Americans []
 * Ethicity-** Refers to selected cultural and sometimes physical characteristics used to classify people into groups or categories considered to be significantly different from others.

Dalton Conley, a professor of Social Scieces at New York University, said that race is primarily unitary. A person can only have one race, while they can claim multiple ethnic affiliations. They can identify ethnically as Irish and Polish, but you have to be essentially either black or white. But the fundamental difference between race and ethnicity is that race is socially imposed and hierarchical. There is an inequality built into the system. Furthermore, you have no control over your race; it's how you're perceived by others." I think this means that we have no control over what race we are or how we are thought of by other people based on our race. For example, if someone were of of Japanese descent, they wouldn't be able to change that, nor would they be able to change they way people view them as being a Japanese person. Around 1900, race and ethinicity were often viewed as two words that pretty much meant the same thing. Back then, cultural similarities between people were seen as being the result of genetically inherited traits and tendencies. Race and ethnicity no longer held the same meaning after Max Weber's, a German sociologist, statement that ethnicity was a socail statement. Later in 1950, UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, introduced their statement, [|The Race Question], which was signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of that time, including Ashley Montagu, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gunnar Myrdal, and Julian Huxley. This statement suggested that National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and the cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term 'race' is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term 'race' altogether and speak of 'ethnic groups'. In our present time, our current understanding of race, according to our social scientists, is a physical construct and is also based in genealogy. Ethnicity is a social construct dealing with shared cultures, and behavioural or religious traits.

All in all, the main difference between race and ethnicity is that race is a group of people who share the same physical traits and ancestry whereas ethnicity is a group of people who share the same social traits such as what someone believes in or their culture.

AnnBibKuchibhatla

In the future, I would like to update this page with as much information as possible concerning the differences between race and ethnicity. I want to add more on what other people think on the topic, what makes them think that and why. I think I would like to add, if I am able to find this, when, where and why the debate on race and ethnicity started.