Race and ethnicity are terms that are often used interchangeably. Race and ethnicity are not the same.
Both terms are used to describe human identity, but in different ways. Questions of skin color, nationality, language, religion, cultural traditions, and family ancestry might be brought to mind. Race and ethnicity have been used as ways to describe human diversity. Ethnicity recognizes differences between people on the basis of language and culture.
Some people became white.
Race is seen as something that is inherent in our biology, and therefore passed on across generations. Ethnicity is typically understood as something we acquire, or self-ascribe, based on factors like where we live or the culture we share with others.
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...
We are going to dismantle the very foundations on which they are built once we have outlined these definitions. The question of race versus ethnicity exposes major and persistent flaws in how we define these two traits, flaws that have given them an outsized social impact on human history.
In the 18th century, anthropologists and philosophers used geographical location and skin color to place people into different racial groupings. That reinforced the idea that there are different types of people and that they had a biological basis.
White Europeans used to justify the slave trade and colonialism by saying that some races were superior to others, according to a University of Cape Town professor. The driver of the triangular trade was capitalism and theAccumulation of Wealth, according to a medical anthropologist at the Social Science Research Institute. She is the associate director of engagement for the Center on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation at Duke. The center is part of a movement in the United States where members lead events and discussions with the public to challenge historic and present-day racism.
Even in current definitions of race, where there is still an underlying assumption that skin color or hair texture are unique to different racial groups, the effects of this history are still present. The scientific basis for that premise is not there.
If you take a group of 1,000 people from the recognized races of modern people, you will find a lot of variation. She said that the amount of genetic variation within any of these groups is greater than the average difference between the two groups.
What are genes?
If you compare the genomes of people from different parts of the world, there are no genetic variations that occur in one group over another. The conclusion has been reached in many studies. Europeans and Asians have the same set of genetic variations. The racial groupings we have created are more similar to each other than they are different, meaning there is no way to separate people according to their biology.
The same or similar skin colors have evolved, according to research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She means that skin color is a tool for putting people into different racial categories.
We identify each other's race based on visual clues. Humans have chosen to ascribe those values to each other. The problem occurs when we use this social habit with scientific truth because there is no way to separate them.
The 18th century was when the first races were created. They are not naturally occurring groups.
The major difference between race and ethnicity is that ethnicity is more frequently chosen by the individual. It can allow people to take on several identities because it covers everything from language to nationality. Someone could choose to identify themselves as Asian American, British Somali or Ashkenazi Jew, for instance, by drawing on different aspects of their racial identity, culture, ancestry and religion.
During the Holocaust, ethnicity was used to justify mass killings, and during the Rwandan genocide, ethnicity was used to justify mass killings. Ifekwunigwe said that ethnicity can be a boon for people who feel like they are part of one racial group or another. Multiple identities can be difficult for people to claim, such as in the case of multiraciality, which is often not officially recognized.
If you have a minority position in society, your race can be a factor.
The RACE Project says that these kinds of problems explain why there is a push to recognize race as a cultural and social construct.
It is not quite so simple.
Race and ethnicity are abstract concepts, but they still have a real world influence. These constructs have immense power in terms of how societies work. Defining people by race is ingrained in the way societies are structured, how they function and how they understand their citizens.
The legacies of racial categories have shaped society in ways that have resulted in vastly different realities for different groups. It is reflected in higher levels of poverty for minority groups, poorer access to education and health care, and greater exposure to crime. The Southern Poverty Law Center explained that race is still used as a motivator for discrimination against other groups that are deemed to beinferior.
Ifekwunigwe said that race is just the beginning of a social construct. She said that it continues to determine people's access to opportunity, privilege and livelihood in many instances. According to the Census Bureau, African American women are more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
The way we construct our own identities can be influenced by race. A sense of racial identity in minority groups can foster pride, mutual support and awareness. Race can be used to gauge levels of inequality across a population, helping to determine which groups need more support because of their socio-economic situation. Having data about people's race is important in making policy decisions, particularly for civil rights, according to the U.S. Census Bureau website.
It is possible that we should view the idea of race and ethnicity in a different way. There are no easy answers, but one thing is clear: While both are portrayed as a way to understand human diversity, in reality they also wield power as agents of division that don't reflect any scientific truths.
Science shows us that we share more in common than we don't. The challenge for the future will be to see that instead of our differences alone.
Research to Improve Data on Race and Ethnicity traces how the Census bureau is working to keep up with individuals, for a deeper understanding of how the U.S. government categorizes race and ethnicity. It is usually complex. There is a landing page for the research and survey data related to race and ethnicity that is open in a new tab.
It's easy to imagine a mountain of books written about race and ethnicity. Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of our Discontents explores how race and ethnicity are used to divide people.
There is a bibliography.
The topic of race is open in a new tab. December 3, 2021.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found in the new tab. November 24, 2021.
What Racism Costs Us All opens in a new tab. Fall 2020.
There was a report on July 31 of this year. The Harlem Renaissance is about a new African American identity. The new African American identity and Harlem Renaissance are stories from the newmaahc.si.edu.
Roberts and Leon. There was a report on July 13th. Black Lives Matter changed the way Americans fight for freedom. How black lives matter changed way American's fight for justice is a post by the American Civil Liberties Union.
White Nationalist. The Southern Poverty Law Center has a section on white nationalism.
Newkirk II, Vann R. The EPA Concludes Environmental Racism is real. The Trump administration finds that environmental racism is real.
The American Psychological Association. There are ethnic and racial minorities.
June 10, 2019. The ethnic cleansing took place. The History Channel has a topic about ethnic cleansing.
The history of race is written by Smedley. The encyclopedia Britannica. The topic is race-human and scientific-classifications-of-race.
There are three people named George Jablonski, Nina and George. May 5, 2010. Human skin is adapted to UV radiation. There is a new tab on the PNAS website.
It was originally published on Live Science.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
