Similarities Between Race And Ethnicity

People tend to clump race and ethnicity into the same definition by default. Hopefully by the end of this essay will you further understand what each define. I will start by going over what simlarities they have and then going into how they are different, and how are they related to another.
If we look at race and ethnicity from a text book definition you will find that race is defined as “ a group of persons related by common descent or heredity”(Dictionary.com, ND), and ethnicity is defined as “an ethnic group; a social group that shares common and distinctive culture,religion, or the like:”(Dictionary.com,ND). Now where are they similar? Simply put you will find that the definition is not too far off from being similar in the regard that they both use the word common. …show more content…
I may be a white male according to my government because that is what I was born as and I can not really change that. Now let’s say I want to learn chinese culture because I have the choice to. I can easily change my ethnicity by choice , whereas my race can not be changed. The fluidity of ehtnicity versus the hard fact of race is one major difference. Also people rarely judge based on someones ethnicity, but quite commonly judge a person based on their race.
An individual’s race can certainly influence their ethnicity. When we speak of tribes in certain third world countries we see that choice of ethnicity is not prevelent in their socities. Race certainly can play a major role in the ethnicity of an individual.
Hopefully in this article you learned the differences and similarities between race and ethnicity. I can imagine you are thinking that race is biological where as ethnicity is a social construct. So the next time you see someone remember it is not what they were born as , but what they do that defines