Difference Between Race And Ethnicity

Whenever the subject of race and ethnicity came up in my classes, I would always sit back and listen to what people had to say. Usually it was because I never really knew the difference between the two. I eventually knew what the difference between the two was and I learned that a lot of people did not know the difference between the two were either. The way I differentiate between the two is race is your genetic makeup, something you cannot control and ethnicity is who your are defined by the environment you are surrounded by. Race is who you are perceived by others based on your physical attributes like facial structure, skin color and height. Ethnicity is something you can divulge yourself into by learning about the customs to feel like you belong to that group (R6).
Even though they are both defined as being something different, they have their similarities. Claiming a race or an ethnicity means that individuals are claiming an identity for himself or herself. According to Donald Baker, group identity is a psychological phenomenon that people experience because they need a sense of …show more content…
A prime example of this would be the Beyonce Super Bowl controversy. Since the beginning of her career, Beyonce has always been seen, and advertised, as a friendly black woman that could fit in with the white crowd. She has all the eurocentric looks from light skin to non-kiny hair and she makes music that is not considered “ethnic”. Her management team has created this brand for her to easily be accepted by white people so she could have a larger audience and thrive in her career. All of this was shut down when she celebrated her blackness on a very large platform and performed at the 2016 Super Bowl. The controversy around her performance does not have to do with who she is a person but more about what her performance meant for black lives across the