Do people understand the difference between a race and an ethnic group???
Both race and ethnicity refer to a group of people that share a common ancestry. However, ethnicity also involves shared cultural, religious, behavioral, and language traits. I’m pretty sure that race just covers the genetic aspects. In that light, the two words are easy to confuse. Heck, we still have people saying and writing “irregardless” when it’s not even a word. But I agree with you, people claim something is racist when it’s really ethnicist (sp?), sexist, etc.
I attended a lecture last year by one of the lead researchers in genetic studies regarding race… One of the discoveries was that there was more genetic variation within a geographic ethnicity than between groups. The researchers found that distinguishable genetic lines could be drawn, but that the differences were small. I would find the source for you but unfortunately I do not remember the project name. That to me says that concepts such as race and ethnicity are mostly social constructs, based more heavily in culture than in science. So, to some extent, I think making a distinction for “racism” between races and ethnic groups is like splitting hairs. Racism itself is entirely nonsensical, so I think it would not be restricted to a narrow definition of blacks, whites, and Asians. Also, what about people of Hispanic background? I see no reason why prejudice against them could not be categorized as racism. Merriam-Webster defines race as “a class or kind of people unified by shared i
A lot of people say Kleenex when they want a facial tissue, no matter what brand it really is. Racism is used for bigotry. It is used inaccurately to refer to ethnicity, religion and simple skin tone. Since home DNA test kits with color coded racial markers are not available, it is nearly impossible to know the actual racial make up of most people. Now before someone goes off the deep end on that one, there are racial markers for Native Americans as well as Negroids, Caucasians and different groups of Asians. There are significant genetic differences between some of the Asian races (oohh that word) but the larger group is still Mongoloid. In short the use of the word “racism” is a lazy reference that is shouted so often and so loudly that it has taken on the burden of standing for any form of prejudice. While completely inaccurate it has become colloquially acceptable. Sorry Schelli, it has happened to other words as well.
Scientifically … the differences between the so-called races are MINOR; people are not even really different colored, actually we are all the same color we just have different amounts of that color – melanin. There are other differences between people that are greater, we have just make a bigger deal out of skin color. The link is from Answers in Genesis, even if you disagree with them on other issues, this may be an issue you agree with them on – http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/OneBlood/chapter4.
I attended a lecture last year by one of the lead researchers in genetic studies regarding race… One of the discoveries was that there was more genetic variation within a geographic ethnicity than between groups. The researchers found that distinguishable genetic lines could be drawn, but that the differences were small. I would find the source for you but unfortunately I do not remember the project name. That to me says that concepts such as race and ethnicity are mostly social constructs, based more heavily in culture than in science. So, to some extent, I think making a distinction for “racism” between races and ethnic groups is like splitting hairs. Racism itself is entirely nonsensical, so I think it would not be restricted to a narrow definition of blacks, whites, and Asians. Also, what about people of Hispanic background? I see no reason why prejudice against them could not be categorized as racism. Merriam-Webster defines race as “a class or kind of people unified by shared i
