Do you know the difference between Ethnicity and Race?

2016-02-17T11:04:51-05:00

In Puerto Rico I'm considered black, and I'm proud of it. But when I got to the States, I saw myself not being accepted as black, not even by black people, just because "Camacho, you are not black, you are Puerto Rican".

People doesn't get the difference between ethnicity and race, do you know it?

*Picture used as example of ignorance.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Ethnicity_vs_Race

Ethnicity vs Race - Difference and Comparison | Diffen

What's the difference between Ethnicity and Race? The traditional definition of race and ethnicity is related to biological and sociological factors respectively. Race refers to a person's physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin, hair, or eye color. Ethnicity, however, refers to cultural...

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 17 at 2016 11:27 AM

2016-02-17T11:27:30-05:00

Lol...I experienced the opposite side of the spectrum. I am Puerto Rican but look white and people give me weird looks when I tell them what I am. People don't understand the difference in cultural background and your physical background. On paperwork on race I select white and then ethnicity I choose either "other" or the rare chance they have it I choose Puerto Rican.

Response by SGT Roberto Mendoza-Diaz made Feb 17 at 2016 1:59 PM

2016-02-17T13:59:55-05:00

Well I'm Puerto Rican, born and raised but just recently I took the DNA test from Ancestry.com and found out that I'm 44% European(including 3% Irish), 22% African, and 12% Indian from the Caribbean.

Response by SGT Roberto Mendoza-Diaz made Feb 17 at 2016 2:50 PM

2016-02-17T14:50:36-05:00

An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural or national experience. Unlike most other social groups, ethnicity is primarily an inherited status.

Response by SGT Roberto Mendoza-Diaz made Feb 17 at 2016 2:51 PM

2016-02-17T14:51:51-05:00

Race, as a social construct, is a group of people who share similar and distinctive physical characteristics.[1][2][3][4][5][6] First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century race began to refer to physical (i.e. phenotypical) traits. The term was often used in a general biological taxonomic sense,[7] starting from the 19th century, to denote genetically differentiated human populations defined by phenotype.[8][9]

Response by 1stLt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 18 at 2016 9:03 AM

2016-02-18T09:03:07-05:00

Race is an overarching term, i.e. Native American or European/Caucasian. For the ethnicity, it is a subcategory of the race, i.e. Inuit is a subcategory of Native American and Slavic is a subcategory of European/Caucasian. However, it gets really muddy if you look closer into it. Mexicans should be considered Native Americans as well since their ancestors existed in the Americas before Europeans came. What about the Caribbean islanders as well? Where do they fit, would they be considered African American, Native American, or Hispanic? Also what about Iranian/Persian, many in Iran are considered white/Caucasian, however they are not European. Ethnicity is more related to culture and language, but there are many relationships between Indian, Persian, and English/Germanic languages! A little more on race, and it's been discussed in the thread that race is a social construct created during the 18th-19th century to classify different peoples. People utilized race to justify imperialistic and colonial ambitions leading to many of the problems still being dealt with today. I believe classification according to race or ethnicity is an outdated and overly complex concept and if we want to move past the racial issues we face as a society, we need to stop seeing each other as certain races or ethnicity, and more that we are simply human beings.

Response by Maj Mike Sciales made Feb 26 at 2016 10:43 AM

2016-02-26T10:43:17-05:00

Genetics have proven every human alive today can be traced back through mitochondrial (mothers) DNA back 70,000 years to around 1600 breeding pairs in central E Africa (Rwanda). This is hard science and not in dispute. All the skin tones, eye colors, eye shapes & hair are evolution depending on when your peeps left. I traced mine through a Nat Geo kit (saliva sample) and found they migrated up to Egypt, through the Middle East and on to Italy, arriving there 5,000 years ago. Lots of sex along the way so I'm 70% Italian/Greek with the rest being: Swedish, Irish, Arab & Eastern European, plus some Persian. So we are but one race, many ethnicities (regions) combined. Just glad to be a 21st full blooded American. That's all I need.