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Unit 9: Reading: Ethnicity

Difference Between Ethnicity and

Very few of us accurately describe the difference between ethnicity and race, simply because we tend to lump them into the same definition. While the dictionary can represent each of these words to be highly similar, there are differences.

Ethnicity is not just a person’s race. We can say that a Caucasian is , but that doesn’t describe his ethnicity. If we lined a Caucasian from , and Canada in a photograph, it would be difficult to discern from which country each person originates. Yet, if we gave them appropriate items from their culture, it becomes easier to determine their country of origin. Ethnicity is about tradition, learned behavior and customs. It is about learning where you come from, and celebrating the traditions and ideas that are part of that region.

At one time it was easy to tell one’s ethnicity, but as the global conglomeration offered more choice and change (as well as borrowing styles and ideas from other ), it has become impossible to identify ethnicity based solely on distinctive features. Ethnicity gives us room to change because we can reject our own and embrace another. You can move from one region to another and assimilate your beliefs, actions and customs to identify with that ethnic orientation. You cannot do the same with race.

Race is your biologically engineered features. It can include skin color, skin tone, eye and hair color, as well as a tendency toward developing certain diseases. It is not something that can be changed or disguised. Race does not have customs or globally learned behavior. Going back to our three Caucasians, each could be cloned and placed in different cultures throughout the world that were primarily not Caucasian. While their behavior would change, their physical and biological features would not.

Race can be used to describe other elements of biological and regional differences. For instance, you can be born Jewish (which is usually referred to as a ), but it does not mean that you have embraced the Jewish customs or religious beliefs. In such cases, the same term can be used to describe either ethnicity or race.

Ethnicity does not always describe color either. One can claim to be African, which indicates an entire multi-regional, multi-cultural continent. You can enhance the definition by assigning a sub culture to the ethnicity, such as South African, or Ethiopian. There can be a wide range of skin colors and tones throughout , ranging from the white skin and fair haired faces many associate with the race to the , black haired faces that many associate with African regions.

Difference Between White and Caucasian

Caucasian (also Caucasoid) is a grouping of beings historically regarded as a biological taxon, and depending on which race classifications is used, have usually included some or all of the ancient and modern populations of , the , Asia Minor, , the Horn of Africa, Asia, and South Asia.

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In , Caucasoid has been used as an umbrella term for similar groups from these different regions, with a focus on skeletal anatomy, and especially cranial morphology, over skin tone. Ancient and modern "Caucasoid" populations were thus held to have ranged in complexion from white to dark brown. In the , the root term Caucasian has also often been used in a different, societal context as a synonym for "white" or "of European ancestry".

The main difference between White and Caucasian is related to the skin color. A White person can be called Caucasian, but not all Caucasian people are white. The concept of a white race or white people originated in the 17th century. The term was coined mainly to differentiate the white from the dark skinned people. However, using the term "white" to describe a person’s skin color is found in Greco- Roman and other ancient sources. It was only in the recent time that the concept of Caucasian originated. The term can be traced to the 19th century and has been derived from a region of the . German scientist and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach is credited with the development of the term Caucasian in 1800.

Difference Between and

Hispanic 1. of or relating to the people, speech, or culture of or of Spain and 2. of, relating to, or being a person of American descent 2

Latino 1. a native or inhabitant of 2. a person of Latin American origin living in the U.S.

Hispanic originally referred to the people of ancient Roman , which roughly comprised the , including the states of Spain, Portugal, , and the British Territory of Gibraltar.

The term Hispanic broadly refers to the people, nations, and cultures that have a historical link to Spain. It commonly applies to countries once colonized by the in the Americas and Asia, particularly the countries of Latin America and the Philippines. It could be argued that the term should apply to all Spanish-speaking cultures or countries, as the historical roots of the word specifically pertain to the Iberian region. It is difficult to label a nation or culture with one term, such as Hispanic, as the ethnicities, customs, traditions, and art forms (music, , dress, culture, cuisine, and others) vary greatly by country and region. The and Spanish culture are the main traditions.

Right now, people are actually confused on which term is applicable when referring to the person or culture relating to Spanish. And with the Latino stars that are getting popular, they confused the terms Hispanic and Latino even more. So what could be the dissimilarities for Hispanic and Latino terms? The first difference lies in the kind of figures of speech of these words. Hispanic is an adjective while Latino could be an adjective or a noun. Hispanic was coined from the dwellers of the Iberian Peninsula

3 which includes Portugal and Spain. Latino on the other hand originated from the dwellers of Latin America which includes Cuba, , and other places in South and . Latino is an abbreviation of the term Latin America. Latin America 0is a group of countries and dependencies in the Americas where are predominant. The term originated in 19th century as Amérique latine to consider French-speaking territories in the Americas along with the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed. Today, Latin America is considered to be an area that stretches from the northern border of Mexico to the southern tip of , including the .

One important thing that you need to remember when trying to differentiate the Latino and Hispanic is that Latino pertains to the countries or cultures that belonged to the Latin America while Hispanic describes the language or culture that were previously under the Spanish colony. You can be a Latino even if you are not really Spanish-speaking as long as you originated from the nations from Latin America. Hispanic on the other hand simply refers to the Spanish language.

The term , is traditionally used in Spain and Latin America to mean a person of combined European and Amerindian descent, regardless of whether the person was born in Latin America or elsewhere. A 2012 study published by the Journal of Human found that the majority of the current Mexican population (≈93%) is mixed race to some degree, the study found that the paternal ancestry of the average Mexican-Mestizo was predominately European (64.9%), followed by Native American (30.8%), and African (4.2%).

Difference Between Black and African-American

‘Black’ (or Black American) and ‘African-American’ are generally terms used for referring to with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The terms , an old term for African American people, now considered offensive, and has fallen out of favor among younger black Americans. However, there is often confusion as to which term, Black or African-American, should be used and which term may be distressing to people.

The term ‘Black’ came into existence during the 1960s and ’70s, at the time of the . It was the Black Movement that insisted on the use of black instead of Negro. The term ‘African-American’ or ‘-American’ became popular during the 1980s. The term ‘Black’ is generally used for Americans that do not have any close association with Africa or with recent immigrants.

‘African-American’ or ‘Afro-American’ was advanced in the 1980s to give Americans of African descent an equivalent of German-American or Italian-American, and is widely used to describe all 4 people with an African ancestry. The term peaked in popularity during the 1990s and 2000s, but today is sometimes perceived as carrying a self-conscious political correctness that is unnecessary. In informal speech and writing, Black is often preferred and is rarely considered offensive. Hyphenated Americans “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a is not an American at all … The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French- Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic … There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else. “-Theodore Roosevelt

Difference Between Asian and Oriental

Oriental is a word that has been used by the Europeans for centuries to refer to all things that come from, or refer to the part for the world that was eastern in direction to them. While comprises western Asia and usually Egypt, it is Southeast Asia that comes closer to the concept of oriental as perceived by Europeans. However, the word has come under a lot of fire, particularly by human rights activists for having bad connotations. These are people who feel that Asian is the right word to refer to the people belonging to this large continent rather than calling them oriental.

Oriental The word orient is derived from the Latin word oriens meaning "east" (lit. "rising" < orior “rise"). The word was coined by Europeans to refer to people and areas that were eastern with reference to the location of Europe. Etymologically speaking, the word refers to the land of the rising sun. Since sun rises in the east, the word orient has come to represent east. Orient has long been used by western authors, to refer to peoples and cultures that were distinct from occident (Latin: “west”). Europeans were often curious about things coming from the east such as spices and silk. The word oriental represents exotic and mysterious aspects of the cultures and peoples who were different in looks and mannerisms from the western people. To many American activists, the word oriental is Eurocentric and relates to .

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Asian Asian is a word that is used for people and things belonging to this large continent in the east, particularly in relation to Europe. It is common for people from the west to refer to people from Asia based upon which part of Asia they belong. Thus, we have Southeast Asians, South Asians, East Asians, and Far East Asians instead of just Asians. People in America tend to equate Asians with people having certain facial features, skin tone, and other genetic features from East and Southeast Asia. However, people from countries like , Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, are also considered Asian. Irrespective of their color of skin or facial features, people belonging to the Asian continent that stretches from Turkey and India to and then to countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, and even Vietnam are technically considered as Asians.

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