Race, Ethnicity and Culture 

The words race, ethnicity and culture and their various derivatives are all very familiar: indeed the terms race and culture, if not ethnicity, are regularly used in everyday speech. Yet just what do they actually mean? Are they merely synonyms for one another, are do they point to very different dimensions of the social order? Although there can be little doubt that the social phenomena with respect to which these terms are deployed issues are amongst those of the most pressing socio-political importance in the contemporary world, a little reflection soon reveals that their precise meaning is still surrounded by clouds of conceptual confusion. Nor is this confusion limited to popular discourse: sociologists hardly do much better. This is most alarming. If n social scientists lack an analytical vocabulary whose meanings are broadly agreed upon, there is little prospect of them being able to construct viable descriptions – let alone insightful explanations – of the phenomena they are seeking to understand, no matter how much the streets may be riven by ‘race riots’, no matter how many holocausts may be precipitated by processes of ‘ethnic cleansing’, and no matter how many aircraft may be flown straight into skyscrapers. In the absence of an appropriate analytical vocabulary not only will the prospect of our being able to comprehend the processes give rise to such confrontations be severely inhibited, but the prospects our being able to identify the best means of resolving the underlying problems will remain remote.

 

What's the difference between race and ethnicity?

If someone asked you to describe your identity to them, where would you begin? Would it come down to your skin color or your nationality? What about the language you speak, your religion, your cultural traditions or your family's ancestry?

This bewildering question often pushes people to separate their identities into two parts: race versus ethnicity. But what do these two terms actually mean, and what's the difference between race and ethnicity in the first place? 

These words are often used interchangeably, but technically, they're defined as separate things. "'Race' and 'ethnicity' have been and continue to be used as ways to describe human diversity," said Nina Jablonski, an anthropologist and palaeobiologist at The Pennsylvania State University, who is known for her research into the evolution of human skin color. "Race is understood by most people as a mixture of physical, behavioral and cultural attributes. Ethnicity recognizes differences between people mostly on the basis of language and shared culture."In other words, race is often perceived as something that's inherent in our biology, and therefore inherited across generations. Ethnicity, on the other hand, is typically understood as something we acquire, or self-ascribe, based on factors like where we live or the culture we share with others. 

But just as soon as we've outlined these definitions, we're going to dismantle the very foundations on which they're built. That's because the question of race versus ethnicity actually exposes major and persistent flaws in how we define these two traits, flaws that — especially when it comes to race — have given them an outsized social impact on human history. 

The basis of "races"

The idea of "race" originated from anthropologists and philosophers in the 18th century, who used geographical location and phenotypic traits like skin color to place people into different racial groupings. That not only formed the notion that there are separate racial "types" but also fueled the idea that these differences had a biological basis. 

The effects of this history prevail today — even in current definitions of race, where there's still an underlying assumption that traits like skin color or hair texture have biological, genetic underpinnings that are completely unique to different racial groups. Yet, the scientific basis for that premise simply isn't there. 

It's true that we do routinely identify each other's race as "black," "white" or "Asian," based on visual cues. But crucially, those are values that humans have chosen to ascribe to each other or themselves. The problem occurs when we conflate this social habit with scientific truth — because there is nothing in individuals' genomes that could be used to separate them along such clear racial lines. 

In short, variations in human appearance don't equate to genetic difference. "Races were created by naturalists and philosophers of the 18th century. They are not naturally occurring groups," Jablonski emphasized. 

Where ethnicity comes in

This also exposes the major distinction between race and ethnicity: While race is ascribed to individuals on the basis of physical traits, ethnicity is more frequently chosen by the individual. And, because it encompasses everything from language, to nationality, culture and religion, it can enable people to take on several identities. Someone might choose to identify themselves as Asian American, British Somali or an Ashkenazi Jew, for instance, drawing on different aspects of their ascribed racial identity, culture, ancestry and religion. 

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Ethnicity has been used to oppress different groups, as occurred during the Holocaust, or within interethnic conflict of the Rwandan genocide, where ethnicity was used to justify mass killings. Yet, ethnicity can also be a boon for people who feel like they're siloed into one racial group or another, because it offers a degree of agency, Ifekwunigwe said. "That's where this ethnicity question becomes really interesting, because it does provide people with access to multiplicity," she said. (That said, those multiple identities can also be difficult for people to claim, such as in the case of multiraciality, which is often not officially recognized.)

Ethnicity and race are also irrevocably intertwined — not only because someone's ascribed race can be part of their chosen ethnicity but also because of other social factors. "If you have a minority position [in society], more often than not, you're racialized before you’re allowed access to your ethnic identity," Ifekwunigwe said. "That's what happens when a lot of African immigrants come to the United States and suddenly realize that while in their home countries, they were Senegalese or Kenyan or Nigerian, they come to the U.S. — and they're black." Even with a chosen ethnicity, "race is always lurking in the background," she said.

These kinds of problems explain why there's a growing push to recognize race, like ethnicity, as a cultural and social construct — something that's a human invention, not an objective reality.

EXPLORING CULTURE

The concept of culture, most thoroughly explored by anthropologists, is used to define the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, morals and customs that people acquire through membership of a particular society or group (Ferraro 1995, Peoples & Bailey 1994). Culture includes the ways in which people think about the world, their values, and their beliefs about how people ought to live. Anthropologists emphasize that culture is shared among groups and societies of people; and that culture is learned (Peoples & Bailey 1994). They identify two interlinked components of culture – mental and behavioral – demonstrating that learned attitudes, ideas, beliefs, values and perceptions inform particular actions and patterns of behaviour. Thus, cultural norms influence how people act and the unquestioned values that inform their actions. Through the transmission of cultural values, beliefs and attitudes, certain ideas acquire the status of ‘common-sense’, appearing both ‘normal’ and ‘natural’.

Across various definitions of culture, certain common themes have emerged. These are:

(i)

that culture consists of the totality of learned behaviors of a people;

(ii)

that it is transmitted from generation to generation, that is, from elders to children;

(iii)

that people construct their own culture in order to give meaning to life by creating a world view that helps to explain their own reality;

(iv)

that it consists of a people's shared beliefs, values, ways of making things, customs, behaviors, traditions, and lifestyles;

(v)

that it offers a community of people with a set of social norms and moral values on how life should be lived;

(vi)

that, via a culture's art, music, folklore, and other forms of creative expression, culture captures the soul, character, and essence of a people; and

(vii)

that culture is important to a group of people because it promotes a sense of kinship, belonging, and group identity.

Given the breadth and richness of the concept of culture, for cultural competence training a more narrow concept and definition is needed as a reference point for the operationalization of levels of cultural capacity (cultural sensitivity, cultural competence, and cultural proficiency). The approach that we will use is to begin by identifying a specific targeted reference group, which is the group of clients that is targeted for a given intervention or program.