Race & Ethnicity

Race – (1) Refers to groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant; (2) A political construction created to concentrate power with white people and legitimize dominance over non-white people; (3) A social construct that divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance, ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, and cultural history, ethnic classification, based on the social, economic, and political context of a society at a given period of time.

Ethnicity – A social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history and ancestral geographical base.

Racial and Ethnic Identity – An individual’s awareness and experience of being a member of a racial and ethnic group; the racial and ethnic categories that an individual chooses to describe him or herself based on such factors as biological heritage, physical appearance, cultural affiliation, early socialization, and personal experience.