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Cultural Differences Between Race And Ethnicity

Decent Essays

First, race and ethnicity are defined as different concepts, the first being biological and the second cultural. The key point to understand both concepts separately are the social labels used by a society, to classify its members biologically and culturally. While race is based on the popular perception of people's physical traits, ethnicity separates them by cultural characteristics.
Members of a group share the same language, accent, religion, history, and even national origin. Most of the time, ethnicity is something that is obtained through learning, under the form and lifestyle, among others. Although each individual at a given time can seek a new ethnicity, every individual is born belonging to a particular ethnic group.
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Ethnic origin, on the other hand, is determined by the social and cultural groups to which it belongs. One can have more of an ethnic background, but only one race, even if it is mixed. Contrary to ethnic groups, of which there are thousands or more, there are only a few racial groups.
Another difference between race and ethnicity is related to the ability to identify oneself. A person cannot choose his race; this is assigned to him based on his physical characteristics. However one can choose ethnicity. A person can learn a certain language, social norms, and customs, in addition to assimilating a culture and being part of that ethnic group.
Ethnicity is a requirement of identity on the part of the people since there are identification and feeling of belonging to an ethnic group but at the same time a feeling of exclusion from other groups due to this affiliation. The great problem of ethnic differences is that throughout the history of mankind there have been constant persecutions towards minorities even though there are no physical differences among the population. As an example, we have the case of the Jews in World War II.
One similarity between race and ethnicity is that both are a social

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