Me and My Race

Okay, I thought I was clear on what I was, but now I'm confused.

What is Race?
What is ethnicity?

I often thought I was white, but now I'm told I'm caucasian. I thought I was latino or hispanic ( and I am still are) but distinguishing between what race and ethnicity are is confusing me. It shouldn't, as it's like some say, pretty straight forward. However, why can we just be the human race?

And is race another term for saying what color are you?
Is ethnicity another term for saying what culture do you belong to?

Guacamoles

this tew much...

first free nipples now race

ya"ll i can"t

too much in a week

^ hurray for guacamole lol

It be so so cool if we could post meme's in public forums....

i wanna used the kermit frog one where he leaves on a scooter cause everything is too much

Hi janis we want meme"s and emojies

pls

Yikes that's real complicated.

I think that it's relatively common for people of different ethnicities to "pass" as a different one. This becomes super problematic, too. Let's say your heritage and identity belongs to a minority group but people assume you belong to the majority. Now you're stuck between two groups, being mislabeled and you're probably pretty uncomfortable with the situation.

Basically, the dynamics of race/ethinicity/identity are pretty complex and super personal on an individual basis. If someone is making you uncomfortable by mislabeling you, you should probably see if you can correct them in a way that doesn't compromise your emotional/personal/physical safety because you deserve to be recognized however you want to be. :)

In 1970 I put down "Irish" for my race on a census form & got called by an irate worker who threatened me (2nd year college student) with contempt prosecution. Was he anti-Irish or just a bureaucrat?

Technically there are three major races, Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid and one widely recognized minor race, Australoid. Ethnicity is much more complex and involves culture, religion and national origin with a multiplicity of other factors.

Where the definition and classification used to be one for the purpose of preventing inter-mixing and loss of privilege, the major usage in the US nowadays is in preventing discrimination. Race and national origin are two of the bases for discrimination most tightly scrutinized by SCOTUS. I did a Law Review article years ago on a case which dealt with discrimination.

Here is what the U.S. Supreme Court held:

"Congress intended to protect from discrimination identifiable classes of persons who are subjected to intentional discrimination solely because of their ancestry or ethnic characteristics. Such discrimination is racial discrimination that Congress intended Section 1981 to forbid, whether or not it would be classified as racial in terms of modern scientific theory. . . . Section 1981, "at a minimum," reaches discrimination against an individual "because he or she is genetically part of an ethnically and physiognomically distinctive subgrouping of homo sapiens." ... [H]owever, ... a distinctive physiognomy is not essential to qualify for Section 1981 protection. If respondent, on remand, can prove that he was subjected to intentional discrimination based on the fact that he was born an Arab ... he will have made out a case under Section 1981."

Saint Francis College v. Al-Khazraji, 481 U.S. 604, 613 (1987).