Race & Ethnicity—Definition and Differences [+47 Race Essay Topics]

Race and ethnicity are among the features that make people different. Unlike character traits, attitudes, and habits, race and ethnicity can’t be changed or chosen. It fully depends on the ancestry.

But why do we separate these two concepts and what are their core differences? How do people classify different races and types of ethnicity?

To find answers to these questions, keep reading the article.

Also, if you have a writing assignment on the same topic due soon and looking for inspiration, you’ll find plenty of race, racism, and ethnic group essay examples. At IvyPanda, we’ve gathered over 45 samples to help you with your writing, so you don’t have to torture yourself looking for awesome essay ideas.

Race and Ethnicity Definitions

It’s important to learn what race and ethnicity really are before trying to compare them and explore their classification.

Race is a group of people that belong to the same distinct category based on their physical and social qualities.

At the very beginning of the term usage, it only referred to people speaking a common language. Later, the term started to denote certain national affiliations. A reference to physical traits was added to the term race in the 17th century.

In a modern world, race is considered to be a social construct. In other words, it’s a distinguishable identity with a cultural meaning behind. Race is not usually seen as exclusively biological or physical quality, even though it’s partially based on common physical features among group members.

Ethnicity (also known as ethnic group) is a category of people who have similarities like common language, ancestry, history, culture, society, and nation.

Basically, people inherit ethnicity depending on the society they live in. Other factors that define a person’s ethnicity include symbolic systems like religion, cuisine, art, dressing style, and even physical appearance.

Sometimes, the term ethnicity is used as a synonym to people or nation. It’s also fair to mention that it’s sometimes possible for an individual to leave one ethnic group and shift to another. It’s usually done through acculturation, language shift, or religious conversion.

Though, most of the times, representatives of a certain ethnic group continue to speak their common language and share some other typical traits even if derived from their founder population.

Differences Between Race and Ethnicity

Now that we know what race and ethnicity are all about, let’s highlight some of the major differences between these two terms.

Race

• It divides people into groups or populations based mainly on physical appearance
• The main accent is on genetic or biological traits
• Because of geographical isolation, racial categories were a result of a shared genealogy. In modern world, this isolation is practically nonexistent, which lead to mixing of races
• The distinguishing factors can include type of face or skin color. Other genetic differences are considered to be weak

Ethnicity

• Members of an ethnic group identify themselves based on nationality, culture, and traditions
• The emphasis is on group history, culture, and sometimes on religion and language
• Definition of ethnicity is based on shared genealogy. It can be either actual or presumed
• Distinguishing factors of ethnic groups keep changing depending on time period. Sometimes, they get defined by stereotypes that dominant groups have

It’s also worth mentioning that the border between two terms is quite vague. As a result, the choice of using either of them can be very subjective.

In the majority of cases, race is considered to be unitary, which means that one person belongs to one race. However, ethnically, this same person can identify themselves as a member of multiple ethnic groups. And it won’t be wrong if a person have lived enough time within those groups.

Race and Ethnicity Classification

It’s time to look at possible ways to classify racial and ethnical groups.

One of the most common classifications for race into four categories: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, and Australoid. Three of them have subcategories.

Let’s look at them more closely.

– Caucasoid. White race with light skin color. Hair ranges from brown to black. They have medium to high structure. The subcategories are as follows:

• Alpine. Live in Central Asia
• Nordic. Baltic, British, and Scandinavian inhabitants
• Mediterranean. Hail from France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain

– Mongoloid. The race’s majority is found in Asia. Characterized by black hair, yellow skin tone, and medium height.

• Asian mongol. Found in japan, China, and East-India
• Micronesian. Inhabitants of Malenesia

– Negroid. A race found in Africa. They have black skin, wooly hair, and medium to high structure.

• Negro. African inhabitants
• Far Eastern Pygmy. Found in the south Pacific islands
• Bushman and Hottentot. Live in Kala-Hari desert of Africa

– Australoid. Found in Australia. They have wavy hair, light skin, and medium to tall height.

It’s fair to mention yet again that it’s practically impossible to find pure race representatives because of how mixed they all got.

Speaking of ethnicity classification, one of the most common ways to do that is by continent. And each of continent’s ethnic groups will have their own subcategory.

So, we can roughly divide ethnic groups into following categories:

• African
• Asian
• European
• North American
• South American
• Oceanian

Race Essay Ideas

If all the information above was not enough and you’re looking for race essay topics, or even straight up essay examples for your writing assignment—today’s your lucky day. Because experts at IvyPanda have gathered plenty of those.

Check out the list of race and ethnic group essay samples below. Use them for inspiration, or try to develop one of the suggested topics even further.

Whatever option you’ll choose, we’re sure that you’ll end up with great results!

1. The Anatomy of Scientific Racism: Racialist Responses to Black Athletic Achievement
2. Racism
3. Race, Ethnicity and Crime
4. Representation of Race in Disney Films
5. What is the relationship between Race, Poverty and Prison?
6. Race in a Southern Community
7. African American Women and the Struggle for Racial Equality
8. American Ethnic Studies
9. Institutionalized Racism from John Brown Raid to Jim Crow Laws
10. The Veil and Muslim
11. Race and the Body: How Culture Both Shapes and Mirrors Broader Societal Attitudes Towards Race and the Body
12. Latinos and African Americans: Friends or Foes?
13. Historical US Relationships with Native American
14. The experiences of the Aborigines
15. Contemporary Racism in Australia: the Experience of Aborigines
16. No Reparations for Blacks for the Injustice of Slavery
17. Racism (another variant)
18. Hispanic Americans
19. Racism in the Penitentiary
20. How the development of my racial/ethnic identity has been impacted
21. My father’s black pride
22. African American Ethnic Group
23. Ethnic Group Conflicts
24. How the Movie Crash Presents the African Americans
25. Ethnic Groups and discrimination
26. Race and Ethnicity
27. Racial and ethnic inequality
28. Ethnic Groups and Conflicts
29. Ethnic studies and emigration
30. Ethnicity Influence
31. Immigration and Ethnic Relations
32. A comparison Between Asian Americans and Latinos
33. Analysis of the Chinese Experience in “A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki
34. Wedding in the UAE
35. Social and Cultural Diversity
36. The White Dilemma in South Africa
37. Ethnocentrism and its Effects on Individuals, Societies, and Multinationals
38. Reduction of ethnocentrism and promotion of cultural relativism
39. Racial and Ethnic Groups
40. Gender and Race
41. Child Marriages in Modern India
42. Race and Ethnicity (another variant)
43. Racial Relations and Color Blindness
44. Multiculturalism and “White Anxiety”
45. Cultural and racial inequality in Health Care
46. The impact of colonialism on cultural transformations in North and South America
47. African American Studies