What is the difference between nationality and heritage

Nationality is not natural. Heritage depends on parents and comes naturally. Nationality means what nation you are a member of. An American by nationality can still have European ancestors. Some of the historians are of the view that even if you become a citizen of some other country and obtain the citizenship of that country by naturalization, yet your nationality remains the same.

This view slightly differs in the opinion of other historians. These words are often used interchangeably, but technically, they're defined as separate things.

Ethnicity recognizes differences between people mostly on the basis of language and shared culture. Related: Why did some people become white? 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 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.

That flawed principle laid the groundwork for the belief that some races were superior to others — creating global power imbalances that benefited white Europeans over other groups, in the form of the slave trade and colonialism. Because the driver of the triangular trade [which included slavery] was capitalism, and the accumulation of wealth," said Jayne O.

The center is part of a movement across the United States whose members lead events and discussions with the public to challenge historic and present-day racism. 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. But, she explained, "the amount of genetic variation within any of these groups is greater than the average difference between any two [racial] groups. Related: What are genes? In other words, if you compare the genomes of people from different parts of the world, there are no genetic variants that occur in all members of one racial group but not in another.

This conclusion has been reached in many different studies. Europeans and Asians, for instance, share almost the same set of genetic variations. As Jablonski described earlier, the racial groupings we have invented are actually genetically more similar to each other than they are different — meaning there's no way to definitively separate people into races according to their biology. Jablonski's own work on skin color demonstrates this.

In other words, it would be nonsense. 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. Groups of people who share similar physical and behavioral characteristics are grouped together in racial categories.

Generally speaking, people are assigned to different racial categories by their physical, unchangeable traits, like skin color, hair texture, eye shape, and facial features. So, in the United States, a person with dark skin and very curly Black hair is going to be racially categorized as Black, and someone with pale skin and straight blonde hair is going to be assumed to be Caucasian. It's important to understand that while people used to think that race was biologically determined, science has now proven that race is a social construct.

But what does that mean, exactly? Well, at one point people thought that when you were of a certain race, you were significantly biologically different from people of other races. This was often used as a means to oppress people. For instance, one of the justifications for American slavery was that Black people were inherently genetically inferior to white people, making the latter the superior race.

Recent science has shown that race is actually something developed and assigned by society. That is, scientists have discovered that a person's race doesn't make them significantly genetically different than anyone else.

That means that race is a way for societies to differentiate people based on common physically expressed traits. Like we just mentioned, race is based on a person's physical traits. That means racism is the act of discriminating against or being prejudiced against a person or group of people based on race.

Racism is also the belief that a person's own race is superior or makes them superior to others. Racism also happens when people assume that a person's race makes them predisposed to certain behaviors. Believing that all Black people are violent or that Latina women are sexually promiscuous are examples of racism that uses a person's race to assume negative things about them and their behavior.

Keep in mind that while individuals can have racist opinions or beliefs, racism can also exist on a larger level. When social and political systems operate on racist assumptions, it's called institutionalized racism. This type of racism is often harder to detect because we believe it's normal or acceptable. For example, the fact that Black and Hispanic people with a college degree will make less money than a white or Asian person with the same degree from similar universities is an example of institutionalized racism.

If race is based on a person's physical appearance, then what is ethnicity? Ethnicity, put simply, is someone's regional cultural heritage. This includes a person's native language, their religion, the holidays they celebrate, and their cultural practices.

In this case, ethnicity is tied much more closely to geographical region and culture than physical appearance. Let's take a closer look at ethnicity. Someone from, say, the Appalachian region of the U. Another person from the bayous of Louisiana might have a background that involves Zydeco music and Catholicism. These are ethnic differences. What is ethnicity vs race?

Ethnicity, unlike race, is not visible on the surface. If both of the people in our examples above are Caucasian, you would likely not be able to tell who was from Louisiana and who was from Appalachia unless you heard the difference in their accents. However, not all people from the Appalachian mountains who have a background in bluegrass are Caucasian, nor are all Louisianans who listen to Zydeco.

In fact, both of these regions have a large number of African Americans who also fit those same ethnic characteristics. Furthermore, both also have a population of indigenous Native Americans who also fit those ethnic characteristics. Now that you know the definitions of race and ethnicity, let's take a closer look at how the two differ from one another.

Ethnocentrism happens when a person judges another culture based on the values and standards of their own culture. The problem with this is that cultures vary widely, so the result of ethnocentrism is that a person thinks their culture is better than other people's cultures.

Ethnocentrism leads to a person or a group of people thinking their way of life is natural and correct--and that cultures that don't share the same practices and values are dangerous, backwards, and uncivilized. Like racism, ethnocentrism leads to discriminatory practices. For example, take this story about students being asked to remove their hijabs at one Virginia school.

A hijab is an important part of some Muslim women's religious practice. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account.

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