WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: How Are Ethnicity and Race Different? 0:00:01.890 --> 0:00:04.309 Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:06.810 --> 0:00:10.430 Hey, BrainStuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic episode from 0:00:10.490 --> 0:00:13.610 The Vault. In this one, we get into the sticky 0:00:13.650 --> 0:00:18.470 definitions of and differences between race and ethnicity. A note 0:00:18.530 --> 0:00:21.509 here that both are different from nationality, which is an 0:00:21.610 --> 0:00:28.200 indication of the country where a person is a legal citizen. Hey, BrainStuff. 0:00:28.210 --> 0:00:32.030 Lauren Vogelbaum here. The concepts of race and ethnicity are 0:00:32.110 --> 0:00:34.659 so intertwined that it's sometimes hard to tell one from 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.020 the other. Even unwound, the ideas are not as well-defined 0:00:38.060 --> 0:00:41.190 as many people would present them to be. The reason 0:00:41.229 --> 0:00:44.680 for that is simple. Yes, humans are a diverse lot. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.820 We can look distinctively different. We're seen sometimes completely differently 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.870 based on those looks. We come from different places, though 0:00:51.930 --> 0:00:54.850 we all as a species come from modern-day Ethiopia, and 0:00:54.870 --> 0:00:57.710 the groups from which we have grown, our families, our clans, 0:00:57.750 --> 0:01:01.460 our cultures, our nations, all have traveled different paths. A 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.060 wide world of factors have influenced our appearance and our 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.600 ways of life during thousands of years of evolution and migration. Yet, 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.000 all of those amazingly diverse peoples don't exist in a vacuum. 0:01:12.660 --> 0:01:15.340 Across all those millennia and all those miles, we've come 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:17.850 back together, lots of times and in lots of ways, 0:01:18.170 --> 0:01:21.290 and we continue to do so. Putting us in distinct 0:01:21.350 --> 0:01:25.050 boxes with fixed labels is near impossible. Even the labels 0:01:25.090 --> 0:01:28.850 get jumbled. We spoke with Douglas Hartman, a professor of 0:01:28.890 --> 0:01:31.610 sociology at the University of Minnesota and co-author of the 0:01:31.630 --> 0:01:35.050 book Ethnicity and Race, Making Identities in a Changing World, 0:01:35.230 --> 0:01:39.560 along with sociologist Stephen Cornell. Hartman said, I think there's 0:01:39.610 --> 0:01:42.110 a ton of overlap between the terms ethnicity and race. 0:01:42.590 --> 0:01:45.510 I really think it's difficult to disentangle them and maybe 0:01:45.610 --> 0:01:51.220 even inappropriate because all of these categories have elements of identity, self-assertion, culture, 0:01:51.380 --> 0:01:54.940 and heritage, but they also have elements of labeling, of stigma, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:02:00.500 of differential treatment, of power inequality. Still, maybe because of 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.020 some innate need for order, or something more sinister, we 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.770 continue to define. We identify people as this race or 0:02:07.830 --> 0:02:12.110 that ethnicity. We self-identify, too. And so it is that 0:02:12.130 --> 0:02:17.130 these labels become blurry and, at times, inseparable. The modern 0:02:17.210 --> 0:02:19.470 idea that there are independent races of man can be 0:02:19.510 --> 0:02:23.320 traced to the late 1700s, when German anthropologist Johann Friedrich 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.740 Blumenbach attempted to scientifically classify humans, largely by how they 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.440 looked and where they called home. From a 1994 article 0:02:31.620 --> 0:02:36.630 on Blumenbach in Discover magazine, Blumenbach's final taxonomy of 1795 0:02:36.630 --> 0:02:40.230 divided all humans into five groups, defined both by geography 0:02:40.290 --> 0:02:43.750 and appearance— In his order, the Caucasian variety for the 0:02:43.830 --> 0:02:46.750 light-skinned people of Europe and adjacent parts of Asia and Africa, 0:02:47.290 --> 0:02:51.000 the Mongolian variety for most other inhabitants of Asia, including 0:02:51.030 --> 0:02:54.680 China and Japan, the Ethiopian variety for the dark-skinned people 0:02:54.700 --> 0:02:58.400 of Africa, the American variety for most native populations of 0:02:58.419 --> 0:03:01.880 the New World, and the Malay variety for the Polynesians 0:03:01.980 --> 0:03:05.760 and Melanesians of the Pacific and for the Aborigines of Australia. 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.030 Blumenbach not only used geography and skin color, but notably 0:03:11.270 --> 0:03:13.570 the size and shape of skulls to explore what he 0:03:13.650 --> 0:03:17.790 called the, quote, varieties of mankind. One of his measures, though, 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:22.200 was unmistakably unscientific. He called Caucasians, named for the people 0:03:22.220 --> 0:03:27.230 of the Caucasus Mountains in Eastern Europe, beautiful. Many Europeans, 0:03:27.310 --> 0:03:30.490 who already believed mistakenly that the first humans came from 0:03:30.510 --> 0:03:34.190 the Caucasus, seized upon Blumenbach's work as scientific proof that 0:03:34.230 --> 0:03:37.920 the light-skinned race, the original race, was biologically and inherently 0:03:37.980 --> 0:03:41.680 superior to others. They did so despite the fact that Blumenbach, 0:03:42.020 --> 0:03:44.660 eons ahead of his time, held that all races and 0:03:44.700 --> 0:03:47.600 peoples were equal and stated that the, quote, many varieties 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.470 of man are at present known to be one and 0:03:50.490 --> 0:03:55.460 the same species. That thinking by Europeans that one race 0:03:55.540 --> 0:03:58.920 is superior to another has led, historically, to some of 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:04.040 the worst of human behavior, colonization, slavery, apartheid, and genocide. 0:04:04.660 --> 0:04:07.420 It's given rise to forced inequality in many different forms, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:12.240 including political, social, and economic. And here's the kicker. The 0:04:12.300 --> 0:04:16.440 high and mighty Europeans were dead wrong. Scientists now overwhelmingly 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.380 agree that humans, biologically and genetically speaking, are all the same. 0:04:21.820 --> 0:04:24.400 Our DNA, the genetic makeup of all human beings who 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:29.570 live today, is 99.9% alike. In fact, there's more genetic 0:04:29.589 --> 0:04:32.750 variance within any given race than there is among the 0:04:32.770 --> 0:04:37.360 different races. Basically, what that means is because genetic differences 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.740 in humans are so minimal, some scientists simply describe humans 0:04:40.820 --> 0:04:45.430 as belonging to just one race, the human race. Despite 0:04:45.450 --> 0:04:48.779 the scientific shootdown, the term race is still widely used today, 0:04:49.140 --> 0:04:51.200 and a person is still assigned a race according to 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.620 physical characteristics, skin color, the shape of the nose or lips, 0:04:54.860 --> 0:04:58.380 or the type of hair. Now, instead of claiming some 0:04:58.420 --> 0:05:02.990 pseudoscientific basis, though, race is considered a social construct, meaning 0:05:03.050 --> 0:05:06.789 it's something we as societies use to place people conveniently 0:05:06.930 --> 0:05:11.510 into groups. Here's how Hartman and co-author Cornell define race 0:05:11.589 --> 0:05:15.160 in their book. Some of the reasons for the continuing 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.560 use of race as an identifier may be acceptable. 0:05:17.580 --> 0:05:17.760 The U.S. 0:05:17.779 --> 0:05:20.900 Census Bureau, for example, asks people to identify themselves by 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.120 race and currently gives them six choices, including some other 0:05:24.140 --> 0:05:43.870 race which they can fill in. The Bureau also allows 0:05:43.930 --> 0:05:46.710 respondents to say they're of more than one race. The 0:05:46.730 --> 0:05:49.430 Bureau uses that data for purposes such as funding government 0:05:49.490 --> 0:05:54.140 programs aimed at specific groups. Other reasons, though, are definitely 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:58.400 not acceptable. Racial discrimination is still real all over the globe. 0:06:00.020 --> 0:06:03.420 Though genetically race is not a valid concept, socially it 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.280 is very, very real. In some definitions, it goes well 0:06:07.300 --> 0:06:12.330 beyond physical characteristics, too. Hartman said... There really are cultural 0:06:12.380 --> 0:06:15.640 differences between people who grew up in an African-American community 0:06:15.700 --> 0:06:19.080 versus a white suburban community. It's not genetic, but it's 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.520 a real thing. There are different languages, different patterns of behavior, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.980 different ways of thinking about the world. Cultural differences suggest 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:31.080 the other word most often conflated with race, ethnicity, and 0:06:31.100 --> 0:06:35.599 that muddies the terminology waters even more. Cornell and Hartman 0:06:35.700 --> 0:06:39.750 define ethnicity this way, quote, a sense of common ancestry 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:44.760 based on cultural attachments, past linguistic heritage, religious affiliations, claimed kinship, 0:06:45.060 --> 0:06:49.419 or some physical traits. So the difference between race and 0:06:49.460 --> 0:06:53.420 ethnicity then? Whereas race is mostly defined and determined by 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.580 physical characteristics, ethnicity is considered to be more about a 0:06:56.620 --> 0:07:01.440 person's culture, language, family, and place of origin. Nationalities are 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.320 thrown into the mix too. Examples of ethnicity include being Indian, Jewish, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.800 or Asian, regardless of race. So a woman born in 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.760 Atlanta to parents from Japan might consider herself as racially Asian, 0:07:13.900 --> 0:07:18.520 but as ethnically Japanese, American, Japanese-American, or even something more 0:07:18.580 --> 0:07:21.450 specific based on exactly where in Japan her parents are from. 0:07:22.530 --> 0:07:25.670 Selected displays like clothing can play a part too. A 0:07:25.750 --> 0:07:28.510 Scottish-American man wearing a plaid or tartan kilt or an 0:07:28.570 --> 0:07:31.630 Indian-American woman wearing a sari are examples of how people 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.750 display their ethnicity through dressing. But the important thing to 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.380 remember here is that both race and ethnicity are socially defined. 0:07:39.780 --> 0:07:44.100 Neither is biologically valid. Cornell and Hartman say that people 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.700 are more likely to self-identify with multiple ethnicities than multiple races, 0:07:48.100 --> 0:07:50.020 though of course some consider themselves to be more than 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.600 one race. It's important to note two other points the 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:58.390 sociologists make about race and ethnicity. Race, unlike ethnicity, is 0:07:58.410 --> 0:08:01.090 still mostly a term that is assigned by other groups, 0:08:01.430 --> 0:08:04.390 which often leads to one claiming superiority over the other. 0:08:05.150 --> 0:08:08.870 And racial identity is usually considered inherent. In other words, 0:08:08.890 --> 0:08:11.140 you're born as a certain race, and it's generally not 0:08:11.180 --> 0:08:14.760 something you can change just by saying so. Remember Rachel Dolezal? 0:08:16.060 --> 0:08:19.660 That said, all of these are observations, not rules. The rules, 0:08:19.820 --> 0:08:24.070 as we've said, are a tad murky. Hartman said... People 0:08:24.110 --> 0:08:27.110 have this kind of crazy idea about the purity of races. 0:08:27.410 --> 0:08:30.250 There's no way to really isolate a race. And today, 0:08:30.410 --> 0:08:33.880 even more so with intermarriage, with globalization, those categories that 0:08:33.890 --> 0:08:37.150 we often think are so firm. Americans are so convinced 0:08:37.220 --> 0:08:39.640 there's five main races because we've acted like there are 0:08:39.660 --> 0:08:42.380 in our senses and everything else. They get blurred and 0:08:42.420 --> 0:08:45.740 mixed up and they don't make sense anymore. If it's 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.480 logic we're after when discussing the terms of race and ethnicity, 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.140 the last word probably ought to go to someone who's 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.720 an expert at words, say a poet. This is from 0:08:54.750 --> 0:08:59.940 Maya Angelou's piece, Human Family. I note the obvious differences 0:09:00.020 --> 0:09:02.700 between each sort and type, but we are more alike, 0:09:02.740 --> 0:09:04.179 my friends, than we are unalike. 0:09:09.300 --> 0:09:13.250 Today's episode is based on the article Ethnicity vs. Race vs. Nationality, 0:09:13.390 --> 0:09:17.729 an explainer, on HowStuffWorks.com, written by John Donovan. BrainStuff is 0:09:17.750 --> 0:09:21.150 a production of iHeart Podcasts in partnership with HowStuffWorks.com and 0:09:21.190 --> 0:09:24.960 is produced by Tyler Klang. four more shows from iHeart Podcasts. 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.550 Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:09:28.610 --> 0:09:29.569 to your favorite shows.