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Links Eating Disorder:
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Race and Ethnicity
Too many people are confused about the differences between race, ethnicity, and nationality. Some classify Hispanic as a racial group; some see Jews as a nationality or a race. I believe we should agree on definitions for these terms before we can have a meaningful discussion on the subject. Race, ethnicity, and nationality are completely separate concepts that coexist in each individual.
Rosa Parks after being arrested for standing her ground and “fighting back.”
• Race describes a biological condition. Race is a person's ancestral bloodlines. Race is a biological term. It describes one's DNA heritage. Race is a fixed attribute; it cannot change by choice or decree. Ancestors do not change, and the genes one inherits from them don't change either. Racial categories become much murkier when people are born of different racial heritages. These children exhibit physical traits of both (or more) sets of races. Yet the fact people are able to intermarry proves that we are all the same species. Nature has not found straight hair and curly hair incompatible; why should we? • Ethnicity describes a sociological condition. Ethnicity is the culture you identify with, usually the one you were born into. Ethnicity is a sociological term; it describes an individual's group affiliation. It colors their outlook on life, their reactions to disappointments, their determinations and fears. A person's ethnicity may influence their behavior, but doesn't govern it. A person may have multiple ethnic affiliations, or may even choose to identify with a different ethnicity, by marriage, by religious conversion, or by a desire to affiliate. • Nationality describes a geographical condition.All three have political overtones due to our complex history of both discrimination and tolerance toward groups of people.
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Links to more information: Citizen's Initiative on Race & Ethnicity Center for the Study of Race & Ethnicity in America
For more information, click on the links below:
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201 Ordway Hall |
Phone: 270/809-3140 |
Fax: 270/809-3366 |
