Although someone’s race and ethnicity usually play a fundamental role in their identity and their experiences in society, it’s not always easy for each person to define who they are and categorize themselves according to societal standards. According to the American Sociological Association, “race” refers to physical differences that groups and cultures consider socially significant, while “ethnicity” refers to shared cultures, such as language, ancestry, practices and beliefs.
Race is a meaningless social construct, yet a person’s race still can determine the way other people view them and the treatment that they receive in society. Ethnicity is also a social construct, and members of certain ethnic groups may experience discrimination based on their ethnicity, but not every member of a said ethnic group may have the same experience with discrimination because some people may face discrimination based on their race along with the discrimination based on their ethnicity.
The U.S. Census Bureau collects data on race and asks people to classify themselves as White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander or two or more races. They also specify that “people who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish may be of any race.” While many people identify with one of these racial groups, there are also people who mostly or solely identify with their ethnic identity. This is an issue because this leads some people to not recognize the privileges they may hold in society due to their race.
If someone is a white person who also happens to be Latino, for instance, they likely will experience discrimination based on their ethnicity at some point in their lives, but it is unlikely that they will experience racial discrimination since they are a part of the racial majority. This means that they have white privilege, which Merriam-Webster defines as “the set of social and economic advantages that white people have by virtue of their race in a culture characterized by racial inequality.”
Choosing to ignore that because of your race, you benefit from the racial power dynamic and have certain privileges in society means that you are not truly acknowledging the struggles that other people in society have to face. Yes, it is important to bring awareness to the struggles you may face due to discrimination based on your ethnicity, but it is also your responsibility to bring awareness to the discrimination people face due to their race—especially considering there are people of different races within the ethnic group whose discrimination you claim to care about.
Ethnic groups usually consist of people of a variety of different races, but people often only associate certain ethnicities with one particular race. This is because even within certain ethnic minority groups that experience discrimination, there are still racist people. Black people and other racial minorities are often subject to discrimination at the hands of other members of their ethnic group, and there is often an erasure of their existence within that ethnicity as well.
People often think that just because someone is also a minority, they are incapable of being ignorant or racist, but that frankly is not true. The reason that race was created was to distinguish between groups of people and strip power from some to give to others, and even those who have experienced ethnic discrimination recognize that they are capable of reclaiming some power by contributing to the oppression of someone of a racial minority.
Ethnicity and race are complex subjects, but it is important that we are all cognizant of the way that society has socialized people to perceive us and the people around us. Educate yourself on topics related to race and ethnicity, and empathize with experiences that may differ from your own. You are not obligated to reshape your identity if you are someone who initially identified more with your ethnicity than your race, but you should still accept that you are a member of a certain racial group and contemplate what privileges you may or may not have because of your membership. Once we all acknowledge the power structures in place in society, it will be that much easier to dismantle them.