Are Race and Ethnicity Synonyms?

Although they are often used as synonyms, they are not identical in meaning. The short answer is that race typically refers to a person’s physical appearance. Ethnicity generally referrers to a person’s cultural markers, not their physical appearance. Admittedly my brain struggles to understand some of the current problems surrounding race or ethnicity—ethnic differences as I am told is now the correct term. I grew up believing that most anthropologists recognize only 3 or 4 main races on this planet—although a 1998 study published in the Scientific American estimated there were 5,000 ethnic groups—although we’re all members of the same species, Homo sapiens. I also grew up believing that abusive, violent, and destructive behaviors are unacceptable, period; and that those who engage in them need to understand that the way they are perceived by others results from the observation of their behaviors. I know that my life has been completely enriched through collaboration, interaction, and friendship with brains that are housed in bodies that have different racial or ethnic differences from mine. Our brains and hearts are all the same color. Cellular memory differs, too, but then epigenetics differs for every person on the planet because every brain is different. Differences are what makes the world go around!