Why Ethnicity Is a Better Categorization of People Than Race

Ethnicity acknowledges cultural, geographical, and historical backgrounds

Angela Buchdahl, the daughter of a Korean mother and an Ashkenazi father, was raised Jewish and became the first East-Asian American rabbi and cantor

In the earlier post, Are Jews White?, I wrote about the problems with American color-coded categories of race. This post shows how ethnicity is a much better categorization.

While race is largely a social construct based on perceived physical traits, ethnicity is a more nuanced and meaningful way of understanding human identity. Ethnicity provides a more accurate categorization of people because it includes culture, language, history, and shared experiences rather than just superficial physical characteristics.

Race Is a Flawed and Arbitrary Concept

Race, as commonly understood, is based on physical features such as skin color, facial structure, and hair type. However, these traits are shaped by environmental adaptation and genetic variation, not by rigid biological categories.

Scientific research has shown that genetic differences within so-called racial groups are often greater than those between them. In other words, two people categorized as belonging to the same "race" may have less in common genetically than two people from different "races." This makes race an unreliable and misleading way to classify human diversity.

In the United States, racial categories used on official documentation, such as the Census, are often overly broad and fail to account for cultural and historical distinctions. For example, Middle Easterners are considered "white" by the Census, despite having distinct cultural and historical identities. Similarly, the category "Asian" groups together people of vastly different backgrounds, cultures, and languages. These arbitrary classifications fail to reflect the diversity of human experiences.

Nigerian Americans have one of the highest education rates of all ethnic groups

Ethnicity Reflects Cultural and Historical Realities

Unlike race, ethnicity considers shared cultural traits, such as language, traditions, ancestry, cuisines, and social identity. Thus, it is a more meaningful and flexible way to categorize people. For example, Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews are both Jewish, yet they have distinct histories, customs, foods, and languages. Similarly, Hispanics and Latinos encompass a wide array of cultures and traditions that go beyond skin color.

Niiyokamigaabaw Deondre Smiles, a geography professor and member of the Ojibwe Tribe, who is of Ojibwe, black, and Swedish descent, says that most American Indians do not identify as “Indigenous,” “Native,” or “American Indian.” Instead, they see themselves as members of their particular tribes, “viewing it in political and kinship frameworks rather than racial or biological constructs.”

Race Reinforces Stereotypes, While Ethnicity Promotes Understanding

Racial categorization leads to broad generalizations and false stereotypes. When people are grouped solely based on race, they are often assumed to share the same behaviors, values, and abilities—ideas that have fueled discrimination and inequality. Ethnicity, on the other hand, acknowledges cultural and historical backgrounds, allowing for a more accurate understanding of people's identities. Recognizing someone as Ghanaian, Dominican, Thai, or Polish rather than simply "black," "Latino," "Asian," or “white” provides a more accurate picture of their experiences and heritage.

As societies become more interconnected, more people identify as multiracial or of mixed heritage. Racial categories struggle to account for this diversity, often forcing people into rigid labels that do not reflect their identities and experiences.

Norwegian-American teenagers in Minnesota: “Whites” are no monolith, with a wide diversity of ethnicities, cultures, experiences, and languages.

Ethnic identity fosters a sense of belonging without reducing individuals to skin color or other physical traits. It encourages people to connect through shared traditions, languages, and histories rather than arbitrary racial distinctions. This shift away from race as a primary categorization helps combat racism by emphasizing the richness of human cultures rather than divisions based on physical appearance.