I don’t want to speak of “human races”. It would far too easily lead to the myth that they would be essentially different from each other. In addition there is often a belief they would have sharp borders. Or at least had until a couple of generation ago. (This statement of point in time applies regardless of when the person claims it. Which should say something about how baseless the idea is.) Such ideas have been disproved by modern genetic research. Groups of different appearance gradually transit into each other and have always done so. There never were any “pure races” to have devotion to.
Instead I speak of populations gradually transiting into each other. I still only use them to describe people’s appearance. Groups of similar appearance don’t have to be closely related. To the opposite such similarities can sometimes be highly misleading. I can see the difference between people from the Horn of Africa and other Africans. In contrast I can’t see the difference between people from Botswana and Senegal. Neither can I see the difference in most peoples between them. Such peoples encompass a large part of humanity’s genetic variation. So population does not have to match with greater genetic similarity. Although it can do so outside Sub-Saharan Africa.
Population is foremost about looks and partially biological descent. Ethnicity is instead about what culture one grew up with. Ethnic minorities are cultural groups consisting a smaller part of a country’s inhabitants. Populations being in such minority are called visible minorities. Unfortunately these are easily mixed up by ignorant individuals. Then I mean those ignorant of cultural differences’ existence. Does one not know about them one can’t take them into consideration.
It is entirely possible to belong to a different population than one’s ethnicity indicates. An example is one I know who has a clear Farsi accent. So it is obvious to me she belongs to the ethnic majority of Iran. At the same time she has told me her paternal grandparents were Russians. Also, one of her maternal grandparents had immigrated from the north. The other one came from the area around the Aegean Sea. I have decided she qualifies as white. However, I have said to her that culture is the important thing.
Everyone living in the US of noticeably recent African descent does not have the same ethnicity. The cultural heritage most have is due to a particular historical background. We are talking about large-scale slavery followed by forced segregation. The later arose as a counter-reaction to slavery’s late abolishment. People which voluntarily immigrated later have a different cultural experience. Particularly those immigrated after the end of forced segregation. Moreover, small children may be adopted by some of other ethnicity. Then they get a different ethnicity from their biological parents. I neither view Asian Americans as any ethnic group. People called this there have many different ethnicities. To mentally lump them together creates faulty expectations. Which are then rarely met.
There are thousands of ethnic groups spread all over the world. Ethnic groups with similar languages are often more culturally similar. Neighbouring peoples can influence each other too. Hence the cultural similarity between Swedes and Finns despite unrelated languages. There are always cultural differences between self-identified ethnicities. Different traditions may also exist within ethnic groups. But if they view themselves as the same group I consider them they same.
Finally, the largest ethnic group is not necessarily culturally dominating. A good example is Belgium. The country’s indigenous population can be divided in three ethnic groups based on mother tongue. Flemish consist 59%, Walloons 40% and Germans 1%. Which does not prevent the Walloons from dominating society. To the extent it happens that Flemish complain about discrimination.
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