A race is a categoryof people who have been singled our at inferior or superior, often on the basisof physical characteristics such as skin color, hair texture and eye shape.
An ethnic group is acollection of people distinguished, by others or by themselves, primarily onthe basis of cultural or nationality characteristics.
Looking at these two definitions it challenges the commonuse of these terms. We often thinkof topics such as "racial identity" and we are certainly hearing a lotof reports about "ethnic groups" worldwide right now.
We study these topics as we have learned that we can seeinequality in our society and in the world that correlates highly with aperson's race or ethnic background.
Most interesting is the term race,
Within a given society there are majority (dominant)
In any organization (including societies) there is often apyramid shaped distribution of power (dominance). Small numbers of individuals residing at the top of thepyramid have a disproportionate amount of power and influence when compared tothe masses below them.
In Sociology werefer to majority and minority groups not so much in terms of their numbers,but in terms of their power and influence.
Consider the following example:
A few years ago there was a group of Mainer's that broughtto referendum a bill that would disallow discrimination based on a person'ssexual preference (what was commonly referred to as gay rightsÉthough the billwas actually a civil rights bill)
Those in favor of the bill argues that gays and lesbianswere discriminated against by the dominant members of society and thereforeshould afford protection that provides for suits and litigation based on otherforms of discrimination again other groups such as blacks.
One of the reasons that the bill may have failed is becausegays in our country do not, as a group, fit the description of a"minority" (sociological definition). A minority group, or a group that has attained"minority status" must present that due to its status as a group theyhave not been able to access education, jobs, and other parts of regular livingin our country.
When we look at the statistics we see that the exactopposite is true. As a group, gayshave higher education, more money in their banks, higher paying jobs, etc. etc.than other groups. By thisstandard they could not be considered to have minority status which wouldprovide them with the protections that other minority groups have.