Ethnicity, Nationality, Race, Identity, Culture and Heritage

Race, nationality, ethnicity, culture, and heritage, when used together point toward the same thing and are often used interchangeably one to mean the other, (Alcoff, 2015). For instance, race or nationality used in a question where the answer is expected to be based on nationality. Therefore, understanding the meaning and the deference of each helps to promote love and acceptance towards any culture.

Nationality refers to where a person comes from, where they were born and their citizenship to a state. On the other hand, race refers to a group of people who share some similarities and are deferent from the other groups based on their skin color and other physical features like the color of the hair.

Ethnicity is the deference based on ancestors, culture, and language. People who came from the same geographical area, share a typical meal and diets and even faith, same ancestral background, share the same history, dialect and religion are said to be members of an ethnic group, (Alcoff, 2015). Race and ethnicity have some similarity, but race is about somebody's looks.

Culture is defined as the way people live, their beliefs and customs. Culture is mostly confused with ethnicity, but culture specifically refers to what people learn and the symbols that are used by those who share the same culture, (Kegley & Blanton, 2017). Heritage relates to ethnicity and nationality sometimes, but it refers to what someone identifies themselves to, like personal ancestors.

The use of this terms to ask about someone's origin and belief might look offensive especially when one does not understand what they mean, (Kegley & Blanton, 2017). For instance, if someone asks a question like where are you from? And especially when an answer based on heritage is expected, and one gives their response based on nationality.

Therefore, for a mutual understanding of each other, it is essential to understand the meaning of each term and to differentiate one from the other.