August 08, 2018

The Difference Between Race and Ethnicity

We were at the eye doctor the other day with our youngest child, and the intake form asked us to clarify his race and ethnicity. As a transracial family (we’re white, he is biracially black and white), this got us thinking about how often adoption parents confront this question all the time. At the doctor’s office, in our friend groups, at school, with family — everywhere and anywhere.

It also got us thinking: does everyone truly understand the difference between race and ethnicity? Although they are constantly used interchangeably in discussion and on the internet, they are very different!

Race generally refers to the physical characteristics of an individual — their skin tone. It is much more limited than the concept of ethnicity, which refers to someone’s cultural characteristics, like language, religion, culture. Your ethnicity can include your race, or it may not. Race is often projected through perception, and it comes in the form of wide-ranging and potentially offensive stereotypes whereby assumptions are made about someone’s cultural identity based on their skin tone. For example, assuming that someone with black skin is from Africa, or an Asian individual is from an Asian country. Or assuming that they even understand anything about the cultures you have decided they are associated with. A million lifestyle factors can influence your ethnicity — where you grow up, who you married, where you move to as an adult, your parent’s culture, etc.

This excellent example from PBS showcases just how easy it is to make assumptions about someone’s ethnicity based on their race. And how tricky it can be to navigate when a child of one race is adopted by parents of another. “Furthermore, you have no control over your race; it’s how you’re perceived by others. For example, I have a friend who was born in Korea to Korean parents, but as an infant, she was adopted by an Italian family in Italy. Ethnically, she feels Italian: she eats Italian food, she speaks Italian, she knows Italian history and culture. She knows nothing about Korean history and culture. But when she comes to the United States, she’s treated racially as Asian.”

There is a reason that this is such a sensitive topic in the adoption world. In America, the majority of transracial adoptions are white parents adopting a child of another race. Through adoption, their ethnicity is deeply affected, and it can be difficult for adoptees to find themselves within the culture and ethnicity of their white parents.

It is immensely important for those considering transracial adoption to consider how they will protect, support, and nurture their child’s ethnicity. Elizabeth, a transnational adoptee, wrote about this subject in the Huffington Post, and how not doing so can really damage your child’s sense of self and ability to assert themselves and feel comfortable in their identity. “Despite the fact that adoptees may internally identify with the white culture of their adoptive parents, transnational, transracial adoptees still struggle to develop and assert their own self-identified ethnic identities because ethnicity is regularly associated with race. For transracial adoptees, there is often a severe discordance between the ethnic person they feel like and the ethnic person others want them to be.”

How are you supporting your child’s race and ethnicity?