Oh and also, many people use "race" and "ethnicity" interchangeably in everyday conversation. Usually when asking about someone's heritage, in America "What is his ethnic background?" is considered more polite than asking "What is his race?". Even though technically "ethnicity" and "race" are not the same concept, this can probably be explained due to America's historical problems with race relations.

This is a very COMPLEX question that is still a cause for debate. Personally having studied anthropology and other cultures, I find that "race" is cultural construction that varies from culture to culture: for example what may be considered "black" in the US may not be considered "black" in Brazil because each culture/language has a different way of classifying "race". But the traditional definitions (and I'm paraphrasing here haha) are: - "race" is characterized usually by physical/genetic features: skin color, facial structure, stature, shared genetics - "ethnicity" is characterized by a shared common trait: usually language, religion, or homeland So my "race" would be caucasian (white), but my ethnicity would be American. Ethnicity and nationality are often interchangeable as well, fyi. Hope this helps!

That's tricky. Erm . . . Race = white/black/mixed race/asian etc. Relates more to your biological origin. Ethnicity = pretty much the same thing, but is a little bit more to do with religion.