Race or Ethnicity, don't we all belong to human race?

LegacyUser

porrasjuanm said: HI,

I think that it would be great if instead of Race you change the link name to Ethnicity, if it remains still as Race it will be pointless, since all answers I assume will be human.
I could add a bunch of info regarding social and cultural disparities, however I will rest my case on common sense and social consciousness.

thanks.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Welcome to the community-powered public feedback forum for FamilySearch. FamilySearch personnel read every discussion thread and may or may not respond as their time permits. We all share an active interest in using the resources of this site and as users, we have various levels of knowledge and experience and do our best to help each other with concerns, issues, and/or questions.

This has come up before.

All races belong to the human family.
All ethnicities belong to the human family.
Both races and ethnicities are branches of the family.

The two words are often used interchangeably, though by definition they carry different meanings. In the simplest terms, race is used to describe genetic heritage (including one's skin color, and associated traits), while ethnicity describes one's cultural background or allegiance.

The term race is used in historical records and as such, is used with indexes. Because there is a significant difference between race and ethnicity, even though the words are often used interchangeably.

LegacyUser

Merlin Carpenter said: It is true that the concept of "race" can be socially charged. I believe that the reason for its existence is historical. Documents and records sometimes had this as a field on a form. When this happened it had a particular meaning for the records produced in that time and place. Consequently, it is of genealogical interest in providing valuable clues to the researcher. Ethnicity is another term sometimes found on forms and typically had a different meaning than race. Both terms, however, are imprecise and it is important for the researcher to understand how each term was used in a given collection to be able to make the correct inferences. I'm sorry if the term offends. I believe the only intent was to faithfully preserve the historical record.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: What is interesting is on some U.S. Census forms, the language is indicated, not just the place of birth. It is not consistently recorded, but it does appear from time to time.

LegacyUser

Juli said: Huh? Where on FS are you seeing an input field labeled "race"?

Is this on a historical record collection's search page, perhaps? Some censuses have that, I believe. If so, the labels there are just duplicating what's in the index, which in turn is just duplicating what's on the historical records, which cannot and should not be changed.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: It isn't on input fields and does not transfer from attached sources as far as I know or have seen.

But, there are options for entering both race as well as ethnic types of facts.


I don't use them. Religious Affiliation is in the Events section and I have used that when I know what the religious affiliation is or was.