What is race?

What do we mean by race and ethnicity?

Ethnicity refers to a common group identity based on language, culture, religion or other social characteristics e.g. Chinese This means that people define their own ethnicity, that everyone (and not just those in minorities) has ethnicity and that a person's ethnic identity may change over time. For example some people might describe themselves as Scottish Chinese.

Race is the group you belong to, or are perceived to belong to, in the light of a limited range of physical factors. The term ‘race’ should be used in relation to legislation only and not to describe people who belong to an ethnic group.

More information on defining ethnicity and race is available. from http://www.scotpho.org.uk/web/site/home/Populationgroups/Ethnicminorities/ethnic_intro.asp