Race and Ethnicity

Race, ethnicity, nationality, culture and indeed sometimes religion are often regarded as the same thing. While there can be overlap between the terms, it is helpful to understand the difference and how this impacts inclusive language.

Race refers to a group of people who possess similar and distinct physical characteristics such as skin colour or hair type. In other words, race constitutes a human population that is distinct in a way from other human groups based on their physical differences.

Ethnicity or ethnic group refers to a category of people who regard themselves to be different from other groups based on common ancestral, cultural, national, and social experience. People must share a common cultural heritage, ancestry, history, homeland, language/dialect, mythology, ritual, cuisine, art, religion, and physical appearance to be considered as a member of an ethnic group.

Nationality refers to the country of citizenship, generally meaning where a person was born and holds citizenship. It is the legal relationship between a person and a sovereign state.

Culture is the way of life that consists of the general customs and beliefs of a particular group of people. It generally means the non-biological or social aspects of human life which is basically anything that humans learn in a society. A bit similar to ethnicity but is often used to refer specifically to 'the symbolic markers used by ethnic groups to distinguish themselves visibly from each other.'

BAME is an often-used acronym (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) to refer to all ethnic groups except White British. The acronym, however, can be problematic because it offers an assumption that all non-white people exist as a homogeneous group without appreciation of the uniqueness of individual ethnicities. It is increasingly felt that these homogenising terms do not help in the quest to root out systemic racism. Instead, be as specific as possible, for example if you’re talking about differentials in educational outcomes between different racial groups considering outcomes for ‘Black Males’ could be a more relevant area of focus than looking at those for ‘BAME people’.

If you want to use one term, the Inclusion Working Group supports the Comic Relief term (as proposed by the GM Equality Alliance) which is ‘People Experiencing Racial Inequalities’. This term provides acknowledgement of the harm caused and gives context in many instances where a collective term is sought. But it is important to remember when having conversations to be open, honest, and individual.

When we’re talking about data we should work at presenting this at the simplest, appropriate level to avoid important differences being hidden by a binary split (i.e. BAME V White British) and use of Bury Council's Equality monitoring forms will enable this. There are however some circumstances when we need to show data in a binary way for comparative purposes or because it’s the requirement of a statutory return or funding body for example.

Quick Guide:

Other Resources: Let's talk about race a pocket guide to getting conversations started is well worth a read.

Thanks to the Inclusion Working Group at Bury Council for the article.

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