Ethnicity

Physical anthropologists classify people according to race. Cultural anthropologists categorize people into smaller groupings based on ethnicity. The word ethnicity is derived from ethnos, the Greek word meaning nation. In general each racial group includes a number of ethnic groups.

Anthropologists have been able to classify nine historical geographic races, which coincide with the major landmasses and large island chains. These geographic divisions are: American Indian, Polynesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, Australian (aborigines), Asiatic, Indian (South Asian), European, and African. Each of these represents a general population that has lived and developed in relative isolation from the others.

The terms minority and majority would seem to be mostly about numbers. A minority can be defined as less than half the population in a society. Therefore African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans can all be considered minorities in the United States. Realistically, however, minority cannot always be defined by numbers. Being in a minority often can have much more to do with one’s standing in society. The black people of South Africa make up the overwhelming majority of the population. Until 1992 they were, nevertheless, treated as a minority because they were subject to the laws of a white minority and deprived of most civil rights. Females in the United States make up more than half of the population, yet they are often treated as a minority group, as in the legislation that is intended to uphold their civil rights.

The most common conception of a minority is of a group of people who are distinct in race, religion, language, or nationality

Nation

A nation is a unified territorial state with a political system that governs the whole society. A nation may be very large with several political subdivisions such as the United States, China, Canada, or Australia or it may be a small unit like the city-state of Singapore. All the territory that makes up a nation need not be a single, continuous geographical unit. Trinidad and Tobago, for example, are two islands that make up one nation. The Philippines and Indonesia are made up of thousands of islands.

Some nations consist almost entirely of a single ethnic group: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland are examples. Others such as the United States and Canada contain great ethnic diversity. In parts of Africa and India there are many tribes or ethnic divisions, and many languages and dialects are spoken.

Nationality

in law, nationality is membership in a nation or sovereign state. It is to be distinguished from citizenship, a somewhat narrower term that is sometimes used to denote the status of those nationals who have full political privileges. Before an act of the U.S. Congress made them citizens, for example, American Indians were sometimes referred to as “non-citizen nationals”. Individuals, companies (corporations), ships, and aircraft all have nationality for legal purposes.

^{It is in reference to natural persons, however, that the term finds most frequent use. Nationality is in fact commonly regarded as an inalienable right of every human being. Thus, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that “everyone has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality”. Nationality is of cardinal importance because it is mainly through nationality that the individual comes within the scope of international law and has access to the political and economic rights and privileges conferred by modern states on their nationals.}

^{The state, through constitutional and statutory provisions, sets the criteria for determining who shall be its nationals. The right of a state to confer its nationality is, however, not unlimited, for otherwise it might impinge upon other states’ rights to determine what persons shall be their nationals. By one rule of international customary law, a person who is born within a state’s territory and subject to its jurisdiction acquires that state’s nationality by the fact of such birth. By another rule, one has a nationality as an inheritance from one or both of one’s parents. States vary in the use of the two principles.}

^{When one state cedes territory to another, inhabitants of the region that is ceded commonly have an opportunity to acquire that state’s nationality. Practice, however, supports the idea that the individuals concerned should be allowed a free choice. Another method of acquiring nationality is through the process of naturalization.}

In international law, nationality assumes significance in a variety of circumstances. In extradition treaties, for example, states include clauses making it optional for them to surrender their own nationals. If a state expels a person from its territory, only the state of which the person is a national is obligated to receive him.

Differences in national legislation and the absence of universally binding laws or practices have given rise to a number of unsettled questions on nationality; these include the problem of dual or multiple nationality and the problem of stateless persons – that is, persons having no nationality.

Racism

Racism is the notion that some ethnic groups or races are naturally superior to others Those Asian Americans whose families have been living in the United States for several generations resent being singled out and stereotyped as part of a superminority. They feel that their achievements are only comparable to what other immigrant groups have done in the past. They are also aware that they have often had to work harder to overcome the hurdles of racism and ethnic discrimination. Even after six generations American citizens of Asian descent are still identified as Asian Americans, and they believe that they are not fully accepted as Americans. (Americans of European descent are usually referred to as Americans after a single generation, while Americans with an African background have only recently chosen to be called African Americans.)