People Of One Part of The World After 1500 Felt About Those From A Different Ethnic Or Religious Group And Why They Felt The Way They Did

In the United States of America, the term "ethnic" carries a much broader meaning than how it is commonly used in some other countries. Ethnicity usually refers to collectives of related groups, having more to do with morphology, specifically skin colour, rather than political boundaries. The word "nationality" is more commonly used for this purpose (e.g. Italian, German, French, Russian, Japanese, etc. are nationalities). (Noel, 157-172) Most prominently in the U.S., Latin American derived populations are grouped in a "Hispanic" or "Latino" ethnicity. The many previously designated Oriental ethnic groups are now classified as the Asian racial group for the census.

The terms "Black" and "African American", while different, are both used as ethnic categories in the US. In the late 1500s, the term "Cultural Change", was posited as the most appropriate and politically correct race designation (Gellner, 57-74). While it was intended as a shift away from the racial inequities of America's past often associated with the historical views of the "Black race", it largely became a simple replacement for the terms Black, Coloured, Negro and the like, referring to any individual of dark skin colour regardless of geographical descent. Likewise, Light-skinned Americans from Africa were not considered "African American" during 1800s. Many African Americans are multiracial. More than half of African Americans also have European ancestry equivalent to one great-grandparent, and 5 percent have Native American ancestry equivalent to one great-grandparent.

The term "White" generally describes people whose ancestry can be traced to Europe (including other European-settled countries such as Argentina, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Cuba) and who now live in the United States. Middle Easterners are also be included in the "white" category. ...