Читать книгу Asian America - Pawan Dhingra - Страница 34

Race is analytically distinct from ethnicity, although they have similarities. Ethnicity refers to a typically self-proclaimed sense of group membership based on a presumed (not necessarily actual) common ancestry, history, and way of life (Cornell and Hartmann 2007). Because it is self-proclaimed, individuals often take pride in their ethnic background. In the United States, ethnicities generally overlap with national homelands (or countries of origin) but are not limited to them. Individuals from a national homeland become an ethnic group. For example, German American, Brazilian American, and Nigerian American are all ethnic groups and they also coincide with a nation-state (Germany, Brazil, Nigeria). Outsiders may overlook distinctions within those ethnicities or national-origin groups. For instance, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Bengalis, and so on are meaningful groups within India and Indian America. In the United States, such sub-ethnicities are rarely recognized and so people are simply referred to as Indian. Hmong people are a distinct ethnic group that is spread across several Southeast Asian countries. Most Hmong people do not identify with the countries in which they live but do identify closely with those of their ethnic group who live in other countries.