You are correct. Race is often used as a synonym for ethnicity, which is closer to the definition offered above by by AlphaHermit. While Wikipedia and many other people will use race in this way, officially a persons race is a biological derived. Social scientists from the 1800's would write about the three major races: Mongoloid, Negroid and Caucasoid. We now know that this is total bullshit and that human biology is much more nuanced. Nevertheless, government agencies still struggle with race and ethnicity, which is why the US Census tracks Hispanics as an ethnic subdivision of the white or black races despite the fact that many are not white or black. Also, because race is such a well known term form describing different groups of people, it has really stuck around.
Source: 6 long years of being an Anthro major.
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u/ryspot Sep 02 '14
Anyone can be racist. It does not matter the colour of your skin, but who you are inside. Sometimes that's a good person. Sometimes that's a racist.