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Ethnicity, Race and Nationality

Race is a social construct that categorises individuals largely based upon physical attributes or traits such as skin colour.

The Equality Act includes the following in its definition of race:

• colour;
• nationality;
• ethnic or national origins.

In relation to the protected characteristic of race–

• a reference to a person who has a particular protected characteristic is a reference to a person of a particular racial group;
• a reference to persons who share a protected characteristic is a reference to persons of the same racial group.
• A racial group is a group of persons defined by reference to race; and a reference to a person's racial group is a reference to a racial group into which the person falls.
• The fact that a racial group comprises two or more distinct racial groups does not prevent it from constituting a particular racial group

Ethnicity is wider than race and refers to shared cultural experiences, religious beliefs, traditions, ancestry, language dialect or national origins (e.g., African or Irish). Ethnicity is self-defined and subjectively meaningful to the person concerned and it can change over time. As such ethnicity should be self-reporting for research purposes even with children.

Ethnic minorities refer to all ethnic groups except the white British group (as the majority ethnic group in the UK). Ethnic minorities include white minorities, such as Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller groups.

BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) and BME (Black Minority Ethnic) are terms no longer widely used as they emphasise certain ethnic minority groups (Asian and Black) and exclude others (mixed, other and white ethnic minority groups). The terms can also mask disparities and differences between different ethnic groups and create misleading interpretations of data.

Person of Colour (POC) is a term primarily used to describe a person who is not white and is a term which originated in the US. It has gained some currency and use in the UK although it only covers certain minority groups and excludes white minority groups such as White Irish Travellers.

The Global Majority is a collective phrase used to describe the non-white population who are the majority of the world’s population.

Nationality is the belonging to a particular country or being a citizen of a particular nation. Some ethnic groups are also nationalities such as Bangladeshi, Chinese or Pakistani.