Race v Ethnicity

In class on Friday, we got into a talk about race and how it is used to describe people. For example, one student mentioned that he refered to a black man and the black man at the table as apposed to the color of his shirt or hair. This talk got me thinking about the differences between race and ethnicity. It was to my understanding that race refered to the color of your skin and ethnicity was more of your culture and background. I think the world would be a more interesting place if people were more likely to describe people by there background or ethnicity.

I'd much rather be the Jewish girl from New York then the white girl with brown hair.

I'm going to try hard to refer to peole by qualities that are more interesting and less controversial then their skin color. Hopefully this will rub off.