Race has been a mode of classification used in colonial situations and has often subsumed an ideology of inequality. As race assumes that there are inherent biological differences among people it can evolve into a body of prejudices about human differences and group behavior. The problem with race is that it sometimes obscures the fact that differences are products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational and political circumstances. Undoubtedly the categories will change in the 2000 census to accommodate new notions of ethnicity and race and the growing number of multiethnic and multiracial people. An ethnic group shares beliefs, values, habits, customs and norms because of a common background.
Ethnic groups have a name for themselves, a territory and a sense of group solidarity.
Ethnicity, like race, always exists in context. Not all people around the world distinguish between ethnicity and race. Sometimes they are used as synonyms or vary according to context. Phenotype is not as important. Racial mixing is common.