Ethnicity was revived as a category only when race became discredited

Evidence

Other contenders are “ratio,” “natio,” and “radix” to Spanish and Castilian raza, Italian razza, and Old French haraz. See, for example, Smith (1982). Ronald Takaki (1993:10) argued more subtly that race “has been a social construction that has historically set apart racial minorities from European immigrant groups. Contrary to the notions of scholars like Nathan Glazer and Thomas Sowell, race in America has not been the same as ethnicity.” Yet he does not draw the conclusion from this assessment that “race” and “ethnicity” should not be compared. Most page references to what is indexed as “ethnicity” in Takaki’s book actually refer to discussions of Jewish immigration. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 725 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Second, an advocacy of hybridity carries with it the imputation that all group-based identities are essentialist. This is most clearly demonstrated in the conflation of ethnicity and nationalism with racism which, as so-called “rooted” identities, are all treated with equal disparagement … But while ethnic and national categories may be essentialized in the same way as “race” categories have been historically, they need not always be. Nor are ethnic relations necessarily hierarchical, exploitative, and conflictual in the same way that “race relations” invariably are … In similar vein, Werbner (1997b) has argued that the politics of ethnicity, which objectifies communities situationally and pragmatically with regard to questions of redistributive justice in the public sphere, can be clearly distinguished from the violent essentializing of racism. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 917 (#complicates, via linked claim)

After World War II, ethnicity, as opposed to race, became the primary differentiating characteristic between Americans of different European national origins. As Richard Alba and Victor Nee note, “Ethnicity involves both social structure and the more elusive factors of subjective meaning.” For Americans of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European descent who were Catholic and Jewish, being labeled an ethnic group gave members an opportunity to become socially White on condition they assimilate into mainstream Anglo-Protestant culture and normativity. Ethnic identity, therefore, granted a person agency not available to those ascribed a racial identity. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 359 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Early anti-racist scholars proposed replacing race with ethnic group as a descriptive category — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 658; The term ethnicity was revived in WWII to replace the discredited word race — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 695; After 1945 the label race gave way to ethnicity in scholarly usage — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 696 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Race and ethnicity are analytically distinct categories, not interchangeable terms #complicates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 725
• Ethnicity need not be essentialist or hierarchical in the way race categories are #complicates (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 917
• Ethnic labels carried agency that racial ascription denied #complicates (0.79) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 359