Project:Policies specific to ethnic identities
This page is contains lgbtDB rules, policies, and guidelines regarding ethnic identities, ethnic identity use, and other ethnic-identity-related entities on the site. In general, lgbtDB tends to align with the naming conventions utilized by Wikipedia, but it differs in some specific aspects.
Introduction
Identities
Broadly, an identity is a set of qualities that characterize a person (personal identity) or characterize a person's belonging to a particular group (social identities).
Social Identities
A social identity is a portion of an individual's self-concept that is based primarily on self-categorization within a particular group or combination of groups. These categorizations are often (but not always) assigned to individuals by factors outside of their direct control. The eight major social identities are sometimes referred to as the "Big 8"[1], being:
- ability
- age
- ethnicity
- gender
- race
- religion
- sexual orientation
- socioeconomic status
These concepts may be split into separate qualifications based on the definition of a particular term versus the individual's self-identification as such. For example, a work may describe a person's race as African American, even if the term "African American" was not in wide use prior to the 1980s in the United States. In such scenarios, individuals may differentiate between "race" and "racial identity" (or "religion" and "religious identity", "sexual orientation" and "sexual (orientation) identity", "gender" and "gender identity", etc., etc.). In the context of lgbtDB, we occasionally make this separation insofar as it may be useful in select situations, but we avoid it as much as possible, preferring an individual's self-identification.
Ethnicities
Ethnic Groups
An ethnic group, according to the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, "a social group or category of the population that, in a larger society, is set apart and bound together by common ties of race, language, nationality, or culture". While there is no comprehensive list of ethnic groups, lgbtDB uses multiple resources when labeling a social group as an ethnic group, including some of the following resources:
- Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia
- Ethnic Groups of the Americas: An Encyclopedia
- Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia
- Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia
- Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook
- Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups
Ethno-linguistic Groups
Ethno-national Groups
Ethno-racial Groups
Ethno-regional Groups
Ethno-religious Groups
Ethnic Identities
There is no comprehensive list of ethnic identities, so lgbtDB uses multiple resources when labeling a group as an ethnic identity, including:
Nationalities
A number of resources are consulted when it comes to listed a nationality on lgbtDB, such as:
- List of nationalities, per GOV.UK
Additional Resources
Notes
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- ↑ While the ASCCEG lists "cultural and ethnic groups", labels are singular and selected by individuals through a process of "[s]elf-perceived group identification"; in the documentation itself the ASCCEG notes that "[f]or the purposes of the ASCCEG, 'ethnicity' refers to the shared identity or similarity of a group of people on the basis of one or more distinguishing characteristics". In this case, therefore, ethnicity is taken to be synonymous (or near synonymous) with ethnic identity.