Everybody belongs to one ethnicity or another. I have noticed a recent trend of some people to refer to ethnic minorities simply as "ethnics." What is your opinion of this trend? Why do you think it has developed? What, exactly, is an "ethnic"?
by 
tiwilliger
ANSWERS: 3
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It is generally used with another word, such ethnic group, or ethnic identity, but as you point, it now stands alone, with the modifier 'understood'. Like many words, it gradually undergoing a change, replacing the word ethnicity. Wikipedia has an excellent article about the word, and some background on ethnicity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group
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I think 'Ethnic' is a new thing I see more and more... A PC slur. People use a term that is considered by a portion of the populace to be 'politically correct', and then it is misused to become a slur. It then becomes so snide, that it ends up worse than the original term.
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Worse still, that is just one particular term, at this particular time. I've also heard racial minorities lumped together, as if we are some conspiratorial collective, as "Colored's", "The Minorities", "Immigrants" (even if you are a natural-citizen), "lesser peoples" (said by British colonists), and "Barbarians" (said by ancient Greeks) What is an "ethnic" specifically? Nothing. Or at least, no different, than any other condesending term to refer to a heterogenous group of people. It amazes me to think, how much better the entire world could be, if everyone just read an introductory Anthropology textbook.
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