... Bureau as "may be of any race"--which indicates the extent to which "race" and "ethnicity" overlap in contemporary discourse. Ultimately, as we use the word today, ethnicity is not a matter of strict definition. It is a matter of identity: you are what you say you are and what other people think you are. We find it convenient in certain contexts to use the phrase "ethnic group" for a wide variety of minorities in America and other countries: Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Asian-Americans, immigrant South Asians and their children, Native Americans, African-Americans, Roma (Gypsies) in the many countries where they live, French-Canadians in Canada and in Maine, Kurds in Turkey, Basques in Spain and France. In recent years advocates of the interests of gay and Deaf communities in America have argued for the benefits of using the term "ethnic" in referring to these groups. "Ethnicity" in current usage is so elastic and ...

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