# What is the difference between race, nationality, ethnicity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 25, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-race-nationality-ethnicity/916288 "2020-07-25T04:21:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 25
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-race-nationality-ethnicity/916288/25 "2020-07-27T10:24:42Z")
Taking some quotes from the other thread… > [@Are you ethnic?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/125): > > So my brother-ln-law who is of Scottish heritage, took to learning the bagpipes, marches in parades wearing a kilt, took the family to Scotland, is not ethnically Scottish? > [@Are you ethnic?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/134): > > He is certainly an ethnic Scot? Am I misunderstanding you correctly? Never claimed he was a citizen of the UK or of British Nationality. Just saying he is ethnically Scottish . > [@Are you ethnic?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-ethnic/916086/135): > > He certainly is! I might quibble with that. Taking up a musical instrument doesn’t confer ethnicity. I’m sure kswiss’s brother is a great guy and it’s wonderful that he’s interested in his heritage but I would say that being ethnically Scottish requires something more than putting on a kilt and marching around with bagpipes (an activity that approximately 99.99% of Scots will never do). Obviously there’s an ancestry factor here as well but I would tentatively say that if the ancestry by itself isn’t close enough to confer ethnicity, putting on a costume won’t make up the difference. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-difference-between-race-nationality-ethnicity/916288)._