Race: refers to the continent from where one's Ancestors came

Nationality: refers to the country in which one was born

Border: a line separating two political or geographical areas, especially countries.

Open border: a border that allows easy crossing
closed border: a border that allows no crossing
controlled border: a border that allows controlled (With restrictions and requirements) crossing


regulated: controlled or supervised (something, especially a company or business activity) by means of rules and regulations.

banned: officially or legally prohibited



for example,

in the US, we have controlled borders and guns are regulated and child marriage is prohibited.

My race is African American because enough of my ancestors were from West Africa to be socially a member of the African American population

My nationality is American, because I was born in the USA, but I guess United States of American would be too weird.

I see these words misused and overused plenty in political discourse, just putting in two cents.

Race and nationality may be a little more involved than the simple explanation you have given. For instance, there are several different races from the African continent such as those from the northern regions such as Egypt and Syria while there is the southern area of South Africa. I believe there is a similar situation in South America.

So if you are Hispanic or Asian yet you were born in the US, we should consider you American although your parents are not? If you were born in Japan to American parents, we should consider you Japanese? I think nationality is more a function of were your parents were from, not so much what country you were born in. When the parents are from different nationalities, we tend to connect them with a hyphen such as Japanese-Americans.

To think that at one time North America was once a borderless society with the indegenous peoples .
They had laws and leaders that governed and were quite productive in trade when us europeans landed and systematicly destroyed their society and made up lines dividing them to countries .
I will never understand how anyone who isnt first nations of America can say who is allowed in or isnt .
Specialy when we seen fit to actualy steal people from there homelands in the not so far past and bring them here against their free will .
And i get so disgusted on here when i see people say they are "Native American " when they dont posses a ounce of aboriginal blood .
I know they arent smart enough to figure out what it really means . But they should dosome research

No it doesn't.

Because race is a social construct, its definition has varied over several millennia.

For example, the Tanakh (a.k.a Old Testament) mentions several "races" that existed on the same continent. Today, those same "races" are referred to as ancient ethnic groups or ancient nationalities.

Also, a white native of South Africa (a nation) can have ancestors who were born in Africa. If that person were to become a U.S. citizen, then that person could legitimately be called an African-American.

regional differences will occur, but basically nationality defines NATION of immediate heritage(birthplace or parents) whereas RACE defines continent of ancestry(american definition)

See my edited post above.

duly noted, my correction

RACE: as it is defined and used in the USA and on the USA census, refers to the continent from which one's ancestors were from

My dads father was czech and his mother slovakian . My grandfather was chased out od his country and into poland before migrating to Canada during the war . He married a irish imagrant straight from ireland and had my father who married a french Canadian(immigrant of france in lineage) that also had metis blood from her parents interacial marriage . I married a italian girl and her grand father was british !
What does that make my son ? Oh and hey ! My sister married a nigerian whos mother was german .
Are you seeing my problem with grasping onto my lineage ? I Am Canadian !
But im also a globalist for obvious reasons . I think we all deserve to be exactly where we want to be as long as we can conform to the laws of that society . Like we should have respected for the the natives that were here when europeans settled the americas .

These United States have open borders between states. Being United allows for open borders but they don't have to be open borders.
It could be possible for the States to fence off and restrict their borders with check points. I could see this happening if the immigration issues warrant state security.
United applies to the states of the nation of The United States of America.
If that unity is lost, a state can restrict its borders.
Texas wanted to do this. If it did, it would no longer be part of the United States. It would be its own Nation.

The United States of America isolates native tribal nations within its borders. They are open borders but the land belongs to the Native Tribes.
The Native Tribes could restrict or close its borders (I don't think they do) if they petition the US Government to do so.

There are other restricted or closed borders within the USA as well.
Gated Communities, Corporate complexes, National Complexes.
NASA is right up the road from me.
Their complex is closed without a pass. They actually turn you around at the gate. There is a road that goes thru NASA (Stennis Space Center) that makes it much shorter to get to Picayune (via RT 607) but the NASA gate stops traffic. That's a closed border.

I personally don't understand the need to label someone anything.
US Citizens are called Americans.
Visitors, illegal immigrants are called Mexicans, Cubans, English, Africans, Swedish, etc.
If you are a US Citizen, you are an American.
There's really no need to subtitle it.

Here's what I see, the way I understand it all.
Most Americans just go by American but some Americans force sectarianism to punctuate their heritage.
When someone refers to themselves as African-American, Chinese-American, Mexican-American, Italian-American, Irish-American they are calling for acknowledgement for something other Americans don't push.
I've never heard of a German Heritage referring to themselves as Anglo-Saxon Americans. They just say American.
I believe in order for the USA to move away from prejudice all citizens should be just Americans.
Why make a big deal out of it?

Then you have people that need to label themselves Christian-American, Muslim-American and so on.
Again, if you're a US Citizen, you are American.
Why make such a big deal out of it?

When someone uses these punctuations it isolates them from the whole.
They are usually the ones that have problems with some sort of discrimination. Their own insistence of calling out their differences puts focus on that, instead of the fact that they are also US Citizens (Americans).
They are feeding the prejudice.
It makes no sense to me.

I get sick and tired of "ethnic" "race" and "nationality" complaining. Native Americans in MY mind are the only ones that have a right to complain. WE "that's all the we's" came here, took their land and their livelihood and "gave" them the worst land and soil in North America. All the rest of us should quit complaining and pointing fingers at each other.

nationality would be where you were living when he was born. racially not enough information to tell, only you would know the ancestral line or how he ill identify and be identified.

I am African American, because my ancestry is more West Africa than any other continent. My nationality is American because I was born in the USA to parents born and raised in the USA.

I married a Welsh man(british national) who is racially WHite, because more of his ancestry is from Europe than any other continent. Our daughter, in AMerica, is racially called 'mixed' or 'biracial' because she has a 50/50 of racial split between her mother and father. She is of nationality American, because she was born in the US to a mother born and raised in the US. She has the option to apply for dual citizenship due to her father. But she is not British in either of our eyes the way those born and raised there are british, kind of like a male with surgery to cut off his penis isnt female in the way that humans born and raised female are.

if any of that makes sense.

Though I respect what Native Americans went through. I would disagree that their history makes them the ONLY ones who can 'complain." Natives had been long oppressed before many other minorities ever arrived and many of them went through plenty of oppression to 'complain' about as well.

I feel that issues should be addressed for progress and growth to occur. Complaining is a different thing than addressing, though, depending on the side being taken, the words are often interchanged to quiet grievances people may have and shame them into just going along.

I will agree that pointing fingers, or the blame game, do not serve much purpose when that is the point and the end of the conversation. We only make progress by ACKNOWLEDGING and understanding what happened incorrectly so it is not repeated again, and so we can start addressing and correcting it.

Personally, I do understand the need to embrace the past to make a better future.
The problem is, the past has already been embraced and some can't move on.
To make a better future, people need to embrace the present now.

I am of Celtic descent (Irish, Welsh, English & Polish).
The Irish were treated poorly in this country at one time.
We moved on.

Sure there are people that hold resentment but the majority do not.
They embrace the present and just let the past go.
They have the lessons learned but they don't dwell on it.
They don't force the subject into every conversation or action.

When I encounter someone, I see them as people first.
Its not till THEY bring up their differences that I get my view of them distorted.
I am fully prepared to accept them as people.
They don't seem to want to let me?