The idea of "race," which most anthropologists and demographers consider to be a biologically
insignificant term, has enormous social currency. Racial classifications have been used to
deprive many groups of basic rights and therefore have an important place in considerations of
human inequality and suffering. The history of Rwanda and Burundi shows that once-minor
ethnic categories—Hutu and Tutsi share language and culture and kinship systems—were lent
weight and social meaning by colonial administrators who divided and conquered, deepening
social inequalities and then fueling nascent ethnic rivalry.
I have never thought about the concepts of race and ethnicity like I have here.
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