Ok, here is an educational attempt to illustrate between race and ethnicity. Another said they could not grasp the concept to what is a ethnic group in comparison to a cultural or racial group and I tried to explain, but that didn't seem to get across the way I had hoped.
If you're intriguied and want to see this from an educational perspective to why this is, your answer lies below and it is pretty much the end all to this subject unless you want to challenge the way education has taught us. I assume most of us are at the high school education level with at least a basic understanding in geography before proceeding. If you have a background in the psych/sociology areas, you can grasp this pretty quick. If you don't, like most people, you are confused when asked "What is a race and what is an ethnicity?"
There are two parts to what consists as identifying a person. First is the culture, which you're all aware of. The second is the heritage, often through racial means.
Part I. Racial breakup
We know what race is. We see it everyday. You go to the market, best buy, K-mart, Banana republic. You see different people in there. African, Asian, White, Hispanic, I'm not going to name all, but you know the colors.
You get specific of which race:
African >>> Somalian. Congo (Bakongo are the people)
Asian >>> Japanese. Chinese. Korean. Vietnamese. Laotian. Indian. Indonesian.
Spanish >>> Mexican. Cuban. Puerto Rican.
European >>> German. French. Italian. Russian.
American >> Native American, Americans
What comes after this? When you get down to the next level, these are equivalent to ethnic groups. I won't go into detail of all of them, here are some examples:
Part II. ETHNICITY.
Chinese >>> Mongolian. Han Chinese (Mandarin). Yu Chinese (Cantonese). Chinese-AMERICAN
Italians >>> Sicilians. Lombardi.
Cuban >>> Cuban-AMERICAN
Tribes (of native americans) >> Navajo, Cherokee
Part III.
Where everyone not educated on this is confused. You've seen a Spanish guy who grew up in France. You've heard or seen a black guy raised in China. Or a Chinese kid who grew up in America. They learn the culture of these nations, but racially, you know they are not of original heritage.
Why? Subconsciously, you realize there is a heritage involved, not just the culture when you see the people around you. Most chinese won't see eye to eye with identifying the black person as Mandarin Chinese, even if he is 100% fluent in it.
These are where the "heritage" is missing. In the science/medical field, you'd never be classified that way because to them your DNA, genetic material, chromosomes, everything are all specifically tied with your race and ethnicity. Your culture doesn't matter, the race (or specifically, ethnical heritage) is all that does.
You see a question like:
1. Do you identify yourself as Jewish?
A. Yes
B. No
* If Yes, proceed to question 2
2. Which group of Jewish do you feel closely related to:
A. Ashkenazi Jewish
B. Polish Jewish
C. Lebanese Jewish
D. Other
If you are not Jewish, you technically can't answer question #2 for heritage reasons. Everything listed in Question #2 are ethnic groups of Jews.
Where does deaf fit in?
The culture is there, yes. But remember there is a genetic part to it. Everyone is not the same composition of DNA. We have Asian deafs. We have African deafs. We have Spanish deafs. Not everyone will have black haired babies, but just about everyone in the Mandarin Chinese will.
Not everyone will have brown haired babies, but many people in the Sicilians will.
Our DNA and genetic makeup are not of the same heritage, which is why from a medical view, you can't identify yourself as deaf for an ethnicity.
Socially, deaf are a group. But not ethnically. You can pretty much assume Deaf culture holds their own values to the same as gay culture does. Gays are not a ethnic group, but we know it is a group of people that share the same values and culture. However, there are different gays. Black gays, asian gays, you get the idea. I HOPE..