>Mainly, because when you move to a racially homogenous
>society, the feeling of blackness or whiteness erodes. In my
>travels throughout Europe, I rarely ran into a white person
>who identified themselves by race. Racial identity loses its
>steam, when there isn't racial variance. That's why I reject
>the notion of "feeling" like one race or another as being
>something intrinsic. So, race, in the context of this
>conversation, definitely functions like ethnicity.
>


During your travels in Europe, the white Europeans you encountered may have identified themselves by their ethnicity or nationality. But if they were asked to identify your race by your physical features, they would have identified you as an individual of black race. Just the way you identified them as white in your description.

And let's say, hypothetically, you met up with another traveler, a black male from Tanzania. The white Europeans you encountered would have identified you both as black males. However the differences between you and your travel friend in culture, nationality, language, and shared history would be ethnic differences. Despite both being perceived as black males. According to my perspective, anyway.