Excellent points. Let me further add "colorism" to your list. Therefore, each country's social hierarchy is different: it may either be racial, ethnic, national, religious, or it may be based on color (such as Brazil). Or it could be a combination of them, with one in particular carrying more weight than the others. In America, the race component carries the most weight. In Russia, it's ethnic or national, just as you said.
As it turns out, the idea of global "White Supremacy" is an American or perhaps Anglo phenomenon...
Colorism does not elevate colors to the status of 'nationalities'. It does not make ethnicities out of them. A black Brazilian is still a Brazilian. This is how Latin America is.
In the US, otoh, black people talk about the "Nation", they have their own accent and dialect, they say "our nationality is African-American", etc. These are not legally accepted concepts according to international laws, but they are real inside the US.
When I was in Saudi with a whole bunch of US military guys, the Saudis prepared all kinds of IDs and papers for us and they were all in Arabic. I had friends translate them.
The Saudis just put for everybody:" nationality: American". Then they were concerned about religion: Christian or Muslim? That was it.
Arabs only have those two concepts- your citizenship and your religion.
Americans who were there would otoh try to classify Saudis- "oh that guy is a Black Saudi". But there's no such thing. A Saudi is a Saudi. End of the story. And it does not depend on birthplace-- it depends on what citizen you are. And anyone who speaks Arabic fluently is an Arab.
Many people are born in Saudi Arabia, but they do not have citizenship-- the father is not Saudi.
Even Osama Bin Ladin is not considered a Saudi by Saudis because he has/had no citizenship there. His family was from Yemen but they were naturalized in Saudi Arabia nbut then he was stripped of his Saudi nationality so he is not a Saudi.
But Americans keep harping- "Saudi-born,Saudi born."..well it means jack shyt there if you are born there or not.
Then, I was talking with Brits who had been to Russia and they were saying that there were "White Russians and Asian Russians". Again, they were trying to classify Russia by using thier categories as if Russia was part of their Empire-- most still think they have it. But I tried in my mind to translate into Russian the term-- "white Russians"-- it just means "royalists". Asian Russian?- untranslatable- and no such thing. It's like saying "canine cat".
In the US another thing sucks- for immigrants, that is-- and some people care and some do not but there are terms such as-" foreign-born, German-born, etc" Then, there's "American, born and raised". So, naturalization does not really make you a full American. People and media still talk about you by mentioning the old country, calling it your "homeland" (even though an oath of renunciation was taken by you where you rejected it) and calling you an immigrant until the day you die. Both an illegal person and a naturalized citizen are just "immigrants".
But, for example, in the Philippines, there's no such thing. A Filipino citizen is a Filipino. End of the story. So, anyone who becomes a Filipino citizen will be seen as a Filipino, and then you are classified by the language you speak -- so you just learn one Philippine language and you 'become' that group. End of the story! An easy system. The trick is to become a Filipino citizen-- that is very hard.
One Filipino clerk in Saudi was complaining to me about the behavior of one American guy-- a Louisiana Cajun. The Filipino asked him: "What is the nationality of your wife?" ( not very polite to my mind, but Filipinos love asking people's nationality out of the blue and they mean just that--citizenship.)
So, the Cajun guy told the Filipino-" My wife is Anglo-Saxon".
The Filipino guy was pissed and he was complaining to me--" What kind of nationality is that? Anglo Saxon! What the f-ck is that? What does he mean? Why is he talking in riddles? Does he think I'm some kind of idiot?"
Why can't he just say" My wife's nationality is American", "My wife's nationality is Canadian'? I mean easy, simple but he keeps on saying "Anglo Saxon, Anglo Saxon..."
Non-Westerners seem to make a distinction between "permanent" minorities who they may have to compete with for jobs, etc., vs. "visiting" minorities who are there spending money.
In some places, the vitriol directed towards the local despised minorities is ... something to behold.
The same with Jews in E. Europe. Local Jews are hardly there anymore because of vicious hatred against them-- this is why the State of Israel was formed to begin with-- because Jews were kicked out of Poland, Lithuania, etc.
However, a visiting ( or even long term resident) American Jew is lauded and treated very well. Some American Jews are in Russia now marrying all those Slavic women and the women are so proud-" Oh, I now have an ... American husband".
But if it is a local Jew ( who may be a distant cousin of that American Jew) he is treated like a Paki in England.
Speaking about "Pakis" in England-- I knew one guy who was such a "Paki"- of course he had a British passport, and he was born there- but socially, he was just a Paki- he will never be English. He had trouble dating and with social life and he developed a complex. He got called a "bloody wog", etc.
Well, he then went to Latvia to live and became a hero there. He was now "a guy from England" and all these blonds now wanted to date him. So, he became an Englishman in Latvia while he could never be one in the country of his birth. He's now permanently relocated there.
You do what you've gotta do.