Ethnicity and Race

Chapter Outline

ETHNIC GROUPS & ETHNICITY Status Shifting RACE & ETHNICITY

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACEHypodescent: Race in the United StatesRace in the CensusNot Us: Race in Japan Phenotype and Fluidity:Race in Brazil

ETHIC GROUPS, NATIONS, & NATIONALITIES Nationalities and Imagined Communities

ETHNIC TOLERANCE & ACCOMMODATION Assimilation The Plural SocietyMulticulturalism and Ethnic Identity ROOTS OF

ETHNIC CONFLICT Prejudice and DiscriminationChips in the Mosaic Aftermath of Oppression

ETHNIC GROUPS & ETHNICITY

Ethnicity is bases on cultural similarities and differences in a society or nation.

Status Shifting

Ascribed status - social status based on little or no choice

Achieved status – social status based on choices or accomplishments

Some status aren’t mutually exclusive, but contextual. EX. People can be both black and Hispanic or mother and a senator

CLAMED IDENTITY

NUMBER(MILLIONS)

PERCENTAGE

White (non-Hispanic)

199.7 66.1

Hispanic 45.4 15.5

Black 38.8 12.9

Asian 13.4 4.5

American Indian

2.9 1.0

Pacific Islander .5 .2

Total population

301.1 99.8

Racial/Ethic Identification in US 2007

RACE & ETHNICITY

NATIONAL ORIGIN PERCENTAGE

Mexican American 64.4

Puerto Rican 9.1

Cuban 3.5

Central and South American

13.3

Other Hispanic/ Latino origin

9.8

Total 100.0

Race is a cultural category rather than a biological reality. Ethnic groups, including “races,” derive from contrasts perceived and perpetuated in particular societies rather than from scientific classifications based on common genes.

It id not possible to define human races biologically. Only cultural constructions of race are possible- even though the average person conceptualizes ‘race” in biological terms

American Hispanic, Latinos 2007

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF

RACE

Hypodescent: Race in the United

States

In American culture, one acquires his/her racial identity at birth, as an ascribed status, but race isn’t based on biology or on simple ancestry. American rules for assigning racial status can be more arbitrary. In some state, anyone known to have any black ancestor, no matter how remote, is classified as black. This is a rule of decent, but of a sort that is rare outside of contemporary US.

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF

RACE

Race in the Census

Racial categories in census (1990) includes: White, Black or Negro, Indian (American), Eskimo, Aleut or Pacific Islander and Other. A separate question is asked about Spanish-Hispanic heritage.

Choice of “some other race” in US Census more than doubled from 1980 (6.8 million) to 2000 (over 15 million) suggesting imprecision in and dissatisfaction with the existing categories.

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF

RACE

Not Us: Race in Japan

North Americans view Japan is a nation that is homogeneous in race, ethnicity, language, and culture.

Japan is hardly the uniform entity

10% of Japan’s national population are minorities of various sorts

Aninu

Okinawans

Burakumin

Children of mixed marriages

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF

RACE

Phenotype and fluidity: Race in

Brazil

Along with the rest of Latin American, Brazil has less exclusionary categories, which permit individuals to change their racial classification.

Brazilians use over 500 racial labels

Racial Classification pays attention to phenotypes

Phenotypes – expressed physical characteristics of an organism

ETHIC GROUPS, NATIONS, &

NATIONALITIES

Nationalities and Imagined

Communities

Nationalities – Ethnic groups that have once had, or want their own country

Even when they become nation states, they remain “imagined communities because most of their members, through feeling comradeship, will never meet. They can only imagine they are the same unit.

ETHNIC TOLERANCE & ACCOMMODATION

Assimilation – absorption of minorities within a dominant culture

Minority culture is so incorporated into dominant culture that it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit

The Plural Society

Societies with economically interdependent ethic groups

Ethic groups can persist despite generations of interethnic contact

ETHNIC TOLERANCE & ACCOMMODATION

Multiculturalism & Ethnic

Identity

A multicultural society socializes individuals not only into dominant (national) culture but also into an ethnic culture.

ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

Prejudice and discrimination

People are prejudiced when they hold stereotypes about groups and apply to them to individuals.

Chips In the Mosaic

Discrimination –

Policies and practices that harm a group of its members

Although the multicultural model is increasing prominent in North American ethnic competition and conflict also are evident. There is conflict between newer arrivals, for instance, Central American and Koreans, and longer established ethnic groups such as African Americans

ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

Aftermath of Oppression

Genocide – Deliberate elimination of a group through mass murder

A dominant group may try to destroy , the cultures of certain ethnic groups or force them to adapt the dominant culture

Ethnocide – Destruction of certain ethnic groups