1. Week 4 Ethnicity & Race
Deep within the word “American” is its
association with race... American means
white, and Africanist people struggle to make
the term applicable to themselves with
ethnicity and hyphen after hyphen after
hyphen.
- Tony Morrison
Playing in the Dark, 1993:47
2. Ethnicity and Race
Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity
Human Biological Diversity
and the Race Concept
Race and Ethnicity
The Social Construction of Race
Continued
3. Ethnicity
Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity
Race
The Social Construction of Race &
Ethnicity
Social Stratification
Ethnic Groups and Nationalities
Peaceful Coexistence
Roots of Ethnic Conflict
4. Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity
Ethnic group – members share certain
beliefs, values, habits, customs, and
norms because of their common
background
Ethnicity revealed when people claim a certain
ethnic identity for themselves and are defined by
others as having that identity
5. Ethnicity: Primordial Identity &
Loyalties
Frederick Barth: ‘When
people claim an identity
for themselves & are
defined by others as
having that identity’
6. The Concept of Race
Race is ethnic
group assumed to
have a biological
basis
Race is a “cultural
construction”.
Race has political
purpose but not
scientific basis
• Race is what others
“do” to you... Ethnicity is
what you do to yourself
Hardin Coleman, Ph.D.
Univ. of Wisconsin
7. Tribe:
Meaning 1: A grp of persons forming a
community & claiming descent from a
common ancestor.
Meaning 2: A grp of people in a
primitive or barbarous condition, under
a headman or chief.
Used in public spheres, not much in
cultural anthropology
8. Variations of Race & Ethnicity
America Race Ethnicity of “Amer
Indian”
Hispanic Kumeya ay
Asian Zuñi
Pacific
Islander
Navajo
American
Indian
Gabrieliñ o/Tongva
Black Chumas h
White Seri
Yuma
9. Variations of Race & Ethnicity
Kenya Race Ethnicity of
“Black”
Arab Maasai
Black Kikuyu
White Kalenjin
Indian
(>India)
Kamba
Luo
Samburu
Turkana
11. Ethnic Groups and Social
Stratification
Status – various social positions that
people occupy
– Ascribed status – Position in society that
you receive at birth; little choice about
occupying position in society
– Achieved status – gained through
choices, actions, efforts, talents, or
accomplishments. A situational negotiation
of social identity...
• May be positive or negative
13. Minority & Majority Groups
Minority Groups – subordinate group that
does not constitute a politically dominant
plurality of the total population
Inferior power and less secure access to
resources than majority groups
Majority Groups – dominant group that
does constitutes a politically plurality of the
total population
14. Race
Better to use term
“ethnic group”
instead of “race” to
describe social
groups
anthropologically
Cultural category
rather than a
biological reality
15. The Social Construction of Race
Ethnic groups assumed to have biological
basis but actually defined in a culturally
arbitrary, rather than scientific, manner
In theory, biological race a geographically
isolated subdivision of a species
Race supposed to reflect shared
genetic material
Early scholars used phenotype:
organism’s evident traits
16. White Studies
The privileges of
whiteness - Peggy
McIntosh
‘White’ as unmarked,
natural category to
which others
compare
“Passing”: People or
ethnic groups who
shift pass into social
status as “white”
17. Race & Whiteness in Canadian
Census
“...persons, other than Aboriginal peoples
(a.k.a. First Nation in Canada, Native
Americans in the United States], who are
non-Caucasian in race or non-white in
colour
Canada’s visible minority population
increasing steadily
• Canadian census asks about “visible
minorities”
21. Hypodescent: Race
in the United States
Rule of Descent – assigns social identity
on basis of ancestry
Hypodescent – automatically places
children of a union or mating between
members of different groups in the lower
status or social class
Helps divide American society into groups that
have been unequal in access to wealth, power,
and prestige
• In American culture, one acquires his or
her racial identity at birth
22. Hyperdescent
Claiming social
status of
dominant status
parent, and
being accepted
by dominant
society for that
choice
Vanessa Hudgens, American singer & actress
Photo: Wikipedia
23. Ethnic Ambiguity & Status Shifting
Many celebrities
these days are of a
mixed ethnicity.
Derek Jeter, Mariah
Carey, Tiger Woods,
Vin Diesel, Norah
Jones...
Norah Jones, American Singer of European
and Bengali descent photo:
i.realone.com