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

10. Race/Ethnic Identification in the
United States, 2002

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

12. Social Statuses
Some statuses,
particularly ascribed
ones, mutually
exclusive
Some statuses
are contextual

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”

18. Canadian Visible Minority Population of
Canada, 2001 Census
Source: Statistics
Canada 2001

19. Americans Reporting
They Belonged to Just One Race

20. Figure 6.2: Reproduction of Questions on
Race and Hispanic Origin from Census 2000

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