Race in The City MIDTERM

Colonialism

The practice of acquiring political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Ethnicity

Group identity based on notions of similar and shared history, culture, and kinship; people self-identify with their ethnic group.

Race

A social construction to describe a group of people who share physical and cultural traits as well as a common ancestry; an externally imposed category, not based on biological differences.

Racism

(1) The belief that races are populations whose physical differences are linked to significant cultural and social differences within a hierarchy, and (2) the practice of subordinating races believed to be inferior.

Genocide

The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, national, or religious group.

Scientific Racism

The use of science or pseudoscience to justify or reproduce racial inequality.

Biological Understanding of Race

The (false) view that racial groups are biologically distinct and hierarchically ordered; debunked by modern genetics.

Race as a Social Construction

The understanding that race is not based on biological differences but is a product of colonial encounters, historical processes, and social/political decisions that continue to have real effects.

Slave Codes (1660s)

Laws that spelled out the legal differences between African slaves and European indentured servants; gave poor whites allegiance with wealthy elites and established racial hierarchy in law.

Chattel Slavery

A form of slavery in which people are legally treated as personal property (chattel) that can be bought, sold, and inherited; distinct from other historical forms of slavery.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that the expansion of the United States across North America was inevitable, divinely ordained, and justified—used to rationalize conquest and displacement of Indigenous peoples and Mexicans.

Indian Removal Act of 1830 / Trail of Tears

The 1830 federal law forcing Indigenous nations east of the Mississippi to relocate to designated "Indian Territory"; the forced march is known as the Trail of Tears and resulted in thousands of deaths.

1790 Naturalization Act

First U.S. law defining citizenship; restricted naturalization to "free white males," excluding all others from the rights of citizenship such as voting, landowning, and due process.

1848 – U.S.-Mexico War

The war in which the U.S. acquired what is now California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming from Mexico; expanded U.S. territory and incorporated Mexican populations.

1865 – 13th Amendment

Abolished slavery in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

Nativism

The presumed superiority of native-born citizens, favoring the allocation of resources to them over immigrants, and promoting a fear of foreign cultures.

Americanization Movement

A late 19th–early 20th century effort to assimilate immigrants (especially from southern and eastern Europe) into American society by promoting English, American civics, and cultural conformity through schools, workplaces, and civic groups.

Assimilation

The process by which an immigrant or minority group adopts the culture, values, and norms of the dominant society.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

The first major U.S. immigration restriction law, which denied citizenship to Chinese residents, including U.S.-born Chinese Americans, and barred Chinese laborers from entering the country.

Eugenics

A pseudoscientific belief and movement that advocated for improving the genetic composition of human populations by controlling reproduction—used to justify racial exclusion and immigration restriction in the U.S.

Immigration Act of 1924 / Johnson-Reed Act

Law that established national-origin quotas to preserve Anglo-Saxon demographics, excluded non-white groups entirely, and codified racial exclusion into U.S. immigration and naturalization law.

Pseudoscience

Claims or beliefs presented as scientific but lacking the rigor, testing, or validity of actual science; used in this course in the context of racial hierarchy justifications (e.g., eugenics).

Racialization

The process by which racial meanings and identities are imposed on groups, places, or practices that were not previously defined in racial terms.

1898 – U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark

Landmark Supreme Court case establishing that all persons born on U.S. soil—regardless of parents' race or immigration status—are citizens (birthright citizenship).

1940 Nationality Act

Federal law that guaranteed birthright citizenship to all people born in the United States.

1922 – Takao Ozawa v. United States

Supreme Court case that denied Japanese immigrant Takao Ozawa naturalized citizenship on the grounds that he was not "white."

1923 – Bhagat Singh Thind v. United States

Supreme Court case that denied naturalized citizenship to Indian immigrant Bhagat Singh Thind, ruling that "white" referred to common understanding, not scientific classification—even though he argued he was Caucasian.

Racial Discrimination

The practice of treating people differently and unequally on the basis of their race.

Racial Prejudice

The belief that people belong to distinct races with innate hierarchical differences that can be measured and judged.

Racial Ideology

A set of principles and ideas that (1) divides people into different racial groups and (2) serves the interests of one (dominant) group; ideologies are created by dominant groups and reflect their interests.

Jim Crow (the character)

A minstrel show character—an exaggerated, highly stereotypical Black caricature—performed in blackface by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice in the early 1800s; the name became a racial slur.

Jim Crow Laws

Segregation laws, rules, and customs in the American South that arose after Reconstruction (1877) and lasted until the mid-1960s; relegated African Americans to second-class citizenship; codified by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson

Supreme Court ruling that declared racial segregation in public facilities constitutional as long as they were "separate but equal," providing legal backing for Jim Crow.

1947 – Mendez v. Westminster

Landmark federal case that ended legally sanctioned school segregation in California, ruling that separating Mexican-American children into "Mexican schools" violated their 14th Amendment rights to equal protection.

1954 – Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme Court ruling that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson by declaring that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

Residential Segregation

The physical separation of racial or ethnic groups into distinct neighborhoods through policies, laws, violence, and market practices.

Stereotype

An oversimplified, widely held belief or image about a particular group of people that does not account for individual differences.

Relational Notions of Race

The idea that racial groups are not formed in isolation but in relation to one another; how one group is racialized affects how other groups are racialized across time and space.

Racial Scripts

Recycled cultural representations, attitudes, and practices applied to racialized groups; once used against one group, they are readily applied to others. They endure as institutional structures and are always available for new rounds of demonization.

"Cholo Courts" / "Peon Courts"

Segregated, substandard housing compounds where Mexican workers were confined in the early 20th century Southwest; reflected racial/class hierarchy and justified exclusion through narratives of filth and inferiority.

Racial Capitalism

The concept (associated with Cedric Robinson) that capitalism and racism are mutually dependent; capitalist systems develop by exploiting, racializing, and commodifying non-white bodies.

Immigrants as "Public Charges"

A legal and political category used to deny entry or public assistance to immigrants deemed likely to depend on government support; historically weaponized against Mexicans and other non-white immigrants.

"Mexican Dependency Problem"

A racialized stereotype and political narrative in the 1920s-30s that exaggerated Mexican reliance on public assistance to justify deportation and immigration restriction—despite evidence that Mexicans used relief proportionally.

1930s Mexican Repatriation

A campaign (1929–1936) in which approximately one million people of Mexican descent—including many U.S. citizens—were forcibly or coercively removed from the U.S. to Mexico during the Depression.

Counterscripts

Narratives and actions put forth by racialized groups themselves that challenge or offer alternatives to dominant racial scripts.

Social and Political Construction of Deportability

The process by which certain groups (e.g., Mexicans) are made legally removable through immigration law and social stigma, creating a permanent threat of deportation that disciplines and controls communities even without actual removal.

Ira Katznelson – "When Affirmative Action Was White"

Katznelson's argument that New Deal and postwar policies (GI Bill, Social Security, labor laws) functioned as a form of affirmative action for white Americans because their administration systematically excluded Black and non-white Americans, widening racial inequality during a time of overall prosperity.

"Southern Compromise" to Pass New Deal Policies

The political deal in which the Southern wing of the Democratic Party agreed to support New Deal legislation only if it would (1) exclude Black-dominated occupations, (2) allow local (hostile) administration of programs, and (3) include no anti-discrimination provisions.

Three Mechanisms That Sustained Jim Crow with New Deal

(1) Exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers (majority Black) from labor and social insurance programs; (2) administration of programs delegated to local/state officials hostile to Black interests; (3) no anti-discrimination provisions attached to social welfare programs.

Wealth

The sum total of a person's assets (cash, property, stocks, retirement savings) minus debt; built over a lifetime and passed to the next generation through inheritance.

Blockbusting

A real estate practice in which agents introduced Black families to white neighborhoods one block at a time, exploiting white panic to buy homes cheaply and resell at profit; Black buyers were denied bank loans and charged exploitative terms.

Dissimilarity Index

A measure of segregation indicating the percentage of a minority group that would need to move to be distributed proportionally among whites across census tracts; ranges from 0 (complete integration) to 100 (complete segregation).

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

A federal agency that insured mortgages; it endorsed and facilitated redlining, making it easier for whites to buy homes in suburban areas while denying financing to minority neighborhoods.

Isolation Index

A measure of residential segregation capturing the degree to which members of a minority group live in neighborhoods composed primarily of members of their own group; reflects exposure (or lack thereof) to other groups.

Racially Restrictive Covenants

Contractual agreements among property owners prohibiting sale, lease, or occupation of property by non-white people (Blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Jews); endorsed by the FHA; declared unenforceable by the Supreme Court in 1948.

1933 – Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) & Redlining

HOLC refinanced mortgages during the Depression and created "residential security maps" that color-coded neighborhoods by risk; minority and immigrant areas were outlined in red ("Hazardous"), a practice called redlining that denied loans and investment to those areas.

Violence as a Way to Segregate

Communal and targeted racial violence (e.g., 1919 Red Summer riots, arson, intimidation) used to confine Black and non-white populations to specific neighborhoods and prevent integration of white areas.

Institutional Racism

Accumulated institutional policies and practices that disadvantage racial minority groups even in the absence of overt individual prejudice or intent to discriminate.

Neighborhood Improvement Associations and Racial Segregation

White homeowner associations that lobbied for zoning restrictions, threatened boycotts of agents who sold to Blacks, and enforced restrictive covenants to maintain racial homogeneity and protect (white) property values.

1944 – G.I. Bill (Serviceman's Readjustment Act)

Landmark legislation providing veterans with education, home loans, business loans, and job training benefits; while formally race-neutral, its local implementation by Southern officials systematically excluded Black veterans, widening the racial wealth gap.

Construction of Black Ghettos

The deliberate creation of racially confined, overcrowded, and under-resourced neighborhoods through a combination of violence, restrictive covenants, redlining, blockbusting, public housing policy, and other exclusionary practices.

Housing Act of 1949 (Urban Renewal)

Federal legislation that expanded public housing and authorized "slum clearance," which in practice displaced non-white communities and concentrated minorities—especially Blacks—in segregated public housing projects in urban areas.

Urban Renewal

Government programs beginning in the late 1940s–50s that demolished "slum" areas (disproportionately Black and Latino neighborhoods) and redeveloped them, often for commercial use or white middle-class housing, displacing minority residents.