Chapter 7: Ethnicity, Race & Nationality

Why is Ethnicity an important cultural element of local diversity?

Ethnic identity is immutable

• “We can suppress our ethnicity, but we cannot change it in the same way we can speak a new language or practice a different religion”

Why are geographers interested in Ethnicity?

In the face of globalization trends in culture and economy, ethnicities stands as a strong bulwark for the preservation of local diversity

Ethnicity

An identity with a group of people who share the cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth

• a group occupying a small area or a large heterogeneous group

Race

Identity with a group of people who are perceived to share a physical trait

• skin colour

Nationality

Identity with a group of people who share legal attachment to a particular country

Distinctions between Ethnicity, Race and Nationality

• Ethnicity and Nationality are important to geographers because they are both place based

• Race is important because it is used as a synonym for ethnicity

  • Reconizes specific “races” are not rooted in specific places

• Race is also important to geographers due to the impact on skin colour in different societies

Social Construction

An idea or a meaning that is widely accepted as natural by a society but may not represent a reality shared by those outside the society

Example of social construction regarding race

Attempt to classify people according to race

Racism

Belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

Racist

A person who displays discrimination of feels prejudice against people of particular races

Example of Intersectionality: Kamala Harris

• Born with U.S. nationality + identifies as both Asian-Indian American and African American

• Father (Douglas Harris) born in Jamaica

• Mother (Shyamala Goplan) born in India

Ethnically Complex Brazil

70 percent of Brazilians have predominantly European ancestry

20 percent African

10 percent indigenous

Triangular Slave Trade

• Ships left Europe for Africa with cloth and other goods used to buy people

• The same ships transported these enslaved people across the Atlantic

• Completing the Triangle, the ships carried molasses to North America and rum from North America to Europe

Impact of Slave Trade on Africa and Africans

Large-scale forced migration of Africans caused them unimaginable hardship, separating families and destroying villages.

Ships were packed by Africans at extremely high density, kept in chains, and provided with minimal food and sanitary facilities

Approx. one-fourth died crossing the Atlantic

Two internal migration patterns during the twentieth century

• Interregional migration from the U.S. South to northern cities during the first half of the twentieth century

• Intraregional migration from the inner city to outer city and inner suburban neighborhoods during the second half of the twentieth century

Sharecropper

Works fields rented from a landowner and pays rent by turning over to the landowner a share of the crops

• became less common into the twentieth century

  • Due to farm machinery

History of Interregional Migration of Blacks at end of Civil War

At end of the Civil War, most Black people remained in the South working as sharecroppers

History of Interregional Migration of Blacks

As a result of interregional migration many Black people live in northern and western cities: Occured in 2 waves

1. First in the 1910’s/20’s before and after before and after WW1

2. Seconds in 1940’s/50’s before and after World War 2

Intraregional Migration of Blacks

• Black immigrants would cluster into one/two neighbourhoods

  • Known as “Ghettos”

• Moved from highly clustered communities into immediately adjacent neighbourhoods during 1950/60’s

• Expansion of predominantly Black areas in American cities was made possible by “white flight”

White Flight

The emigration of Whites from an area in anticipation of Blacks immigrating into the area

• encouraged by blockbusting and redlining

Blockbusting

Real estate agents convinced White homeowners living near a Black area to sell their houses at low prices, preying on their fears that Black families would soon move into the neighbourhood and cause property values to decline

Agents then hen sold the houses at much higher prices to Black families desperate to escape overcrowded conditions

Redlining

Financial institutions draw red-coloured lines on a map and refuse to lend money for people to purchase or improve property within the lines

Blacks were prevented from getting mortgages to buy houses in the neighborhoods where Whites also lived

“Separate but Equal” in the United States

Upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court 1896

• Example of this was Plessy v. Ferguson

Once Supreme Court permitted “separate but equal” treatment, southern states enacted a comprehensive set of laws to segregate Blacks from Whites as much as possible

Plessy v. Ferguson

Louisiana enacted a law that required Black and White passengers to ride in separate train cars

Supreme Court stated that Louisiana’s law was constitutional because it provided separate, allegedly equal, treatment of Blacks and Whites, and equality did not mean that Whites had to mix with Blacks

“Jim Crow” laws

• Named after a song and dance that depicted Blacks offensively

• Had to sit in the backs of buses and use different restrooms and drinking fountains

• Shops, restaurants and hotels could choose to serve only whites

• Separate schools were established for Blacks and Whites

White southerners argued they were not discriminatory because Buses got Blacks to a destination at same time as Whites, Blacks could patronize shops, and Black children were allowed to attend school

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Found that having separate schools for Blacks and Whites was unconstitutional because no matter how equivalent the facilities, racial separation branded minority children as inferior and therefore was inherently unequal

• a year after the Supreme Court further ruled that schools had to be desegregated with all deliberate speed

Apartheid

Legal separation of races into different geographic areas

• determined where different races could live, attend school, work, shop, travel, and own land

Classification of Apartheid

A newborn baby was classified as being one of four government-designated races: Black, White, Coloured or Asian

What were Blacks restricted from in the Apartheid

• restricted to certain occupations and were paid far lower wages than were Whites for similar work

• Could not vote or run for political office in national elections

Creation of the Apartheid System

Created by descendants of Whites who arrived in South Africa from the Netherlands

Known as either Boers (farmer) or Afrikaners (Afrikaans)

British seized the Dutch colony in 1795 and controlled South Africa’s Government until 1948 when Afrikaner-dominated Nationalist Party won elections

Vowed to resist pressures to turn over South Africa’s government to Blacks and the Nationalist Party created apartheid laws to perpetuate White Dominance

Legacy of Apartheid

Legacy of apartheid will linger for many years through continued segregation

South Africa’s Blacks have achieved political equality but are economically disadvantaged

Homeland for Blacks

South African government designated 10 or so called homelands for Blacks

Expected every Black to become a citizen of one of the homelands and move there

Repeals of the Apartheid laws

White Minority gov repealed the apartheid laws in 1991

African National Congress

Principal anti-apartheid organization

• leagalized when apartheid laws were repealed

• Nelson Mandela was released from jail after 27 years

  • Voted as first Black President in 1994 after all South Africans were permitted to vote in national elections

Example of Legacy of Apartheid

South Africa is a major producer of wine, but only a small number of wineries are owned by Blacks

Ethnic and Cultural origins of Canadians

Most reported Canadian as Ethnic origin

Chinese ancestry, East Indian ancestry, Filipino ancestry large margin for single response

Top places for immigrants places of birth

China India Philippines

Visible minorities

Persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour

• Number is growing

Largest visible minority groups

South Asians Chinese Blacks

1871 Census data Canada

• 20 origins were enumerated in the Canadian population

• 60% originated from the British Isles, 31% French and <1% of Indigenous origins

2016 Census Data Canada

• >250 origins were reported in the Canadian Population

• 33% reported at least one origin from the British Isles and 14% of people reported one French origin

• 6.2% of total Canadian population reported Aboriginal ancestry

  • First Nations (North American Indians) was the largest with 1.5 million people

Historical Racism in Vancouver’s Chinatown

• Chinese Immigrants came to Vancouver in mid-1800’s

• By 1901, around 10% of Vancouver’s population was Chinese

• 1931: Due to Head Tax + Exclusionary immigration, population was reduced to 5%

City policies impacting racism in Vancouver’s Chinatown

1. Voting Rights

2. Exclusion from immigration

3. Restricted livelihoods

4. Segregation in housing and public spaces

Confederate States of America (SCA) history

In February 1861, seven states announced that they were seceding from the United States and forming an independent Confederate States of America (CSA)

Four more States joined after Civil War Start

formed due to the fact that the “negro is not equal to the white man” and slavery is natural and normal

CSA Monuments (in)

• 1500 statues erected

• Schools, parks and other elements of the landscape were named after CSA leaders

• Erected around 1900, around Jim Crow laws

CSA Monuments Removal

more than 70 of the monuments honoring the CSA were removed between 2016 and 2020

History of the Environmental racism in Flint, Michigan

Flint’s residents, who are predominantly Black, have been exposed to a high concentration of lead in the drinking water because of insufficient treatment of the water source

After the switch to the Flint River, city residents began complaining about the color, taste, and odor of their water. But public officials asserted that the water met health and safety standards, an assertion that turned out to be false.

Legal challenges of the water in Flint, Michigan

Public officials have faced legal charges of negligence for endangering the health of the citizens of Flint in order to save money. For failing to take adequate action to protect the health of Flint residents, former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was charged with willful neglect of duty.

Black Lives Matter (BLM)

Movement that campaigns against violence and perceived racism toward Blacks and educates others about the challenges that Black Americans continue to face in the U.S.

History of BLM

first appeared in social media in 2013 after the acquittal of a White man, George Zimmerman, in the shooting death of a Black teen, Trayvon Martin, in Sanford, Florida.

Movement has since protested the deaths of numerous other Blacks through police actions

Black Lives Matter in 2020

The movement gained strength and widespread support nationally in 2020 following the death of a Black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a White police officer, Derek Chauvin, in Minneapolis. Protests demanding criminal justice reform erupted in several hundred U.S. cities, involving between 15 million and 26 million people, making it one of the largest protest movements in U.S. history

Black Lives Matter Plaza

Renamed a part of the street outside of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Diffusion of BLM

• Originated in the UK in 2016 with demonstrations in several cities protesting police brutality

• Many protests occurred around the globe protesting the death of George Floyd

• BLM has received support from professional sports around the world, including Major League Baseball (Figure 7.5.5), soccer players in England’s Premier League (Figure 7.5.6), and players in the National Basketball Association

Ethnicity and Nationality in Canada

Québécois are clearly distinct from other Canadians in cultural traditions, especially language.

The controversy regarding Ethnicity and Nationality in Canada (Québécois)

But do the Québécois form a distinct ethnicity within the Canadian nationality or a second French-speaking nationality separate altogether from English-speaking Canadians? The distinction is critical because, if Québécois is recognized as a separate nationality from English-speaking Canadians, the Québec government would have a much stronger justification for breaking away from Canada to form an independent country

Ethnicities and Nationalities in the British Isles

Nationality of the citizens of the United Kingdom is disputed - One nationality or Four?

How are the British Isles Divided

Between 2 countries: Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

How many parts is the United Kingdom divided into

4:

• England

• Northern Ireland

• Scotland

• Wales

The English

The English are descendants of Germanic tribes who crossed the North Sea and invaded the country in the fifth century. These invasions were summarized in Chapter 5 (Languages) in the discussion of the origin of the English language

The Welsh

The Welsh were Celtic people conquered by England in 1282 and formally united with England through the Act of Union of 1536. Welsh laws were abolished, and Wales became a local government unit.

The Scots

The Scots were Celtic people who had an independent country for more than 700 years, until 1603, when Scotland’s King James VI also became King James I of England, thereby uniting England and Scotland. The Act of Union in 1707 formally merged the two governments, although Scotland was allowed to retain its own systems of education and local laws.

The Irish

The Irish were Celtic people who were ruled by England until the twentieth century, when most of the island became the independent country of Ireland. The northern portion remained part of the United Kingdom.

Nationalism + what is it an example of?

Loyalty and Devotion to a particular nationality

Example of a Centripetal force

Centripetal force

A cultural value that tends to unify people

Centrifugal force

to spread out from the center/ de-unify people

An example of an ethnicity without its own nationality is what?

The Kurds

The Kurds

• live in an area comprising parts of eastern Turkey + Iran Syria and Iraq

• are Sunni Muslims who speak a language in the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European and have distinctive literature, dress, and other cultural traditions.

History of Kurdistan

• European allies created Kurdistan after WW1

• But the Turks fought successfully to expand territory

• League of Nations determined that much of Kurdistan would become part of Turkey after the Treaty of Lausanne determined the modern state of Turkey

Size of population in Kurdistan

35 million Kurds are split among several countries; 15 million live in eastern Turkey, 9 million in western Iran, 7 million in northern Iraq, 2 million in Syria, and 2 million in other countries (primarily Germany). Kurds comprise 18 percent of the population in Turkey, 17 percent in Iraq, 11 percent in Syria, and 10 percent in Iran.

What have the Turks done regarding Kurdistan + fightback

• tried to suppress Kudish culture to foster development of Turkish nationalism

• Use of language was illegal in Turkey until 1991

• Kurdish nationalists have waged a guerrilla war since 1984

Iraq’s Kurds attempts at independence

made several unsuccessful attempts to gain independence, including in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1970s. A few days after Iraq was defeated in the 1991 Gulf War, the country’s Kurds launched another unsuccessful rebellion

Iraqi Kurds achieved even more autonomy after the United States attacked Iraq and deposed its president Saddam Hussein on suspicions of possessing weapons of mass destruction and ties to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.

Ethnicities in Syria

Arabs comprise 90 percent of Syria’s population

The ethinc Arabs are divided by religion

Ethnicities in Afghanistan

42 percent Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, and 9 percent each Hazara and Uzbek.

Afghanistan’s ethnic diversity can be attributed to its position as a key trading route between Central, Southern, and Western Asia. The current unrest among Afghanistan’s ethnicities dates from 1979

Taliban

Gained control over most of the country in 1996. The Taliban imposed strict laws on Afghanistan, according to Islamic values as the Taliban interpreted them.

Taliban and United States intervention

The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrew the Taliban-led government because it was harboring terrorists (see Section 8.10.2). Removal of the Taliban unleashed a new struggle for control of Afghanistan among the country’s many ethnicities. The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021 and reimposed harsh laws. As a result of the fighting, more than 4 million people have become refugees or internally displaced persons.

Ethnophobia

Fear of people of a particular ethnicity

Xenophobia

Fear of people who are from other countries

Ethnic Cleansing

A purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas

Genocide

Mass killing of a group of people in an attempt to eliminate the entire group from existence

Uyghurs

Ethnic Turks clustered primarily in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Ethnic Cleansing of Uyghurs

Up to 2 million of the 13 million Uyghurs in Xinjiang are believed to have been placed in a network of detention centers across the region, according to the U.S. State Department

Abuse of Uyghurs in Detention Centers

Former detainees allege they were subjected to indoctrination, sexually abused, and in some cases forcibly sterilized. In other cases, they were bused away from their villages and families to be used as cheap labor in factories.

China response to Ethnic Cleansing of Uyghurs

China denies allegations of human rights abuses. China’s government calls the centers where Uyghurs have been placed Vocational Education and Training Centers (Figures 7.8.2 and 7.8.3). The government says the centers are necessary to prevent religious extremism and terrorism.

Rohingya

ethnic group living in Myanmar’s far western Rakhine State, least economically developed state in one of the world’s least economically developed countries

• predominantly Suni Muslims speaking an Indo-European language diff to rest of myanmar

Controversy of Rohingya’s migration to Myanmar

Most Rohingya migrated in the nineteenth century from present-day Bangladesh to present-day Myanmar, when both were British colonies. The Myanmar government claims that because the Rohingya immigrated during the British colonial era, they are living in Myanmar illegally.

Initial laws against Rohingya

In 1982, the Myanmar government enacted laws that took away the Rohingya’s citizenship, land, and rights to attend school and hold jobs.

Rohingya retaliation + further Myanmar attacks

n 2016, Rohingya attacked some police and military posts. In retaliation, the Myanmar military launched a massive ethnic cleansing operation against the Rohingya. The pretext was to eliminate the group that had attacked the police and military, but the United Nations concluded that more than 1 million Rohingya have been ethnically cleansed. Their villages have been destroyed, and they have been forced to move from Rakhine to other countries, primarily Bangladesh.

• involved massacres, mass killings, looting, burning of villages, sexual violence, gang rapes, human trafficking, smugglers

2020 government of Myanmar regarding rohingya

issued directives in 2020 ordering the end to the genocide activities against the Rohingya.

Rohingya camp conditions

But the roughly 1 million ethnically cleansed Rohingya are living in tents and other temporary structures

Conditions in the camps continue to be dire, especially after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Nearly 1 million Rohingya remain completely dependent on humanitarian aid, and malnutrition and other health conditions persist in what is the largest refugee settlement in the world.

Why are the precise number of ethnicities in Africa hard to determine?

Unclear whether a particular group forms a distinct ethnicity or is part of an ethnicity that encompasses several similar groups. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European countries carved up Africa into a collection of colonies, with little regard for the distribution of these ethnicities.

Ethnic Cleansing in mali: Dogon vs Fulani

Mali, a country of 20 million inhabitants, is home to more than a dozen ethnic groups (Figure 7.9.2). In recent years, ethnic cleansing has occurred between the Dogon and Fulani. The Dogon claim that the Fulani trespass into their farmland to feed their animals, whereas the Fulani accuse the Dogon of killing and stealing their cattle. Each ethnicity has attacked villages belonging to the other ethnicity, killing the inhabitants.

Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan: North vs South

Ethnic diversity lies at the heart of Sudan’s conflicts (Figure 7.9.3). A war from 1983 until 2005 between Sudan’s northern and southern ethnicities resulted in the death of an estimated 2 million Sudanese and the ethnic cleansing of an estimated 700,000. The war ended with the establishment of South Sudan as an independent state in 2011. In the Darfur region of Sudan, 3 million people have been victims of ethnic cleansing and 300,000 have been victims of genocide.

How many people have be ethnically cleansed + genocide in Darfur?

3 million people have been victims of ethnic cleansing and 300,000 have been victims of genocide.

Which countries in central Africa have suffered long standing conflicts, and what are the source ethnic groups?

Rwanda and Burundi

Hutus and Tutsis

Are there similarities between the Hutus and Tutsis?

The two ethnicities speak the same language, hold similar beliefs and practice similar social customs, and intermarriage has lessened the physical differences between the two ethnic groups. Yet Hutus and Tutsis have engaged in large-scale ethnic cleansing and genocide.

History of the Hutus and Tutsis

Hutus constituted a majority of the population of Rwanda and Burundi historically, but Tutsis controlled kingdoms there for several hundred years and turned the Hutus into their serfs. Rwanda and Burundi became colonies of Germany during the 1880s and then of Belgium between 1924 and 1962. During the colonial period, the Tutsis retained leadership positions in both Rwanda and Burundi.

When Rwanda became an independent country in 1962, Hutus gained power and undertook ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Tutsis (Figure 7.9.4). Descendants of the ethnically cleansed Tutsis invaded Rwanda in 1990, launching a three-year civil war. Meanwhile in Burundi, where the Tutsis remained in power, a civil war resulted in genocide committed by and against both Hutus and Tutsis.

Genocide of 1994 (Hutus and Tutsis) and aftermath

Hutus launched a genocide campaign, killing an estimated 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda and 300,000 in Burundi. However, the Tutsis prevailed in both countries, and reprisals by Tutsis added to the total fatalities. Rwanda continues to be governed by Tutsis, but Burundi has been led since 2005 by democratically elected Hutus.

Conflict in Democratic Republic of the Congo

The conflict between Hutus and Tutsis spilled over into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), central Africa’s largest and most populous country, with considerable mineral wealth.

Tutsis were instrumental in the successful overthrow of the DRC’s longtime president Joseph Mobutu in 1997. After succeeding Mobutu as president, Laurent Kabila relied heavily on Tutsis and permitted them to kill some of the Hutus who had been responsible for atrocities against Tutsis a few years earlier.

Kabila soon split with the Tutsis and turned for support to Hutus and other ethnic groups that also hated Tutsis. Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and succeeded by his son, who negotiated an accord with many of the ethnic groups. Despite the accord, conflict among the country’s many ethnicities has continued for the last two decades.

- Yugoslavia, Tito, breakup into new countries

- Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo: Albanian population, ethnic cleansing steps, NATO attack, Kosovo independence, opposition

Creation of Yugoslavia

Allies created to unite several Balkan ethnicities that spoke similar South Slavic Languages