Race and Ethnicity

race

(color) socially constructed identity, where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social, economic, and political forces; Michael Omi/Howard Winant

ethnicity

(region) shared cultural heritage, which typically involves common ancestors, language, and religion

nationality

(state/country of origin) legal relationship between an individual person and a state affords state jursidiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state

ethnocentrism

worldview whereby one judges other cultures by standards of one’s own culture and regards one’s own way of life as normal and better than others, product of socialization into beliefs and practices of one’s own society, seeing the behavior and culture of those who are different as unnatural

• may have some basis in natural predisposition to favor members of one’s own kin group over others

• may also have “functional value” as means of reinforcing social solidarity

Johann Freidrich Blumenbach

(1752-1840) created race; divided human species into 5 races (1779) later founded crania research (human skulls)

5 categories of race

• caucasian race

• mongoloid race (asian)

• malay race (carribean)

• negroid race

• american race

Hirschman

definition of racism; a belief structure that holds that otherness is not simply a product of socialization, language, or culture, but is part of the inherent character of different groups

Bonilla-Silva

definition of racism; the segment of the ideological structure of a social system that crystallizes racial notions and stereotypes. racism provides the rationalizations for social, political, and economic interactions between races

Omi/Winant

definition of racism; racial project that creates or reproduces structures of domination based on essentialist categories of race

racial project

concept that is simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines

slavery (emergence of modern racism)

enslavement of millions of africans in plantation economies in New World

colonialism (emergence of modern racism)

spread of European colonial rule across world, especially in Asia and Africa in 19th century

scientific racism (emergence of modern racism)

development of Social Darwinism- pseudoscientific theory of European superiority that become dominant in 19th century (Social Darwinism)

craniology

scientific study of shape and size of skulls of different human races

social darwinism

used to refer to various ways of thinking and theories that emerged in 2nd half of 19th century which tried to apply evolutionary concept of natural selection to human society

eugenics

science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics.

• developed largely by Francis Galton as method of improving human race. fell into disfavor only after perversion of its doctrine by Nazis (this is a LIE) scientists don’t want to take guilt

western chattel slavery

• western slavery of africans in new world developed as a very different institution, one that played a critical role in emergence of racial ideology of white supremacy

• color and culture btw white masters and black slaves, factory model of production on plantations created both spatial segregation and a rigid hierarchy

• in US, this interpretation given the legal sanction of Supreme Court in 1857 Dred Scott decision, which ruled that slaves were property and not entitled to rights of citizens

• conditions were fertile ground for development of an ideology of white supremacy

white man’s burden

assumption to provide protection and tutelage to his brown-and-black skinned brothers rationalized the discrepancies btw democracy at home and authorization colonialism abroad

minority

refers to any category of ppl, identified by physical or cultural traits, that a society subjects to disadvantages; share a distinctive identity which may be based on race or ethnicity and typically experience social disadvantages

genocide

systematic killing of one category of ppl by another

• 1500s: spanish, portuguese, english, french and dutch forcefully colonized north and south america resulting in deaths of hundreds of thousands of native american

• 1930s &40s: adolf hitler and nazi govt murdered 6 million+ ppl including homosexuals, disabled & european jews

• Josef Stalin: Soviet dictator killed some 30 million of his country’s ppl

• 1975-1980: Cambodia’s communist regime butchered millions whom they saw as ‘western”

• Hutus massacred Tutsis in Rwanda

• Serbians systematically killed Croatians in Eastern Europe

assimilation

the process by which minorities gradually adopt cultural patterns from dominant majority population

cultural pluralism

term used when smaller groups w/in larger society maintain their unique cultural identities and their values and practices are accepted by wider culture provided they are consistent w/ laws and values of wider society

systematic racism

refers to foundational, large-scale and inescapable hierarchical system of US racial oppression devised and maintained by whites and directed at POC

white privilege

(aka white skin privilege) term for societal privileges that benefit people whom society identifies as white in some countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white ppl under same social, political, or economic circumstances. academic perspectives such as critical race theory and whiteness studies use concept of “white privilege” to analyze how racism and racialized societies affect lives of white or white-skinned ppl

microaggressions

everyday, verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights snubs or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership

critical race theory

approach in which social analysts of color use a structural-racism perspective to discern US legal institutions and demonstrate ways in which these institutions support a larger racist social system

white racial frame

generic meaning system that rationalizes system of material oppression; long been propagated and held by most white americans-and even, in part, accepted by many POC

racial realism

questions the alleged progress of race-based human rights and claims of substantial advances toward racial equality in USA

interest convergence hypothesis

americans of color only make progress against oppression when some whites significantly gain. US political-legal system does not permit a remedy providing effective racial equality for blacks where remedy sought threatens superior societal status of middle and upper class whites (Bell)

color blind racism

eduardo bonilla-silva; ideology which acquired cohesiveness and dominance inl ate 1960s; explains contemporary racial inequality as an outcome of nonracial dynamics’ avoiding Jim Crow era racism which explained blacks’ social standing as a result of biological and moral inferiority color blind racism rationalize minorities’ standing as product of market dynamics, naturally occurring phenomenon, and blacks imputed cultural limitations

racial frames

set paths for interpreting information; abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, and minimization of racism