Ethnicity and Nationalism

Ethnicity

a sense of historical, cultural, and sometimes ancestral connection to a group of people who are imagined to be distinct from those outside the group

Origin myth

a story told about the founding and history of a particular group to reinforce a sense of common identity

Examples of Origin Myths

- the story of Thanksgiving
- the Boston Tea Party
- The American Revolution
- The civil War

ethnic boundary marker

a practice or belief used to signify who is in a group and who is not, usually not clearly fixed or defined and will change over time

Situational negotiation of identity

an individual's self-identification with a group that can shift according to social location

Immigrant groups creating new ethnic communities in diaspora

- create a new identity that combines the new identity with the old identity
- create infrastructure like ethnic associations, temples, and festivals

identity entrepreneurs

political, military, or religious leaders who promote a worldview through the lens of ethnicity and use war, propaganda, and state power to mobilize people against those whom they perceive as a danger

Historical Examples of Identity Entrepreneurs

- Adolf Hitler
- Ghanndi
- Malcolm X

Genocide vs. Ethnic Cleansing

- Systematic destruction (Rwanda)
-Forced removal (can lead to genocide)

What happened in Rwanda, and how was it connected to Belgium's colonial rule?

Divide & Rule – Belgium favored Tutsis (called them "more European") and issued ethnic ID cards.
Revenge – After independence, Hutu took power and oppressed Tutsis.

Genocide Trigger – Hutu extremists used those same ID cards to target Tutsis in 1994.

Root Cause – Colonialism created the divisions that made genocide possible.

Melting pot and Assimilation

A metaphor used to describe the process of immigrant assimilation into US dominant culture
When these minorities accept the norms of the dominant group and cease to exist as a seperate group

Multiculturalism

when new immigrants and their children enculturate into the dominant national culture and yet retain an ethnic culture

State vs. Nation State vs nation

S:a community under one centralized government
NS: a political entity within a territory where the pop shares a sense of culture, ancestry and destiny as people
N: describes a group of people who share a place of origin (can exist separate from nation state like Hutu)

Citizenship

Legal membership in a nation-state

Nationality

an identification with a group of people thought to share a place of origin

Nationalism

the desire of an ethnic community to create and/or maintain a nation-state

Imagined community

the invented sense of connection and shared traditions that underlies identification with a particular ethnic group or nation whose members likely will never all meet

What were some techniques used to create a national imagined community?

- invention of print media allowed for communication of ideas
- national education systems
-road and rail projects

Diaspora

a group of people who live outside their ancestral homeland yet maintain emotional and material ties to home

Why has Iraq struggled to construct a stable democratic government? How does this differ from many Western media accounts?

- People people trying to construct a nation in a country under foreign occupation ravaged by decades of colonial and state sponsored violence
- Western media had portrayed ethnic violence between the SUNNI, Shia, and Kurds as the primary obstacle

"They Come For Us at Night" (Uyghurs treatment in China

Explores the plight of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China, focusing on the Chinese government's persecution and efforts to suppress their cultural, religious, and ethnic identity

The Roots of Christian Nationalism go Back further than you think" Robert Jones

Traces Christian Nationalism all the way back to the Doctrine of Discovery which justified the conquering of native people and the taking of their lands