Social and cultural anthropology- week 3

Do human “races” exist?

• Human populations have not been reproductively isolated long enough to have developed into ‘biological races’ 

• There are no races in the biological sense of distinct divisions in the human species 

• Classification of humans into races depends solely on the evaluation of phenotype ( observable traits like physical appearance, skin color, eyes and nose shape, hair texture, etc). 

• And it is arbitrary 

Quick and dirty overviews of genetic diversity and natural selection

• All living things have a code= DNA which is organized into genes which give instructions to out bodies on how to function (= genotype) 

• DNA is different between individuals of the same species = genetic diversity 

• Genetic diversity is what causes differences in the shape of a bird's beaks or human hair color (=phenotype) 

• Biological variation is present in any given population; variation is the NORM

Genetic diversity and natural selection

• Genetic diversity is essential for species survival overtime 

• Natural selection:  Variants best suited/ adapted to the current environment have a greater chance if surviving that other variants 

  • Variants with greater chance of surviving= greater chance of reproducing offspring = passing their genes to subsequent generations 

• Genetic diversity can be lost when populations gets smaller/ isolated, which decreases  a species’ ability to adapt and survive 

• Natural selection: Mutation creates variation-> Unfavorable mutations selected against-> Reproduction and mutation-> Favorable mutations more likely to survive -> and reproduce 

Human genetic variation

• Humans around the world share 99.9% of their DNA 

• Humans also share 98.4 % of our DNA with chimpanzees, 84 percent with dogs, and even ~ 25 percent with a banana 

• Human genetic variation exists on a continuum rather than in distinct racial categories 

• This continuum means that there are no “pure: or isolated racial groups from a genetic perspective 

• Instead, we all share a common ancestry, and genetic diversity is distributed across a spectrum 

• While there are genetic differences among human populations, the majority of genetic variation is found within populations, not between them (individual variation)

• For e.g. Africa has most genetic variation and more genetic diversity between two African people than between two people anywhere else in the world 

• This means that individuals within the same racial/ ethnic groups can have substantial genetic differences from each other, while individuals from different groups can share genetic similarities 
  

• {Physical characteristics such as height, skin color, eye color, and hair type vary widely among individuals, even within the same racial or ethnic group 

• Only 6% of human genes account for the phenotypic differences seen between “races” 

• These traits are influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors = the phenotypic traits that do exist are largely adaptive in nature 

• To reiterate: Greater overall variation exists within each “racial” grouping than between them 

Human race is not biological: Skin color 

• Skin color is an ancient response to people's geographic environment 

• Balance between getting enough vitamin D and protecting folate 

• is a function of melanin production in the dermis layer of the skin 

• Melanocytes- cells, located in the basal (bottom) layer of the skin, produce melanin, a pigment in the kin, eyes, and hair 

• Differences in skin color are not due to the number of melanocytes in the skin, but to the melanocytes’ level of activity, i.e., how much melanin they produce 

• Skin coloring is adaptive 

Skin pigmentation, Vitamin D, and survival 

• Vitamin D is rare in nature; the human body synthesizes it in the skin with the help of ultraviolet radiation 

• Vitamin D is necessary for the body to absorb calcium necessary for proper bone growth ‘

• Skin pigmentation levels control Vitamin D production 

• Too much Vitamin D is toxic 

• Too little will result in rickets- a debilitating bone disease 

• Northern populations, with little sunlight require minimal pigmentation to produce vitamin D 

• Tropical populations require darker skin as protection from too much ultraviolet radiation and too much Vitamin D 

• Dark skinned people are maladapted to northern areas 

• Lighter skinned people are maladapted to tropical areas (also higher risk of having babies with birth defects, because intense sunlight can destroy folate in the blood)

History of the race concept 

Two main interrelated reasons 

Expansion of colonialism *since the 16th century)- Portuguese, French, Spanish Dutch, Uk 

Expansion in africa, asia, and south america 

Transatlantic slave trade 

Development of scientific Racism (since the 17th century) Positivism, Scientific study of humans and society 

= making sense of difference and ‘scientifically’ justifying European racial superiority 

Great Chain of being

• Ranking organisms can be traced as far back as aristotle's History of animals (4th c.BCE) 

• Great chain of being was a framework for interpreting the world 

• Every organism linked in a continuous single chain; organisms differed from those above and below by least possible difference 

• In medieval times, the great chain was seen as a God-given and unchangeable ordering (divine ideal = angels outrank humans) 

• Led to ranking humans Later versions (c. 18th century) = different human ‘varieties’ could not occupy the same developmental level (e.g., sex, ‘race’, etc). 

A brief history of race and racism 

• Racism didn't exist until the european expansion and exploration beginning around 1500 (but notions of superiority/ inferiority based on other factors did) 

• The ancient greeks, for example, saw  themselves as first among civilized nations around the mediterranean 

• But The Greeks did not link physical appearance and cultural attainment 

• They granted civilized status to the nile valley Nubians who were among the darkest skinned people they knew 

• They did not grant it to  the European barbarians to the north who were lighter skinned 

• People were divided on the basis of religion, class or language or status not skin color 

History of slavery 

• Before the 1400s slavery was widespread in state societies, and can be traced to dome hunter gatherer pops. Ad first civilizations 

• Slavery was a universal evil inflicted upon people in almost every culture, region and period of history 

• But slaves were either recruited internally or from neighboring groups and were largely physically indistinguishable from slave-holders. I.e. slavery not based on race 

• Slavery was a status anyone could hold 

• Slave descendants could acculturate into the dominant population and did not become permanently demarcated by race 

History of slavery- after 1500

• European exploration brought them increasingly into contact with other human societies 

• Superior military technology meant europeans were significantly more powerful +  allies, horses, and disease 

• As a result, exploration quickly turned to conquest and gave rise to beliefs about european superiority 

Transatlantic slave trade 

• Portuguese established first- 1526: first ship taking african slaves to Americas; British, dutch, french also became slave traders 

• Riled of local african  elites 

• Discovery of Americas and establishment of sugarcane plantations = huge demand for slave labor 

• Part of Triangle trade- Middle passage 

• Effects on West african societies 

Association of skin color with slavery 

• Exploiters and colonial slave traders struck by differences in physical appearance particularly skin color 

• Early distinction emerged between those who ha black skin as opposed to those who had white skin 

• Black and white were emotionally loaded concepts in European language especially english 

  • White represented good, purity, and virginity 

  • Black symbolized death, evil, and lower worth 

• African american law professor Kinberly Jade Norwood notes: “slavery was not invented in the New World…” (but) it became so deeply associated with sark skin that “... it was almost impossible to separate the two” (592) 

Skin color and slavery 

• Africans, indigenous Americans and colonized asians were devalued, intermarriage was prohibited 

• However mixed race children of enslaved women and white slave owners resulted in further colorism as light skinned people were treated marginally better 

• Example: A slave traders 1859 letter claiming “the girls are brown skin and good house girls” gives an example to how light skin tones were valued

• The ‘superiority’ of europeans was thus considered “evident” in all colonial societies by the late 1600s 

• Led to idea of white supremacy 

• Rooted in the idea of scientific racism 

Scientific racism: Toward a science of race (races as families or inbred lines) 

• 1500s and 1600s race used interchangeably with type, variety, people, nation, generation and species

• By the ;atter half of the 1700s race is strongly equated with “breeding stock” 

• Farmers and herders understood animal breeds as highly inbred lineages with heritable characteristics 

• Value judgements were and are critical to choosing the reproducing members of a line of stock, because one breeds for some specific, valued quality

The “Scientific” basis of race 

• The concept of race emerged in modern form between the end of the 1700s century and the middle of the 1800s 

• Its emergence in, in part, an aspect of the general growth of scientific inquiry and explanation 

• In the 1700s, Western science developed, began thinking about and explaining natural and social phenomena and to place the world's peoples into natural schemes 

• Effort to map and explain a similar order in the natural and social worlds 

Race: A discredited concept in human biology 

• Reification of race began in 17000s with Linnaeus’ (1735) four races of humans 

• Blumenbauchs (1795) five races 

• Early 20th c. three races with further splitting of the European ‘races’ 

• These are arbitrary divisions, based on subjective criteria 

Formal human classification Linnaeus Systema Naturae, 1740/50s 

Europeans 

• White, serious, strong. Hair blond, flowing. Eyes blue, Active, very smart, inventive. Covered by tight clothing. Ruled by laws 

Americanus 

• Red, ill tempered, subjugated. Hair black, straight, thick; Nostrils wide; Face harsh; Beard scanty. Obstinate, contented, free. Paints himself with red lines. Ruled by custom. 

Asiaticus 

• Yellow, melancholy, greedy. Hair black. Eyes dark. Sever, haughty, desirous. Covered by loos garments. Ruled by opinion

Africanus 

• Black, impassive, lazy. Hair kinked, Skin silky. Nose flat. Lips thick… crafty, slow, foolish… Ruled by caprice (whim or impulse) 

Scientific racism (17th-18th c.) 

• Culminated in 1795 when Johann Friedrich Blumenbauch first used the word “race” to classify humans into five divisions 

• Blumenbauch also coined the term “caucasian” because he believed that the Caucasus region of Asia Minor produced “the most beautiful race of men” 

• Aucasian 

• Malayan 

• Ethiopian 

• American 

• Mongolian

Is anthropology the “science of race”? 

• Anthropologists in the 18th and 19th centuries sought  biological basis for race 

People continue to think of race as a bio category because the idea has been reified- when an inaccurate concept is so heavily promoted that it seems an unquestioned ‘truth’

Scientific racism: Methods in Anthropology- Typology (of people)

Typology: Involved categorizing and classifying objects, organisms, or people into distinct types based on certain characteristics or traits 

• Used to categorize and rank different human racial groups, often with the aim  of justifying racial hierarchies based solely on traits that are readily observable from a distance such as head shape, skin color, hair form, body build, and stature 

Blumenbach actually quite anti racist- had a collection of skulls, his fav. Was caucasian which is why he thought of it as the most beautiful- but he didnt believe in superiority, he believed race was based on geography, but his work was used by others to justify racism 

Creating racial categories 

• The physical traits chosen to define race are basically arbitrary and oud be things such as hair color, ear, nose or eye shape 

• Racial categories based on a few traits do not constitute a scientific approach to human bio variability 

18th c, Racial ideology: Monogenism vs. polygenism 

• Religious beliefs greatly influenced by this line of  thinking 

• Monogenism: Single origin for humanity. In 18th c. and earlier- all humans had a single origin from adam and eve 

• The races are seen as being due to environmentally determined degeneration form europeans- used to justify racist thinking 

• Polygenism- multiple adams and eves- human races have different origins. In 18th c, and earlier- different races are descendants of diff. Adams separate creations 

Scientific racism (19th c.): Louis Agassiz (1807-1873)

• Believed science could justify racism and white supremacy (his beliefs) 

• Used polygenism to argue that black people were part of an inferior race 

• Also attempted to classify human races like the biological specimens in his museum 

• He commissioned photographs of enslaved peoples (in the american south and brazil) + people of Africa, indigenous south american, & mixed racial descent (in brazil) as ‘evidence’ of the inferiority of non white [peoples and the dangers of interracial children 

• Rape of enslaved women sanctioned, resulted in lots of mixed kids. People like this guys didn't like that, thought it would destroy white race 

Scientific racism: Methods in early anthropology- Craniometry 

• The measurement and analysis of the size and shape of skulls = he cranial capacity (brain size) and cranial features 

• Claimed that differences in skull measurements could be used to infer intellectual or racial superiority 

• These measurements have been widely discredited as scientifically flawed and biased 

Samuel morton (1830s) 

• Used craniometry to ‘prove’ white superiority 

• Doctor and polygenist: set out to province that caucasian people were naturally superior & that brain size was directly related to intelligence 

• Collected hundred of human skulls & measured them by filling the skulls with lead pellets & then pouring the pellets into a glass measuring cup 

• His tables assign brain capacity to Europeans (with english highest of all), 2nd to chinese, 3rd to SE asians & polynesians, 4th to native americans, & last to africans and australian aborigines 

• His work helped establish the ‘scientific’ basis for physical anthropology & racial hierarchies, but also the idea that race is inherently biological 

• Fixed nature of thighs like head size= fixed racist stuff 

Gould vs. Morton 

• In 1977 Stephen Jay Gould (in the mismeasure of Man 1981) reanalyzed morton's data 

• Discoered that mortons racist bias had prevented identification of fully overlapping measurements among the racial skull samples he used 

• Gould critique of morton's work was widely accepted in scientific community 

• Led to a reevaluation of the study of cranial capacity and race. Mortons measurements were found to be inaccurate and influenced by his racial biases 

Phrenology 

• Originated by Franz Gall (1758-1828) & Johann Spurzheim (1766-1832) 

• Involved examining of bumps and contour of the skull to determine a person's character, intelligence personality traits 

• Phrenologists claimed that different brain regions controlled specific mental faculties; the size and shape of these regions could be assessed through skull examination 

• Has been discredited as pseudo science but its use contributed to harmful racial stereotypes 

Cultural evolution theory: Lewis henry morgan (1870s) 

• Also known for his writings on kinship, social structures/ society and iroquois society 

• Theorized that culture evolved in progressive and linear stages, each stage corresponding to certain types of ‘technology” 

• Stages 

-Savagery- fishing, bow and arrow (ex; aboriginals) 

Barbarism- pots, domestication of plants/ animals (ex; native americans) 

Civilization-writing, phonetic alphabet (ex; greeks) 

• Prolific and well respected in his time, influenced many others including darwin, marx and engels, and freud 

• Also Edward Tylor helped do this 

Critiques of morgan et al. 

• Implied racialized worldview: certain races/ cultures will always be more “civilized” (better) than others; placed european society at the time at the highest stage of civilization and considered other cultures as less developed = ethnocentric 

• Critics argued this oversimplified view of all societies following the same linear path of development does not account for variety and complexity of different societies 

• Based on limited data from indigenous people of north america (specifically iroquois) = generalizing from a single culture/ small set of cultures = speculative 

• Downplayed role of cultural diffusion ( the spread of cultural traits from one society to another), in shaping cultural change

• “Primitive” contemporary societies have just as much rich history were just as evolved as ‘civilized’ societies 

Key proponents of Social Darwinism 

• Late 19th c. applied darwin's theory of biological evolution of human societies 

• “Survival of the fittest” is Herbert Spencer, not darwin. 

• Claim: like i nature, human societies, the “fittest” or most capable individuals and raced should dominate and prosper 

• Herbert spencer: British philosopher, coined “survival of the fittest” and popularized idea of applying darwinism to society 

• William Graham Sumner: american sociologist, advocated for laissez faire capitalism and argued that social inequality was the natural result of competition 

• Francis Galton: A cousin of Darwin, developed the concept of eugenics, which aimed to improve the human race through selective breeding. 

Social darwinism (late 19th c) 

• Provided a pseudoscientific justification for existing racist beliefs and racial hierarchy 

• Contributes to rise of racial segregation, discriminatory immigration policies, and efforts to justify colonization and imperialism based on idea  of ‘civilizing’ ess advanced races 

• Wasn't just about race; social darwinists believed that any attempts to help the poor or less capable slowed social progress 

• Goal was to reduce government control on wealth and power of elites and limit reforms ike child labor laws and collective bargaining 

• Unsurprisingly, some of the most well known tycoons of the era- most notably, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie- were fans of the theory 

Eugenics 

• The scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved (racially + other ways) through selective breeding of populations 

• Want to perfect human beings and eliminate so called social ills through genetics and heredity 

• Used methods like involuntary sterilization segregation, and social exclusion 

• Eugenicist believed in a prejudiced and incorrect understanding of mendelian genetics that claimed abstract human qualities (ex; intelligence and social behaviors) were inherited in a simple fashion 

• Similarly, they believed complex diseases and disorders were solely the outcome of genetic inheritance 
  

• Eugenics is not a fringe movement. Starting in late 1800s, leaders and intellectuals worldwide perpetuated beliefs and policies based on common racist and xenophobic attitudes 

• Early eugenics movements were always doomed from the start because most of the traits studied by eugenicists hd little genetic basis 

• However, many of these beliefs and policies still exist, including among those with considerable economic and political power 

Eugenics in nazi germany (1933-1945) 

• Promoted ‘aryan race’ by encouraging selective breeding of people considered racially superior 

• Forcibly sterilizing or exterminating those deemed ‘racially inferior’ including jews and many other targeted groups, like people with disabilities 

• Extreme eugenics resulted in the holocaust- millions of innocent people systematically murdered as part of the Nazis’ genocidal agenda 

• Developed a pseudo scientific system of facial measurement that was claimed ti be a way of determining racial descent 

Breaking the link between anthropology, biology and race- Biological race: a discredited concept

• Boas, Ashley Montagu (1905-1999), Sherwood washburn, wide recognition of mendelian genetics. 

• More recently: 

• Shows no proven correlation between and individuals phenotypes and other measures like craniometry with the attitude and dispositions of people. 

• Variation between populations minimal 

• Franz Boas (1858-1942) in the 1890s attempted to break the link of anthropology with race by showing that language, race, and culture were separate things and needed to be studied separately 

• Showed that mappings of northwest coast Native americans biological traits, cultural similarities and linguistic affinities yielded different results 

• Language can be linked to race- can be diffused across cultures, cultures can influence each other 

Race and culture as independent 

• Franz boas was a major critic of typological racial thinking 

• Stressed the importance of the environment (esp. Health, diet) on patterns in skeletal form 

• Found children who were raised in the USA had different cranial measures than their European immigrant parents 

• Led to a rejection of racial classification 

• Boas forcefully articulated in his 1911 classic, the mind of primitive man, that race was not a determinant of civilization; rather it was social processed and events/ history 

• Reconceptualize culture as something that all people had,  Not to greater or lesser degrees, but equally 

The concept of race after WW2 

• 1931- stock market crash and the great depression shifted focus to impact economy and culture on life 

• WW2- the revelation of the holocaust and the enlistment of science in its perpetuation causes a wave on international revulsion 

• A number of published critiques of racist science bega to appear in US/ US by anthropologists, scientists, historians, etc. 

• The result was a gradual disappearance of the concept of race from natural science: in the 1960s anthropology affirmed that biological race does not exist 

• Required the intermixing of lots of people from different racial categories, especially on the front lines, fighting a common enemy. Black pilots and servicemen in general, racial categories in allied efforts, came together around the same time to help break down the concept of race 

• Sherwood washburn reformed physical anthropology to focus on adaptation not classification, evolution not typology, real human breeding populations not abstract clustered races, and common themes of ancestry 

• Post WW1, UN commissioned international panel of scholar to draft a formal statement summarizing facts about the science of race (basically stated that biological race doesn't exist, cultural forces are much more important) 

• In 1950, anthropologist 

Race is… 

• Not a fixed concrete, natural attribute 

• The institutionalization of physical appearance(i.e. The idea is embedded in society) 

• Socially or culturally and historically constructed 

• Categories defined and assigned significance by the society 

• Social meaning which has been legally constructed and shaped by those in power 

• Racial differences exist and are perpetuated because they have cultural significance 

• Kenyans running; evolutionary forces, adaptation translates to gold medals 

One drop rule 

• In 20th c. US; laws stated that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry (“one drop” of :”black blood”) is considered black 

• Suggests that even a small amount of african ancestry could taint an individuals racial ; created rigid racial hierarchy 

• Codufiued into law in some states to prevent interracial marriage; racial mixing, reinforce segregation, racial purity (BUT rape of slave was legal and encouraged during slavery to increase slave population, resulting in mixed race children) 

• People with mixed heritage had to identify as only black (and therefore deemed ‘inferior’) = hypodescent : the automatic assignment of children of a mixed union to the subordinate group 

• Blood quantum- controversial measurement of the amount of “indian blood’ one has; US federal gov system placed on tribes in an effort to limit their citizenship 

Bureaucracy & the Power of Elites in sustaining racial hierarchies: The case of Dr. Plecker (et al.) 

• Dr. walter plecker was first registrar of virginia's bureau if vital statistics 

• A staunch eugenicist, he wrote + lobbied for racial Integrity Act of 1924 (one drop rule became law). Virginia’s law was the toughest in the US. These laws inspired Hitekrs Nuremberg laws 

• Spent his life lobbying against african american , american indians, mixed race people (lobbied to remove “mulatto” to deny mixed race people identity and status); motivated by extreme fear of racial mixing 

• When under scrutiny: “In reality I have been doing a good deal of bluffing, knowing all the whole that it could never be legally sustained. This is the first time that my hand has been absolutely called.” 

• Entire life was devoted to ensuring that racial boundaries made clear, to the point where he would write letters to individual families if they were thought to be mixing- ex; wrote to a family who had a daughter rumored to be engaged to a black man. Thought mixed people should be pulled out of white schools, had bodies pulled out of white graveyards. 

• Categorized american indians as black, wanted to ensure they couldn't get any other status 

Racial/ Ethnic Discrimination inscribed in law… 

• Jim crow laws- US (1876-1965) 

• Apartheid- South africa (1948-1990s) 

• Nuremberg laws- Nazi germany (1935) 

• Indian residential schools- Canada (late 19th c. to 1990s) 

• Chinese exclusionary act (united states) 

• Myanmar's treatment of Rohingya Muslims 

• Dalits in india 

Racism in effect 

• Race is employed in order to classify and systematically exclude members of given groups from full participation in the social system controlled by the dominant group 

• To deny equality of access to wealth, power and prestige. Deny equality of opportunity 

• This affects life chances 

Jim crow laws (1876-1965) 

• Local and state laws that legalized the segregation of black and white people in the southern States 

• Required that all public facilities be racially separate = Public schools, health care, libraries, transportation, neighborhoods, theaters,all had to be separate 

• Facilities for African Americans usually inferior and underfunded, or non existent 

• Poor and illiterate people could not vote unless you were white 

• Segregation was thought to be good for african americans (helps them succeed in their own communities- not the case obviously) 

• Anti black sentiment was taken for granted 

• The civil rights act of 1964 did not eliminate requirements that continue to differentially affect people of color 

Why do we say that racism is structural/ systemic? 

• Systemic racism manifests through discriminatory practices within institutions, such as education, healthcare, criminal justice, employment, and housing 

• These institutions often have policies, procedures and practices that disproportionately disadvantaged racial minority groups 

• Policies and procedures have basis in history of racism and discrimination 

• Historical injustices like slavery, colonization, segregation, have created enduring disparities in wealth, education, and access to resources that continue to affect minority communities today 

History of lending discrimination 

1930s- The home owners loan corporation (HOLC) creates maps redlining communities, meaning they marked racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods in red, labeling them ‘hazardous’ to lenders, greatly contributing to the racial wealth gap we still see today 

1948- The supreme court deemed racially restrictive deeds unenforceable 

1968- The fair housing act (FHA) was enacted. The act protects people from discrimination when they rent or buy a home, get a mortgage, seek housing assistance, or engage in other housing-related activities 

1974- Congress passes the Equal Credit opportunity act (ECOA) 

1977- the community reinvestment act (CRA) is enacted to prevent redlining and to encourage banks and associations to help meet the credit needs of all communities 

Redlining and housing discrimination

• Redlining: boundaries of specific neighborhoods- predominantly Black or immigrant field- that were deemed too risky for financial investment 

• Some of these laws, policies etc. continue to discriminate today: 

• Chicago mortgage lenders were 150% more likely to reject Black applicants than similar white applicants. In Waco, Texas, lenders were more than 200% morel likely to reject latino applicants than white applicants 

Race, ethnicity and health outcomes 

• Structural racism and discrimination (including unequal access to healthcare facilities, insurance, and quality healthcare services) negatively affect health

• Ex; pregnancy related deaths- higher in native and black women 

Race and medicine 

• Health disparities often attributed to race are primarily the result of social and environmental factors 

• Human genetic diversity is continuous and does not neatly sign with racial categories 

• Over Reliance on racial short hands in medicine can be harmful 

• Shift toward more personalized/ precision medicine that considers how health and disease are influenced by individual genetic variation + environmental and lifestyle factors rather than relying on racial, or ethnic labels 

Race and representation 

-The origins of blackface date back to the minstrel shows of mid 19th c. 

- White performers darkened their skin with polish, ut on tattered clothing and exaggerated heir - features to look stereotypically “black” 

- The first minstrel shows mimicked enslaved africans on southern plantations, depicting black - people as lazy, ignorant, cowardly, or hypersexual 

- This racist history is often swept under the rug or shrouded in claims of ignorance 

- Similarly, other cultures caricatures e.g. yellowface, brownface, “noble savage” etc. 

- Tokenism 

• In the media, characters added solely for the sake of making the project seem inclusive. Often, lack dimension and authenticity 

• Releases creators from the responsibility of conducting proper, extensive research to accurately portray cultures or putting in thought and intention in  characterization 

• In other contexts- gives people/ orgs an easy way out with the premise of superficial diversity 

• To avoid tokenism is one of the reasons why “equity, diversity and inclusion” policies, training etc. have become more popular (and also elicited backlash) 

Colorism

Exs; 

• Nadinola skin bleaching cream ad targeted at black women, especially for marriageability 

• “Fairness creams” are extremely popular in asian countries (ex; ads frm thailand and india) 

• The brown paper bag test

Brown paper bag test 

• The brown paper bag test was a form of colourism to discriminate against black americans with darker skin tones 

• Used by social institutions like black sororities, fraternities, churches, and even social events 

• Used by members of historically black institutions/ clubs fraternities and sororities to select others who resembles themselves (those reflecting partial european ancestry) and deny access to people who didn't pass 

• This was due to ideals of beauty, status, and privilege afforded to lighter skinned black people 

Ethnicity

• A way of classifying people based on common historie, cultural patterns, social ties, language use, and symbolic shared identities (Fuentes 2012) 

• Created by historical processes, political 

• Fluid and flexible, utilized to pursue common goals 

• Not a unit of biology or genetics 

• It is a cultural classification 

• Each of us has an ethnicity-0 frequently confused with race 

• The linguistic and cultural characteristics and heritage a person identifies with 

• Includes: national origin, language, traditions customs, religious beliefs/ practices, etc. as well as racial category 

• Nationality: Refers to the legal and political membership in a specific nation-state defined by borders (o.e. Passport, voting, etc.) 

• Individuals can have mixed racial backgrounds (ex; one white and one black parent) and mixed ethnic backgrounds (a person with Chinese and Indian ancestry). In such cases, individuals may identify with multiple racial and ethnic groups 

• Ethnicity can sometimes be more fluid than race. For ex. A person of chinese ethnicity who was born and raised in canada may identify as chinese canadian and have a blend of chinese and canadian cultural influences 

• Ethnicity is about cultural identity and may not always align with nationality (ex; an american citizen of chinese ethnicity) 

difference between race and ethnicity

Race 

• Considered a bio. Classification ( is not actually biological) 

• Unitary in character (associate with physical characteristics 

• Shared physical characteristics 

• Ex; Asian, black, white, indigenous, pacific islander 

• Ex; an african american person may have dark skin and belong to the racial category black 

Ethnicity 

• Cultural identity 

• Not unitary in character (associated with nationality, religion, language, family traditions and cultural heritage etc.) 

• Shared cultural values 

• Ex; asian american, afro-caribbean 

• A person of mexican ethnicity may have various skin tones but identifies with mexican culture, speaks spanish, and celebrated mexican traditions 

• More fluid than idea of “race” 

Race, ethnicity and the census 

• First use of “white” as an ethnic label was in 1691 in US, when the virginia colonies mae a law preventing mixed marriages between settlers and people of african descent 

• Censu labels change over time 

• Censuses in different countries count people differently 

Race/ Ethnicity in the US census

• How you define race/ ethnic identity label in the census can have huge impacts for policy 

• For example, the US census has a seperate ethnicity question and a distinct race question 

• Everyone is characterized as one of: “hispanic or Latino” and “Not hispanic or Latino” ethnic categories but what race do Hispanic’ latino people choose? Why is this a problem? 

• Separating “race” and “ethnicity” as different categories has been criticized both by the american anthropological association & U.S commission on Civil rights 

Race in the census 

• Per the US govt on the census FAQ (2023): “The race and ethnicity categories generally reflect social definitions in the U.S. and are not an attempt to define race and ethnicity biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. We recognize that the race and ethnicity categories include racial, ethnic, and national origins and sociocultural groups.”

• The American Anthropological Association has recommended that the Census Bureau eliminate the term "race" and replace it with "ethnic origins," noting that many Americans confuse or use race, ethnicity and ancestry interchangeably. 

• Canadian census uses “ethnic origins” 

Ethnicity in canada 

• Canadian? French canadian? Quebecois? 

• 1951- canadian not permitted as a response 

• 1981- Less than 1% report Canadian as an ethnic origin (single or in combination with others) to 4% in 1991 and 57% in 2006 

• Generational changed (subsequent generations born in canada, for example) 

• More than 450 ethnic or cultural origins were reported in the 2021 Census