biological vs. sociological definitions of race

• biological — distinct, shared biological traits within a species derived from one common ancestor

  • technically, all humans are one race

  • race: a biologically distinct subgroup or sub-species within a species

  • ethnicity: groupings of people that have a shared culture, an alleged shared biological ancestry, and a shared “homeland” or alleged place of origin

• sociological — appearance-based, based on physical characteristics

  • “determined” by traits such as skin color, eye color and shape, bone structure, and hair color and type

  • this concept is problematic and has little basis or definition

segregation and gentrification

residential segregation

• residential segregation: any lack of intermixing of people of different races in the same neighborhood

  • supported by redlining (practice of banks and real estate agents of preventing people of certain races from obtaining housing in certain areas)

• affinity: people living around and/or interacting with other people who live the same way

gentrification

• when higher-class (usually white) people move into neighborhoods occupied by lower-class people of color, raising property values and forcing out the original inhabitants

blockbusting and white flight (reverse gentrification)

• white flight — migration phenomenon

  • as people of color moved into predominantly white neighborhoods in cities from which they had previously been excluded, many white residents of those neighborhoods moved out

  • they resettled in newly build, overwhelmingly white suburbs

  • during the civil rights era, as courts forced school integration and shot down other discriminatory practices, many white people moved out of the city and into the suburbs

• blockbusting: the practice of introducing black homeowners into previously all-white neighborhoods in order to spark rapid white flight and housing price decline

  • real estate speculators have historically used this technique to profit from prejudice-driven market instability

  • after intentionally placing a black homeowner onto a block, speculators told white owners that value deprecation was imminent

  • as white residents flee, other white residents sell their homes for even less, depreciating housing prices further and further → “self-fulfilling prophecy”

indigenous reservations

• reservation: an area of land set aside for Indigenous residence and usage by the United States government

• run under federal law, but state laws do not apply (autonomous to an extent)

• not considered their own nations entirely, but also not entirely part of the United State → deal with the US government in a manner similar to international affairs, but must observe federal laws, ordinances, regulations, etc.

• less than 50% of the total Indigenous American population lives on reservations, but reservations remain majority-Indigenous

• there are currently (as of 2020) 326 reservations in the US which take up 56.2 million acres of land, or ~2.3% of the country’s total land area

  • largest reservation is the Navajo reservation, consisting of 16 million acres across Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico

• many reservations were created by treaties, but many treaties were broken and land was stolen; many Indigenous people were forced into Oklahoma in the 1800s, primarily through the Trail of Tears

• high poverty and unemployment rates on reservations; high suicide rates and drug abuse; poor overall living conditions

  • casinos and other tourist destinations have been created on reservations in the hopes of restoring the local economy

• culture is being somewhat preserved on reservations through the continued practice of traditional songs, crafts, languages, dances, and ceremonies