Geography review

Geography of Human

Diversity in the U.S.

Race, Ethnicity and Ancestry

What is Race?

 A taxonomy of human populations

 Most racial categories are based on

visible, physical traits

 Conceptions of race vary from culture to

culture over time

 Used to establish social identity and

hierarchical stratification

Current Usage of the Term

 Race is a social construct

 Politically defined

 Supposedly biologically based

 Assignment to a category is done by “others” for

classification purposes

 Varies from country to country

 Based on distinctive traits and physical

appearance

Race in the United States

 Legal definition has

varied over time and by

race:

 African-American: one drop

of African blood

 Native-American: a

percentage of ancestry

(more than 1/16 to be

recognized as a tribe by

the federal government)

 White: pure ancestry

 The Census Bureau has

6 base categories:

 White

 African American

 Asian

 American Indian or Alaska

Native

 Pacific Islander

 Other

U.S. Census 2000

 Expanded Asian race to 7 sub-categories

 Allowed respondents to claim more than

one race on their Census form

 Only 2.4% of respondents identified

themselves in this way

 Hispanic ethnic classification was adopted

by many as a race instead of a heritage

Race in Canada

 Collapsed classification of population groups:

 Aboriginal

 White

 Other

 Detailed classification of the Other:

 10 visible minorities plus “n.i.e.” (not included

elsewhere)

 Can be single response or White and one

minority combination

Aboriginals and Visible Minorities

 Aboriginals are persons identifying as First

Nations (North American Indian), Métis (mixed

blood European and Indian) or Inuit as defined

under the Constitution Act of 1982

 The Employment Equity Act defines visible

minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal

peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-

white in colour".

Visible Minorities in Canada

 Chinese

 South Asian

 Black

 Filipino

 Latin American

 Southeast Asian

 Arab

 West Asian

 Korean

 Japanese

 n.i.e. (not included elsewhere)

Race in Mexico

 Population is assessed by cultural measures such as language rather than predetermined racial categories

 Approximately 87% of Mexicans speak Spanish as their primary language

 A small portion of the population is considered European ~ 10%

 The balance are considered “indigenous peoples”

“Real” Races in Mexico

 Mestizos ~ 60% of the population

 Indigenous peoples ~ 30%

 Europeans (pure blood) ~ 9%

 Others (including Africans) ~ 1%

 Social preference is for lighter colored skin  Performers on telenovelas

 TV & magazine ads, billboards

Race in South Africa

 During the Apartheid Era race was set in

four categories:

White

Indian/Asian

Colored – mixed race black/white, etc.

Black

 Coloreds were considered racial misfits

The Colored Race

 Dutch settlers arriving in the 1600s took

pale skinned Khoisan natives as wives

and mistresses

 Many mulattoes had very light skin and

assimilated into the white population

 Inter-racial sex was banned in 1950

 The “curliness of one’s hair” test

Post-Apartheid South Africa

 White rule ended in 1994 with the first

multi-racial election

 Race is now freely chosen among citizens

 Black power was celebrated

 Coloreds, however, tend to reject their

black heritage and prefer to adopt the

names, language and customs of whites

Social Consequences of Race

 Prejudice

 Discrimination

 Racism

Prejudice

 Judgment or opinion formed beforehand

without knowledge or examination of the

facts

 May be based on limited personal

experience or derived from the beliefs of

others who are considered knowledgeable

Discrimination

 Actions or behaviors based on prejudice

 Can be based on “supposed” classes or

categories

 Results may be benign or have severe

consequences for both parties

Racism

 Belief that race accounts for differences in

human abilities, intelligence or potential

 Because of this belief, a hierarchy of

superior and inferior races evolves

 Discrimination against the inferior race

becomes justified by the “racist”

The “Constructed Space” of Racism

 Legal prohibitions on movement, activity and

opportunity

 Unofficial sanctions by groups of people

 Accepted by the general public

 Prohibited activities

 Acts by individuals

 Covert and open

 Subtle and hidden

Race: The Power of an Illusion

 What was the Eugenics Movement?

 What was the extinction thesis? Who was considered the

“father” of the extinction thesis?

 What is mitochondrial DNA and how was it used in this

video?

 Why are the abilities of athletes in different sports

determined by culture rather than genetics?

 What is concordance?

 Why do people have different skin colors?

 What is the WIN tribe? Where did they live?

 What is race???

American Eugenics Movement

 Founded in the 1880s by Francis Galton

 Believed that selective breeding could “improve”

the quality of the population

 Supported by contributions from the Carnegies,

Rockefellers and Harrimans

 Nearly 400 universities in the U.S.had Eugenics

courses by the 1920s

 The American Breeder’s Association provided a

body for collaboration between scientists

Poster Displayed at the Philadelphia Sesqui-

Centennial Exhibition (1926)

Ethnicity

 Socially constructed concept of identity

 Internally imposed (self identification) by

individuals generally based on ancestry

 Characterized by markers of difference ~ “us”

and the “others”

 Often actualized after leaving a territorial

homeland

 Italian vs Neopolitan or Venetian

 German vs. Bavarian or Alsatian

Ethnic Markers of Identity

 Secondary markers

 Foods and methods of

preparation

 Clothing and dress

 Customs and

traditions

 Arts and literature

 Kinship systems

 Historical association

 Primary markers

 Language (spoken

and written forms)

 Religious affiliation

 Current or historically

occupied territory

 Race

Uncertainties of Ethnicity

 Membership is often imprecise due to personal

and family perceptions of uniformity

 Membership may change over time due to:

 Migration

 Marriage

 Time

 Personal choice

 Effects of distance, dilution & disassociation

Ethnic Grounding Concepts

 Ethnogenesis: recognition of ethnic identity after immigration

 Ethnic re-identification: adoption of an ethnic identity after a period of non-identification

 Symbolic ethnicity: embracing a superficial ethnic identity

 Pan-ethnicity: a collection of ethnicities into one larger grouping (i.e. African-American, Asian- American, etc.)

Ethnic Identity Issues

 Transnational identities: immigrants create a

new identity in their adopted homeland while

keeping strong ties with their homeland

 Dual citizenship

 Remittances to family members

 Reactive minority identity:

 Due to cultural suppression in their new home

immigrants maintain connections with their old “home”

through media (phone, email, movies, television, etc.)

Ancestry

 Usually defined geographically

 Categories may be assigned or imposed by others

 Can be diluted through migration or marriage

 Can be useful in combination with ethnicity

 Can be misleading through stereotyping

Temporal Aspects of Ancestry

 National boundaries

change over time

 Many countries have

more than one

ethnicity or nation

 Ancestry is often

confused with

ethnicity

Ancestry in the U.S.

 U.S. Census defines ancestry as “a person’s ethnic origin, heritage, descent, or roots, which may reflect their place of birth, place of birth of parents or ancestors, and ethnic identities that may have evolved within the United States”

 The Census Bureau began using ancestry questions in 1980

Ancestries in the U.S.

How Many Ancestries?

 Census 2000 had 92 ancestries with 100,000 or

more respondents

 Over 500 different ancestries were reported

 Included catch-all categories such as African,

African-American, Asian, European, Northern

European, Western European, Hispanic, Latin

American, and United States

Census Incomplete Responses