Race And Ethnicity Midterm

Front 1

Cornell & Hartman, Race

Back 1

o System of classification
• Difference is perceived biological differences
• One drop rule
 Can be 100% white, but if you have a great-great black ancestor
 Only pertains to black people
• Ethnic group, identity & ethnicity became more common 60s
o Form of power, way to assert authority over “other” groups of people
o Emerged as a system of classification during the age of colonialism
• Didn’t have a form
o Inferiority complex
• Others were less smarter/less evolved

Front 2

Cornell & Hartman, Ethnicity

Back 2

o Perceived cultural similarities and claims of common descent
o Vague
o Ethnic group, identity & ethnicity became more common 60s
o Comes from the greek word ethnos, meaning nation
• Also a reference to anyone who is a heathen
• Referred to “others”
o Weber (1968)
• Introduced, ethnic groups & the notion of “believed”
 Real/assumed common descent
 Subjective matter
• Not what is, but what people perceived
• Potential bases of belief are multiple
o Belief is important
 Emphasis on common descent
o Modern definition is based on current culture
o Distinctive set of claims
• Schiengold
 A “collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry, memories of a shared historical past, and a cultural focus on one or more symbolic elements defined as the epitome of their people”

Front 3

Ethnic group

Back 3

• People defined by themselves/others as a distinct group
• Groups that Socially distinguished primarily based on cultural or national origin characteristics
• Percieved origins is what sets them apart
o US has been unsuccessful in classifying races
• Went from 5, 3, 3 to 126 in 2000 (being able to use multiple categories)
o We make primary identifying characteristics important (hair, skin color, etc.) because people designate an importance to them
• Commonalities
o Often broad
• Same background, kinship
o Both commonly held to be natural based on common descent but in fact they are both elastic
• Often overlap
o Both socially constructed

Front 4

Morning, What is Race?

Back 4

• Unsure of how it relates to biology
• 5 classifications of race
o American Indian and Alaska native
o Asian
o Black/African American
o Native Hawaiian and pother pacific islander
o White
o (Hispanics are an ethnic group according to the OBM)
• Biological differences are declared irrelevant to official standards
• Race word derives from Spanish/Jewish conflicts
o Fredrickson reading!
• Races as groupings of people believed to share common descent based on perceived innate physical similarities

Race is whatever we say it is. It is manmade

Max Weber- "Races stem from common inherited and inheritable traits that actually derive from common descent"
For ethnicity he introduced the notion of BELIEVED.
"those human groups that entertain a subjective BELIEF in their commondescent because of similarities of physical type or of custom or both

Front 5

Leroi, A family Tree in Every Gene

Back 5

• Race is a social concept not a scientific one
•
• The consensus about social constructs is unraveling
• Genetically we are not that different between Europeans and Africans
• Human physical variation is correlatied and correlations contain information
• Set up 5 groups of classification
o Europe
o East Asia
o Africa
o America
o Australasia
• Speaking in a shorthand
• Race as a means for improving medical care

Front 6

Goodman, Two Questions About Race

Back 6

• Race is a European folk idea
• Human variation
o Racial definitions/boundaries change over time and place
o The idea of race acan only divide human diversity into a small number of divisions
o Using race tends to conflate (combine) genetics and lived experience
• Genetic and geographic distances are almost perfectly correlated
o Genetic similarities
• Race is a lived experience

Front 7

Fredrickson, Religion and the Invention of Racism

Back 7

• Started with Jesus
o For the organization of Christianity it was essential that the jews be a criminally guilty people
• 12-13th century
o being forced to lend money at interest
o spiritual threat
o baptized or get killed
• basis is a wrong religion
• 13-14th century
o association between the Jews iand the Devil/witch craft
o enlisting the Powers of Darkness
o Black Death
• Thousands of Jews massacred
• Christians thought Jews were poisoning their wells
• Served as scapegoats

Front 8

Medieval anti-Semitism

Back 8

o Functioned in a society premised on hierarchy and Jews were merely part of a general pattern of group inequality
o Importance in correlation between Devil and anti-Semitism
o Was a persecuting society

Front 9

White/black

Back 9

o White
• goodness
o Black
• Devils were depicted with dark skins
• Evil
• Death

Front 10

Smedley,

Back 10

o Earliest colonization attempts took place in the late 16th century
o When the shift to permanent occupation occurred, the English stopped viewing the Native Americans as an equal entities and more as lesser people
o Backing of God and Justifications for conquest
• Seen as God’s Will
• High degree of self righteousness
• Manifest destiny
 Religious superiority
• USA is seen as a new “canaan”
• Further spread of Catholicism
• Clegy saw way of sending able bodied workers and putting them to work (i.e saving them according to Puritan traditions) in the New World
• Civil & Natural rights
 Indians lacked civil rights because they were an uncivil people
• Superior civilized people had legitimate cause to seize land, so long as they left sufficient areas for the uncivilized to exercise their natural right

Front 11

The New Savages SMEDLEY

Back 11

• English conquest of Indians was similar to conquest/tactics used when they were in conflict with the Irish
 Same savagery, ruthlessness
• In both instances, English wanted to have control over others and their situations/resources
• Thought Irish were naked savages as well
• “the Indian” was an invention of white men and contrived in their minds
 only racially inferior when they were in the way of white people’s desires
• Europeans did not have a concept of people with dark skin before they started colonizing
 Greeks and Romans have travelled the world and observed black men in the 18th century
 Social inferiority, but based on different things
 Racial inferiority came later

Front 12

1661 SMEDLEY

Back 12

• first recognition of slave status in law

Front 13

o Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676 SMEDLEY

Back 13

• Unified black and white people rebelling against
• 1000 Virginians rose because they were unhappy with the governor’s favorable Indian policies
• first rebellion in the American colonies
• Virginians took matters into their own hands because of perceived corruption, abuses of power and imposition of unfair taxes

Front 14

Haney Lopez, White By Law

Back 14

• Congress sin 1790 limited naturalization to “white persons”
• Until a short time ago being a white person wasa condition for acquiring a citizenship
• 1907
o federal government began collecting data on naturaliztion
• it was a case by case struggle on who was white and who wasn’t. Courts ruled appreciates from Armenia and Mexico were white
• Courts had to decide not only who was white why someone was white
• Dred Scott
o Supreme court decision that held blacks were not citizens
• First prerequisite case in 1979, racial restrictions were removed 1952. 44 racial prerequisite cases were reported in that time.
• John Wigmere published a law review article in 1894 advocating the admission of Japanese immigrants on the basis that Japanese people were anthropologically and culturally white
• Courts offered many different rationales but two in particular. Common knowledge and scientific evidence
• Whiteness is a social construct, a legal artifact, a function of what people believe
• White is NOT biologically defined
• The prerequisite case leaves us with white being common knowledge/socially constructed
• For each negative characteristic ascribed to people of color, an equal but opposite and positive characteristic is imputed to whites
• Haney lopez says whites should renounce their privileged racial character if we are to have any chance of racial equality
• No court owned up to the falsity of race

Front 15

Push/pull factors

Back 15

• Push
o Things that are unfavorable about the area
• lack of jobs
• Pull
o Things that attract someone to a new area
• Ex. job opportunities

Front 16

Ethnocentrism

Back 16

• A belief in the normality and superiority of one’s own people and their ways of doing things
• Generally focused inward

Front 17

Nationalism

Back 17

o Most importantly a political sentiment and movement
• Key difference is political
o Autonomy, unity and identity Involves the effort of people to determine their own destiny and free themselves from external constraint

Front 18

Constructivism

Back 18

Race is a (Socially constructed) system for classifying people based on claims of common descent that are based on perceived innate biological similarities. In a nutshell An idea that racial views are human inventions.

Front 19

Essentialism

Back 19

Race is a natural objective biological system. Natural system based on common descent that is manifested through innate biological similarities

Front 20

Key areas of agreement between Constructivism& Essentialism

Back 20

• Race is Real- They merely disagree on what race is based on
o Constructivist- If we organize ourselves around a race then it is real. Ex- Religion, people live and die for religion, we wouldn’t say it is not real. If you can’t get a taxi in Manhattan because of your race, then it is definitely real
• Basic Facts of Human Biological Variation
o Human beings vary biologically- we know that there are differences in every individual. The argument is how great these differences are- does having blonde hair versus brown hair make two people so drastically different? How important is this difference? (Human beings share 99.9% of the same DNA, which is much more than other species. This .1% difference is actually very large-but how important is this?)
o Biological variation follows geography- people living in close proximity are more similar than those living across the world from one another. These differences are based on things like altitude, terrain and climate.
o Biological variation is continuous or clinal- this variation changes gradually over terrains and location. There are no sharp lines in the location of these changes. (Ex- map of population in Europe having type B blood. Ex- The light spectrum (rainbow) as analogy for biological variation. There are no sharp lines, so when we try to racially categorize society we are imposing sharp lines that may not necessarily exist.)
o There are no discreet biological races. You cannot put people in sharply delineated biological groups that are completely separate from one another. There is no race gene, no locus etc. in our bodies that can help a person determine what race a person is. No one racial group shares a specific gene that no other race has.
• Eugenics- The idea of one race as superior to another. It was a movement that encouraged government to make initiatives to keep different races/classes separate. In addition they encouraged the government to give money to higher classes/races to have more children, while they would make an effort to sterilize races that should no procreate. The Nazi’s took this idea during the Holocaust, they sterilized not only Jews but mentally disabled and handicapped people as well.

Front 21

ETHNICITY 6

Back 21

System of classification (of people) based on claims of common descent that are supported by perceived CULTURAL similarities

• Ancestry
• Nations
• Culture Religion
• Behavior
• Voluntary
• History
• Fixed
• Influenced by environment

Front 22

RACE 6

Back 22

System of classification (of people) based on claims of common descent that are supported by perceived innate BIOLOGICAL similarities

• Biology, Physical Appearance (Phenotype- Anything that is expression of genetic something?)
• Social Valuation
• Behavior
• Continent
• External Classificiation
• Flexible& subjective

Front 23

Endentured Servant

Back 23

They work for a period of time and then are free

Front 24

George Fredrickson argument

Back 24

Race was not invented yet. Argues that race idea forms by the end of this era? He is basically arguing that over the period of 1492 when spain kicked out everyone who was not catholic or require that they convert. Up until that point is that muslims and jews had the wrong faith. Fredickson goes on to argue that over time the catholics began to wonder whether the people who converted truly could be catholic and get rid of their old faith. The Spaniards thought that they had something inside of them that didn’t allow them to be truly catholic. First time we get this race idea. THINK ABOUT WHY CATHOLICS DEVELOPED HOSTILE FEELINGS TOWARDS JEWS

Front 25

The role that Science played in the emergence of the race concept

Back 25

• Is emerging to Europeans colonial enterprise outside of Europe. They were interested in their curiosity of Europeans curiosity to different land/animals/etc.
• Race didn’t come from science. Race idea came from different ideas. Spanishs views of jews/muslims but was not scientific at the outset
• Both race and science have roots in early colionalism
• Science got a boost from the early race idea.
• Race as an idea and science as a practice formed at same time.
• One of first things they do are catergorize different types of people and animals.

Front 26

Homo Americanus:

Back 26

• reddish, choleric, and erect;
• hair- black, straight, thick…. Obstinate, merry, free; paints himself with fine red lines; regulated by customs

Front 27

Homo Asiatacus

Back 27

sallow, melancholy, stiff, black hair, dark eyes, severe, haughty, avaricious; covered with loose garments; ruled by opinions

Front 28

Homo Africanus

Back 28

black, phlegmatic, relaxed; hair- black, frizzled….. women without shame, they lactate profusely; crafty, indolent, negligent; anoints himself with grease; governed by caprice

Front 29

Homo Europeaus

Back 29

white, sanguine, muscular; hair- long, flowing;…. Gentle, acute, inventive; covers himself with close vestments; governed by laws.

Front 30

4 types of body fluids,

Back 30

blood, flem, black bile, yellow bile, and that might be where race colors come from.

Front 31

CONSTITUTION (1787)

Back 31

o SLAVE= 3/5TH of a person,
o American Indians= Not counted at all

Front 32

CENSUS (1796)

Back 32

o Free White male
o Free white female
o All other free people
o Slaves

Front 33

First Immigration law (1790) Naturalization

Back 33

o Whiteness required to be naturalized US citizen if you are from abroad

Front 34

MONOGENISTS VS. POLYGENISITS

Back 34

• Are all races part of the family of man. Monogenists thought everyone descended from adam and eve while polygenistis looked for other questions like they descended from noah?

Monogenism (monogenesis) is the theory of human origins which posits a single origin for all human races. This is opposite to the idea of polygenism which is the theory that the human races are of different lineages (polygenesis).

Front 35

3 big periods of immigration

Back 35

• 18th century- Germans, English, Scotch But mainly Britain
• mid 19th century- Germans, Irish. Germans went to Midwest, Irish went to Boston/New York.
• 1960s- Caribbean, Latin America, Asia/ third world
• Turn of 20th Century- Italians, Polish, Jews

Front 36

Why did they decide to enslave Africans as opposed to the poor Europeans?

Back 36

• They didn’t enslave white people because of a sense of kinship.
o Paris Commune- took over the city and kicked out the French…they killed 30,000 people in Paris alone.
• If they had simply enslaved white people, they would have revolted! A revolt in Europe would have effected crop production, but a revolt in Africa…who cares?
• If they escape it is hard to decipher who is a slave. There is a bigger difference between them and the society they were living in.

Front 37

To demonstrate the constructed nature of race:

Back 37

1. Emergence of race (i.e. a preceding time without race)- (When)
2. Why it emerged?- a reason that this thinking came into existence and spread.
3. Where it is constructed?
4. Who: Which groups are racialized?
5. How race gets constructed? By what means?

Front 38

Migration creates the appearance of races

Back 38

the people immigrating to America were from places very far away from each other. Because of this geographical distance the people looked drastically different. Migration to North America from geographically distant areas produces the appearance of 3 distinct, recognizable races. (Western Africa, Northern Europe, and Eastern Asia)

Front 39

Constructivist Responses to Essentialist Arguments

Back 39

• “But different races have different diseases!”

o In the video, a white girl had sickle cell disease, a disease that is common in African Americans, but she had it because she was descendant from an area that is prone to malaria.

o In effect, there aren’t truly racial disease…once again its location, location, location.

o Tay-Sachs? Are Ashkenazi Jews a race that they are prone to this disease? Its not considered to be a white disease, rather a Jewish disease, even though cystic fibrosis is considered a white disease.

o Obviously there are average difference between races, but that does not determine racial borders.

o If you make a distinction, it is likely that there are significant differences between the races you have created, but that in no way sheds light on the naturalness of any given race.

o But we could group the population in any other way and we would still find similarities within the group and differences when comparing various groups.

o Even though it can be proved that medicinal effects are different for different races, this does no hold water to suggest that races are biologically determined.

• “But different races have different physical (such as athletic) abilities!”

o Aren’t blacks innately superior to whites in sports?

o Well if you are able to train in different geographical settings it would give you an advantage to others in certain different athletic competitions. Perhaps in the Olympics a government has invested money in a certain people’s training, and that is what gives them an advantage.

o Basketball used to be dominated by Jewish men, later we understood that they were mostly immigrants who were at the bottom of the social ladder. Now, black men tend to dominate the sport. A theory about why Jews were so good at basketball was because they were sneaky, “the artful dodger” and could make quick steals etc.

o Two theories on why Africans are physically superior:

• They lived in the jungle and had to survive in Africa amongst wild animals. This theory is funk because the idea of adapting to environment is not applied to any other “race”. This suggests that whites dealt with their environment (such as hunting in the ice age) by developing their mental abilities (making traps etc).

• During slavery Africans were bred (like dogs) to produce the best, healthiest and strongest offspring. This theory is funk because this sort of gene selection can only work on a much longer scale, hundreds or thousands of years, not a few hundred that slavery existed. Also, many white people married black people, giving their genes to the offspring as well. Does that mean that whites had the same superior physical genes?

• “But there are DNA tests that can just tell you your racial background!”
o But on CSI they can tell people’s race…is there a race gene that exists in our genetic makeup? Forensic scientists can look at your genes and make a guess about what race group they fall into. If a scientists looks and sees that this person has dark skin, the don’t have to wonder if it is an Argentinian, Indian or Alaskan…if they know they have dark skin than those few indicators are enough to determine that the person in question is African American.
o It is decided that there are a certain number of races…lets say 3: European, African, and Asian. They then will go out and look for genes that fit into these self constructed categories.
• The numbers they collect are representative of how much the people that they interviewed are similar to their own categories. Their data is not indicative of innate racial distinctions, they made the parameters and they found numbers that feed into them, but there is no concrete bases.
o If there is no race gene, what gene are they looking at?
• They look at the genes that display the most differences between the races they have decided upon. They will take a gene that maximizes the differences between two different people.
• They construct the test in a certain way that ultimately is no more accurate then a guess. They are far too reliant on preconceptions; the categories are too arbitrary.