CASE STUDY / Ethnic Diversity in America The United States is a country of ethnic diversity. The complex- geographers because its characteristics derive from the distinc- ity of ethnic identity in the United States is clearly illustrated tive features of particular places on Earth, such as rural eastern by Barack Obama: the country’s first black president, son of a Kenya. white mother and black father. Features of race, such as skin color, hair type and color, blood traits, and shape of body, head, and facial features, were • President Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Senior, was born once thought to be scientifically classifiable. Contemporary in the village of Kanyadhiang, Kenya. He was a member of geographers reject the entire biological basis of classifying Kenya’s third-largest ethnic group, known as the Luo. humans into a handful of races because these features are not • President Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, was born in rooted in specific places. Kansas. Most of her ancestors migrated to the United States However, one feature of race does matter to geographers— from England in the nineteenth century. the color of skin. President Obama’s race is black because of • President Obama’s step-father—his mother’s second hus- the color of his skin. The distribution of persons of color mat- band, Lolo Soetoro—was born in the village of Yogyakarta, ters to geographers because it is the fundamental basis by Indonesia. He was a member of Indonesia’s largest ethnic which people in many societies sort out where they reside, group, known as the Javanese. attend school, recreate, and perform many other activities of Race and ethnicity are often confused. Ethnicity, such as the daily life. ■ president’s Luo ancestry through his father, is important to Ethnicity is identity with a group of people who share the cul- Ethnicity is especially important to geographers because in the tural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth. Ethnicity face of globalization trends in culture and economy, ethnicity comes from the Greek word ethnikos, which means “national.” stands as the strongest bulwark for the preservation of local diver- Ethnicity is distinct from race, which is identity with a group sity. Even if globalization engulfs language, religion, and other of people who share a biological ancestor. Race comes from a cultural elements, regions of distinct ethnic identity will remain. middle-French word for generation. Geographers are interested in where ethnicities are distributed across space, like other elements of culture. An ethnic group is KEY ISSUE 1 tied to a particular place, because members of the group—or their ancestors—were born and raised there. The cultural traits displayed by an ethnicity derive from particular conditions and Where Are Ethnicities practices in the group’s homeland. The reason why ethnicities have distinctive traits should by Distributed? now be familiar. Like other cultural elements, ethnic identity derives from the interplay of connections with other groups and ■ Distribution of Ethnicities in the isolation from them. United States Ethnicity is an especially important cultural element of ■ Differentiating Ethnicity and Race local diversity because our ethnic identity is immutable. We can deny or suppress our ethnicity, but we cannot choose to An ethnicity may be clustered in specific areas within a change it in the same way we can choose to speak a different country, or the area it inhabits may match closely the language or practice a different religion. If our parents come boundaries of a country. This section of the chapter exam- from two ethnic groups or our grandparents from four, our eth- ines the clustering of ethnicities within countries, and the nic identity may be extremely diluted, but it never completely next key issue looks at ethnicities on the national scale. ■ disappears. The study of ethnicity lacks the tension in scale between preservation of local diversity and globalization observed in other cultural elements. Despite efforts to preserve local lan- Distribution of Ethnicities guages, it is not far-fetched to envision a world in which virtu- ally all educated people speak English. And universalizing in the United States religions continue to gain adherents around the world. But no The two most numerous ethnicities in the United States are ethnicity is attempting or even aspiring to achieve global dom- Hispanics (or Latinos), at 15 percent of the total population, inance, although ethnic groups are fighting with each other to and African Americans, at 13 percent. In addition, about 4 per- control specific areas of the world. cent are Asian American and 1 percent American Indian. 208 Chapter 7: Ethnicity 209 Clustering of Ethnicities and more than one-third in Mississippi (Figure 7-2). Con- centrations are even higher in selected counties. At the other Within a country, clustering of ethnicities can occur on two extreme, nine states in upper New England and the West scales. Ethnic groups may live in particular regions of the have less than 1 percent African Americans. country, and they may live in particular neighborhoods within Asian Americans. Clustered in the West, Asian Ameri- cities. Within the United States, ethnicities are clustered at • cans comprise more than 40 percent of the population of both scales. Hawaii (Figure 7-3). One-half of all Asian Americans live in California, where they comprise 12 percent of the popula- REGIONAL CONCENTRATIONS OF ETHNICITIES. tion. Chinese account for one-fourth of Asian Americans, On a regional scale, ethnicities have distinctive distributions Indians and Filipinos one-fifth each, and Korean and Viet- within the United States: namese one-tenth each. • American Indians and Alaska Natives. Within the 48 • Hispanic or Latino/Latina. Clustered in the Southwest, continental United States, American Indians are most numer- Hispanics exceed one-third of the population of Arizona, ous in the Southwest and the Plains states (Figure 7-4). New Mexico, and Texas, and one-quarter of California (Figure 7-1). California is home to one-third of all Hispanics, Texas one-fifth, and Florida and New York one-sixth each. Hispanic or Hispanic American is a term that the U.S. 45° government chose in 1973 to describe the group because it was an inoffensive label that could be applied to all people 40° 40° from Spanish-speaking countries. Some Americans of Latin American descent have instead adopted the terms Latino 35° (males) and Latina (females). A 1995 U.S. Census Bureau 35° ATLANTIC survey found that 58 percent of Americans of Latin Ameri- PACIFIC OCEAN OCEAN 30° can descent preferred the term Hispanic and 12 percent 30° Latino/Latina. 22° 155° 0 200 MI. 0 200 KM. 0 Most Hispanics identify with a more specific ethnic 200 400 MILES 25° 0 400 MILES or national origin. Around two-thirds come from Mexico 0 200 400 KILOMETERS 0 400 KILOMETERS and are sometimes called Chicanos (males) or Chicanas 180° 160° 140° 95° 90° 85° 80° 75° (females). Originally the term was considered insulting, PERCENT AFRICAN AMERICAN but in the 1960s Mexican American youths in Los 50 and above 12–24 1–5 Angeles began to call themselves Chicanos and Chicanas 25–49 6–11 Below 1 with pride. • African Americans. Clustered in the Southeast, African FIGURE 7-2 Distribution of African Americans in the United States. The Americans comprise at least one-fourth of the population in highest percentages of African Americans are in the rural South and in northern cities. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, and South Carolina, 45° 45° 40° 40° 40° 40° 35° 35° ATLANTIC PACIFIC 35° OCEAN OCEAN 35° 30° 30° ATLANTIC 22° 155° PACIFIC OCEAN 0 200 MI. OCEAN 30° 0 200 KM. 0 30° 200 400 MILES 25° 22° 155° 0 400 MILES 0 200 400 KILOMETERS 0 200 MI. 0 400 KILOMETERS 180° 160° 140° 95° 90° 85° 80° 75° 0 200 KM. 0 200 400 MILES 25° 0 400 MILES PERCENT HISPANIC-AMERICAN 0 200 400 KILOMETERS 0 400 KILOMETERS 180° 160° 140° 95° 90° 85° 80° 75° 60 and above 20–39 1–8 PERCENT ASIAN-AMERICAN (including Pacific Islanders) 40–59 9–19 Below 1 50 and above 10–49 3–9 1–2 Below 1 FIGURE 7-1 Distribution of Hispanic Americans in the United States. The highest percentages are in the Southwest, near the Mexican border, and in FIGURE 7-3 Distribution of Asian Americans in the United States. The highest northern cities. percentages are in Hawaii and California. 210 The Cultural Landscape 94 Vietnamese 45° 294 Hungarian Cambodian Polish Indian German Serbian 90 Swedish 40° 40° L Polish a k Italian e 35° German Cuban 35° Puerto Rican ATLANTIC PACIFIC M OCEAN OCEAN i 30° c 30° h 22° 155° i g 0 200 MI. 290 a 0 200 KM. n 0 200 400 MILES 25° Chinese 0 400 MILES 0 200 400 KILOMETERS 0 400 KILOMETERS 180° 160° 140° 95° 90° 85° 80° 75° Irish 55 PERCENT AMERICAN INDIAN, ESKIMO AND ALEUT Mexican Polish 60 and above 15–29 1–4 Czech & 30–59 5–14 Below 1 Slovak Midway Airport Irish FIGURE 7-4 Distribution of American Indians in the United States. The highest percentages are in Alaska and the Plains states. 90 294 Mexican Irish 57 CONCENTRATION OF ETHNICITIES IN CITIES. 94 African Americans and Hispanics are highly clustered in 0 24 MILES urban areas. Around 90 percent of these ethnicities live in 0 2 4 KILOMETERS IL IN metropolitan areas, compared to around 75 percent for all CHICAGO ETHNICITIES Americans. The distinctive distribution of African Americans and His- African American Asian panics is especially noticeable at the levels of states and neigh- Hispanic White borhoods. At the state level, African Americans comprise 85 percent of the population in the city of Detroit and only 7 per- FIGURE 7-5 Distribution of ethnicities in Chicago.