A n t h r o p o l o g y

Appreciating Human Diversity

Fifteenth Edition

Conrad Phillip Kottak University of Michigan

McGraw-Hill © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved. C H A P T E R

ETHNICITY AND RACE

15-2 ETHNICITY AND RACE

• Ethnic Groups and Ethnicity • Race and Ethnicity • The Social Construction of Race • Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation • Roots of Ethnic Conflict

15-3 ETHNICITY AND RACE

• What is , and how does it relate to ethnicity? • How are race and ethnicity socially constructed in various societies? • What are the positive and negative aspects of ethnicity?

15-4 Understanding Ourselves

• Who are you? • What labels come to mind? • Situational Negotiation of Social Identity - most people have different identities in different contexts • Identities and behavior change with context • The “hats” we wear depend on the situation • Both black and Hispanic; both father and ballplayer; both daughter and teacher • Face to face encounters – others see who we are or who they perceive us to be; may expect certain behaviors based on their perception of identity; hard to be anonymous when face to face • Today, identities are not always constrained by physical attributes – can use modern technology to reveal and manipulate what we want them to think we are (i.e. “catfish)

15-5 ETHNIC GROUPS AND ETHNICITY

• : a group whose members share certain beliefs, values, habits, customs, and norms because of their common background/cultural distinctions • Members may define themselves as distinct through language, religion, geography, history, ancestry, and race • Collective name, belief in common descent, sense of solidarity, association with specific territory • Ethnicity: identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation • Ethnic feelings and associated behavior vary in intensity • A change in the degree of importance attached to ethnic identity may reflect political change • Soviet rule ended and ethnic feelings rose

15-6 Status Shifting

• Situational Negotiation of Identity • Different “hats” in different situations • Ethnicity is only one basis for group identity • Cultural differences may be associated with ethnicity, class, region, or religion • People belong to many different groups/have different identities • Loyal to neighborhood, school, town, state, nation, religion, ethnic group, interest group… • Complex societies – people constantly negotiate social identities • Status: positions that people occupy in society • Ascribed status: little or no choice about occupying the status given (age, race, , birthplace…) • People are born members of a group and remain members • : through choices, actions, efforts, talents, or accomplishments; may be positive or negative (salesperson, mother, felon, college student)

15-7 Table 15.1: Race/Ethnic Identification in the United States, 2010

15-8 Figure 15.1: Social Statuses

15-9 STATUS SHIFTING

Ascribed Status • Some statuses, particularly ascribed ones, can be mutually exclusive • Can’t be both male and female, both son and daughter, both white and black • Some statuses are contextual • Situational negotiation of social identity – adjusting one’s status/identity to different social contexts • i.e. Hispanic, Latino, and Mexican or Cuban • Labels for a person, depend on the perception by others of that person’s status, as well as that person’s own assertions of status • In many societies, ascribed status associated with position in the sociopolitical hierarchy (i.e. India and the system) • Minority groups have inferior power and less secure access to resources than majority groups • Minority groups are obvious features of stratification in the U.S. • Look at discrepancies in income with different ethnic groups

15-10 RACE AND ETHNICITY

• Race: an ethnic group assumed to have biological basis; shared blood or genes • Racism: discrimination against an ethnic group that is assumed to have biological basis; based on physical features

15-11 RACE AND ETHNICITY

• Race • only cultural/social constructions of race are possible • not a biological reality or we would have scientific categories based on common genes • Socially constructed category that is arbitrary • Black, white, yellow, red, Caucasian, Negroid, Mongoloid, American Indian… – not biologically distinct species • AAA stresses that inequalities among racial groups are not consequences of biological inheritance, but are products of social, economic, educational, or political circumstances • U.S. does not draw very clear line between ethnicity and race • Americans often use “ethnicity” and “race” interchangeably • “Hispanic” - refers to one’s language and geography, rather than ethnicity • Better to use ethnic group than race

15-12 HYPODESCENT: RACE IN THE UNITED STATES

• In U.S. culture, racial identity acquired at birth • Ascribed status • Is not based on biology or simple ancestry • 50% from black mom and 50% from white dad – child automatically classified as black • Arbitrary classification operating under rule of descent • Rule of descent: assigns social identity on the basis of ancestry • Hypodescent: automatically places children of mixed marriages in the group of their minority parent; common in U.S. • Effects of Hypodescent: • Divides U.S. society into groups unequal in their access to wealth, power, and prestige • Population growth attributed more to minority categories • it is easier for Native Americans or Hispanics to negotiate identity than black identity, so blacks are more affected by the rule of hypodescent than others

15-13 Hypodescent: Race in the U.S.

• Example: President Obama (Kenyan father, white American mother) • Example: Louisiana case of Susie Guillory Phillips • In some states, anyone known to have ANY black ancestor, can be classified as member of black race • Light skinned woman, Caucasian features, straight black hair • Raised white; as adult, found out she was part black from birth certificate • Challenged Louisiana 1/32 law, but lost • Rare case because race is usually ascribed at birth and does not change; hers was on her birth certificate but she was raised based on her physical features, not ancestry • Race is ARBITRARY category • Rule of Hypodescent affects Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, and Hispanics differently • it is easier to negotiate Native American, Asian, or Hispanic identity than Black identity • rule of ascription isn’t as strong nor is assumption of biological differences • Racism still exists!

• Child of an ethnic group may not identify as a part of that ethnic group; child not raised as part of ethnic group may reclaim identity later in life

15-14 RACE IN THE CENSUS

• U.S. Census Bureau gathering data by race since 1790 • Rule of Hypodescent – results in population growth being attributed to minorities • 1980 – 2010 • Number of respondents tripled for people choosing “some other race” • Suggests an imprecision in and dissatisfaction with the existing categories • Interracial marriages and multiracial children are increasing • Children identify with more than one ethnicity • Troubling that important characteristic, like identity, is dictated by arbitrary rule of hypodescent

15-15 RACE IN THE CENSUS

• Canadian census asks about “visible minorities” rather than race • “Persons, other than Aboriginal peoples (aka First Nations in Canada), who are non-Caucasian in race or nonwhite in color” • South Asian and Chinese are largest visible minority; not racial categories • Minorities represent a smaller percentage of the total population than in the U.S. • In both the U.S. and Canada, the visible minority population is increasing steadily due to migration and rapid population growth

15-16 Figure 15.2: Reproduction of Questions on Race and Hispanic Origin from Census 2010

15-17 NOT US: RACE IN JAPAN

• Japan commonly viewed as homogeneous (same/similar in nature) in race, ethnicity, language, and culture • However, about 10% of population are minorities • Intrinsic racism: belief that perceived racial difference is sufficient reason to value one person less than another • Majority Japanese are seen as “pure” and believed to “share the same blood” • Similar to hypodescent but less precise • Children of mixed marriages may not get same “racial” label as minority parent, but are still stigmatized for non-Japanese ancestry

15-18 NOT US: RACE IN JAPAN

• Most Japanese define themselves by their opposition to others—anyone not us • Not us should stay away • Assimilation discouraged: taboos on interracial marriage, residential segregation, work that keeps minorities in their place • Certain ethnic groups seen as having biological basis • Burakumin perceived as standing apart from the majority of Japanese – their blood makes them not us • Low status social class • Genetically and physically indistinguishable from the dominant population, but they are treated as a different race • Segregated neighborhoods • Treated poorly (by teachers, children…) • Like blacks in the U.S., Japan’s burakumin are stratified: class structured, with differences in wealth, prestige, and power

15-19 PHENOTYPE AND FLUIDITY: RACE IN BRAZIL

• Brazil: racial identity is more flexible, more of an achieved status • Although Brazil has history of slavery like U.S., no hypodescent rule ever developed in Brazil to ensure that whites and blacks remained separate • Attuned to slight phenotypic (physical) differences; over 500 racial categories • Construction of race is more flexible; may change as a result of achieved status, developmental biological changes, and other factors • Phenotype and racial category may change due to environmental factors like tanning or effects of humidity on hair • Phenotype – an organism’s evident traits: physical biology, anatomy, skin color, hair form, facial features, eye color • Race may change due to manner of dress, language, location (rural versus urban), and even attitude (i.e. adopting urban behavior)

15-20att Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in Brazil

• Multiplicity and overlapping of race labels allow one to be considered as of more than one race • In U.S., researcher is white • In Brazil, researcher may be white, light, blond, light skinned redhead, light mulatto, mulatto; informant called himself dark, black, dark brunet • Flexibility makes racial discrimination less likely; not blind to evident physical contrasts • Brazil’s system of racial classification is changing/becoming less fluid in the context of international identity politics, rights movements, and access to strategic resources

• History: • U.S. colonists were men, women, and families; Brazil they were mainly men • Brazilian men married indigenous women; recognized mixed offspring as their heirs • Plantation owners often freed their children with slave mothers (not classed with slaves; not rule of hypodescent)

15-21 ETHNIC TOLERANCE AND ACCOMMODATION • Ethnic diversity may be associated with positive group interaction or with conflict

15-22 ASSIMILATION

• Assimilation: when a minority adopts the patterns and norms of the host/dominant culture • Group moves to a place where another culture dominates • Incorporates the dominant culture to the point where it no longer exists as a separate cultural unit • May be forced or (seemingly) chosen • Example: Brazil • Many migrations in 19th century from Germany, Italy, Japan, Middle East, and Eastern Europe • Immigrants assimilated into Brazilian culture • During WWII, Brazil forced assimilation by banning instruction in any other language than Portugese, especially German • U.S. had forced assimilation policies toward Native Americans • Removal of children, Mission schools, languages forbidden, laws against ceremonies, dismantling of , allotment of communal lands

15-23 THE PLURAL SOCIETY

• Plural society: • Assimilation isn’t inevitable and there can be ethnic harmony without it • Challenged idea that interaction always leads to assimilation • Society with economically interdependent ethnic groups • Ethnic groups do not assimilate but remain distinct in stable coexistence • Barth: • Studied three ethnic groups in Pakistan • Defines plural society as combining ethnic contrasts, ecological specialization (use of different environmental resources), and the economic interdependence of those groups • Ethnic boundaries are most stable and enduring when groups occupy different ecological niches • They make their living in different ways so they don’t compete; ideally, they depend on each other’s activities • Shifted focus from specific cultural practices and values to relationships between ethnic groups

15-24 MULTICULTURALISM AND ETHNIC IDENTITY

• Multiculturalism: view of cultural diversity as valuable and worth maintaining in its own right • Opposite of assimilation model • Seeks ways for people to understand and interact with a respect for their differences and contributions (rather than sameness) • In U.S., many are bilingual, eat American and ethnic foods, celebrate both national and ethnic/religious holidays; ethnic neighborhoods and restaurants

15-25 Changing Demographics

• Multiculturalism • Of growing importance in U.S. and Canada • Growing away from assimilationist model to multiculturalism • Due to large scale migration and rapid population growth • With increased migration, ethnic identity has become more important (i.e. used to form self-help or activist organizations) • Due to globalization, much of the world is experiencing an “ethnic revival” • Rather than “melting pot”, we are ethnic “salads”

15-26 Figure 15.4: Ethnic Composition of the United States

15-27 ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

• Ethnicity can be experienced in peaceful multiculturalism or in discrimination or confrontation • Perception of cultural differences can have disastrous effects on social interaction • Prejudice and Discrimination: • Prejudice: the devaluing of a group because of its assumed behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes • : fixed ideas about what the members of a group are like

• Prejudiced people assume members of the group will act as they are “supposed to act” and interpret a wide range of individual behaviors as evidence of this . They use this behavior to confirm their stereotype and low opinion of the group

15-28 ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

• Discrimination: policies and practices that harm a group and its members • De facto: practiced but not legally sanctioned • Police and racial profiling • De jure: part of the law • segregation

15-29 AFTERMATHS OF OPPRESSION

Fueling ethnic conflict are forms of discrimination such as genocide, ethnocide, forced assimilation, and cultural colonialism • Genocide: deliberate elimination of a group; Germany • Ethnocide: destruction of of certain ethnic groups • Forced assimilation: dominant group forces an ethnic group to adopt the dominant culture; many countries have penalized or banned the language and customs of other ethnic groups • Example: anti-Basque campaign that was waged in Spain; banned Basque books, journals, newspapers, signs, sermons, tombstones, and language • Ethnic expulsion – aims at removing groups who are culturally different from a country • A policy of expulsion may create refugees – people who have been forced or have chosen to flee a country or left to escape persecution or war • Contributes to the formation of diasporas • Cultural Colonialism: internal domination by one group and its culture or ideology over others; dominant culture makes itself official culture

15-30 RECAP 15.1: Types of Ethnic Interaction

15-31