Ethnicity
• Ethnicity: Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions (Rubenstein)
• Ethnicity: affiliation with a group whose racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics or national origins distinguish it from a larger population within which it is found (Fellman)
• Ethnocentrism: a tendency to evaluate other culture’s against the standards of one’s own (Fellman 179)
• State
• Nation
• Nation – State
• Nationalism
• Empire
Races
• White
• Black
• Asian
• Native American
• Pacific Islander
Recognized Races by US Census
• White• Black or African Am.• Asian• American Indian or
Native Alaskan• Asian Indian• Chinese• Filipino• Japanese
• Korean• Vietnamese • Other Asian• Native Hawaiian• Guamanian or
Chamorro• Samoan• Other Pacific Islander• Other race
Distribution of the B blood type allele among humans
• Using the B blood type for defining races, Australian Aborigines would be lumped together with most Native Americans. Some Africans would be in the same race as Europeans while others would be categorized with Asians.
http://anthro.palomar.edu/ethnicity/ethnic_1.htm
Other terms
• Hispanic – from a Spanish-speaking country
• Latino – from a Latin American country
• Hispanic & Latinos can be of any race –
• Argentina – white
• Mexico – Native American
Distribution of Ethnicities in US
1. There was no "decline to state" option allowed for "race" designation forthe year 2000 Census.
2. 97% of the people who reported that they were "some other race" saidthat they were also "Hispanic or Latino" in terms of ethnicity.
3. There are 57 possible combinations of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 races that wereallowed. 93% of the people who reported more than one race, reportedonly two. The most common combination was "white" with some other"race.“
4. 48% of Hispanics reported that they were "white" and 42% said theywere "some other race."
RACIAL AND ETHNIC CATEGORIES from 2000 US Census
# OF
PEOPLE
% OF POP.
Total U.S. population 281,421,906 100.0%
Race: (see note 1)
--- One race 274,595,678 97.6%
--- White 211,460,626 75.1%
--- Black or African American 34,658,190 12.3%
--- American Indian & Alaska Native
2,475,956 0.9%
--- Asian 10,242,998 3.6%
--- Native Hawaiian & other Pacific Islander
398,835 0.1%
--- Some other race (see note 2) 15,359,073 5.5%
--- Two or more races (see note 3) 6,826,228 2.4%
Ethnicity: (see note 4)
--- Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 35,305,818 12.5%
--- Not Hispanic or Latino 246,116,088 87.5%
http://anthro.palomar.edu/ethnicity/ethnic_1.htm
Af-am
• Reflects migration to north in early 20th century
His-am
Asia-am
Amerindian, Eskimo, & Aleut
• Ethnic groups in US tend to cluster in cities (Rubenstein 222)
• Why??– Ravenstein’s Laws
Race in the United States
• “separate but equal” doctrine – Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896
• Brown vs. BOE, Topeka KS, 1954
• “white flight” – 1950’s-1960’s– Blockbusting – Real Estate Agents encourage
white neighbors to sell at a lost, then re-sell higher to African-Americans desperate to escape inner-city
World Examples
Apartheid
• South Africa – 4 races– White– Black– Mixed white and black (colored)– Asian
• Each race had different legal status• International pressure to end starting in
1970’s• Apartheid laws ended in 1991
Belgium
• Dutch-speaking Flemish
• French-speaking Walloons
• Both consider to be Belgian nationality
United Kingdom
• Multinational– England– Scotland– Wales– Northern Ireland
• Scotland and Wales have separate elected governments
• Each have own national soccer teams
World Cup 2010 Teams
China
European colonial empires in 1938
http://anthro.palomar.edu/ethnicity/ethnic_1.htm
Ethnic Conflicts
Recent hotspots of severe racism
http://anthro.palomar.edu/ethnicity/ethnic_1.htm