Concepts: Ethnicity, Race and Racism

What do these concepts really mean?

How are they relevant to US ethnic History?

1. Ethnicity

•Ethnicity defines those who are considered,

or consider themselves to be, part of an
ethnic group or ‘ethnie’
•Ethnicity – ethnic identity
• Linked to notions of kinship, group
solidarity
• Characteristics of ethnicity typically include:
Common proper name
Myth of a common ancestry
A shared history
Link with a specific homeland
A sense of group solidarity
• Common culture:
Language, religion, traditions, food, dress,
past-times, gender and family roles, values
• Transmission of ethnicity important –
particularly when considering immigration
• Public: organised events, commemorations
and traditions, media, symbols, education,
religion
• Private: family, friends, family history and
memory, traditions, language, home
environment, homeland links
• Different theoretical approaches to ethnicity

• Primordialists:

Ethnicity seen as given and natural

Something people are born with or into
Linked to blood ties, kin relationships
Belief in common ancestry
Cannot be changed or chosen

• Situationalists/Instrumentalists:

Ethnicity understood as socially constructed

Social, political and cultural resource for
different interest and status groups
Emphasis on elite manipulation of ethnic
symbols
Fluid concept – hybrid ethnicities
Role of individual choice/identity
Change in time and space

• Neither is perfect:
Primordialists do not account for ethnic
change over time
Instrumentalists do not account for durability
of ethnic attachment and strength of feeling
• Other approaches – ethno-symbolism finds
middle way; ethnicity as group psychology
2. Race

• Different to ethnicity, although some overlap

• ‘Race’ is a classification based on physical
attributes

• Race theory based around the idea that

people of same race all distantly related
• Original idea – 3 groups:
Mongoloid, Negroid, Caucasoid
• Early ideas based around ideas of racial
hierarchy – white western thought
• Therefore – race closely associated with
historical concepts of power
• Argued that ‘race’ used as a mechanism in
the C18th to justify slavery and relations
with indigenous population

• In reality, meaningless categories – no

biological difference between groups in
personality, intellect, genetics etc.
• Research has shown that most physical
differences in humans occur within ‘races’
• ‘Race’ far more fluid biologically –
everybody mixture of different backgrounds
– no such thing as pure race
• But, race is an important issue socially –
socially constructed
• Linked to social identity –aspect of ethnicity
• Term ‘race’ often used to denote ethnic
group, rather than race specifically
• Visible marker of difference to other people
– especially in case of ethnic minority
groups
• Perceived marker of group identity – shared
experience, e.g. Black Power

• ‘Race’ as an identity – not straightforward

• The term ‘Black’ can imply one group but
ignores class, regional, gender differences
• Even within races there are further
perceived hierarchies, caste, colour etc.
• Increasing mixed marriages in US making
‘race’ difficult to categorise
• Census – race is socially defined category –
changes over time
• 2000 Census allowed people to choose
more than one race, inclusion of ‘some other
race’ category
• Evidence of fluidity and role of self-identity

• Race also ‘whiteness’ – what it means to be

white in American society
• ‘How the Irish Became White’ – white as a
perceived status, acceptance
3. Racism

• Racism – prejudice against people of a

different ‘race’
• Unequal treatment of people purely because
of their possession of physical or other
characteristics socially defined as being of a
particular race
• Association of negatively perceived
physical, social or psychological traits and/or
behaviour with a particular race, e.g.
laziness, aggression, promiscuity

• Historical background of racism:

Enlightenment brought strongly ingrained

ideas about racial hierarchy
Colonial expansionism – treatment of
indigenous people
Slavery – black people seen as property not
citizens
• Most societies historically have stigmatised
foreigners and outsiders

• Racism not always about biological ‘race’–

also directed at different ethnic or religious
groups, not just race, e.g. asylum seekers,
gypsies, Muslim and Jewish groups
• Sense of the ‘other’, difference
• Most racism stems from fear:

Fear of difference, unknown behaviour/culture

Fear of competition for jobs, housing, welfare
benefits, partners etc.
Fear of crime, poverty, extremism associated
with different groups
Based on fear of an exaggerated threat

• Clearly different types of racism throughout

societies
• Overt:
Violence – state, group and individual
Racist/political groups
Institutional racism: police and justice system,
media, education, segregation
Employment discrimination
• Covert:
Attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes, racist
jokes, treating people differently, body
language

Conclusions

• Key concepts for understanding experiences

and treatment of immigrant/minority groups
• Need to see ethnicity and race as social
constructs