Regional distribution of ethnicities
Chapter 7: Ethnicity:Where are ethnicities distributed?
Ethnicity in the U.S.
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Latinos: 14% of the U.S. population
African Americans: 12% of the U.S. population
Asian American: 4%
American Indian: 1%
Regional Concentrations
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African Americans are clustered in the Southeast.
Hispanics in the Southwest.
Asian Americans in the West.
American Indians in the Southwest and Plains.
African Americans
25% or Greater are African
American
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Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Maryland
South Carolina
Mississippi
Less than 1% are African
American
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Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Idaho
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Utah
Wyoming
Hispanic v. Latino/Latina
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A 1995 census study
showed:
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58% of Americans of Latin
descent prefer the term
Hispanic
12% prefer the term
Latino/Latina
64% come from Mexico
10% from Puerto Rico
4% from Cuba
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Clustered from the
following states:
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California: 30%
Texas: 20%
Florida: 15%
New York: 15%
Asian American
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4% of U.S. population.
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23% Chinese
19% Indian
18% Filipino
10% Korean
10% Vietnamese
7% Japanese
13% others
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Largest concentration of
Asian Americans is in
Hawaii, followed by
California.
American Indians
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Within the lower 48 (continental U.S.) American Indians
are most populous in the Southwest and Plains states.
Distribution within cities
Where are ethnicities distributed?
African Americans
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African Americans are highly clustered within cities.
¼ of all Americans live in cities, while over ½ of African
Americans are city dwellers.
At the state level it becomes even more concentrated.
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Michigan is 7% African American while Detroit is 85% A.A.
Racial Distribution in Chicago
Hispanic
Population
Distribution
In states with the largest
distribution (CA and TX)
many urban areas are more
than ½ Hispanic.
Clustering
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About 90% of Hispanic and African American ethnicities
live in metro areas compared with 75% of the rest of the
population.
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Discussion Question:
What effect does this have on desegregation?
How has this concentration affected education and the
school systems, specifically the Brown v. Board of
Education decision?
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Historical Impact of Ethnic Clusters in
Metro Areas
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This clustering has been happening in cities since the early
part of the 20th century.
Cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, etc attracted
immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe to factory
jobs.
This led to the expansion of ethnic neighborhoods:
Greektown, Little Italy, Poletown.
Most of these immigrants moved out of the cities after a
generation or so. Their ethnic identity is rooted more in
religion, food, etc and not location.
These neighborhoods were then filled with ethnicities
that are most commonly found in urban areas today.
Migration Patterns
African Americans
Distribution
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Distribution of ehtnicities is explained in the same way as
other cultural factors: migrations.
These factors shape the distribution of African Americans
in the U.S.:
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Forced migration from Africa to U.S.
South to North after the Civil War
Movement from ghettos to urban neighborhoods after the civil
rights movement to the present.
Forced Migration: Slave Trade
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Between 1710 and 1810 an estimated 10 million slaves
were shipped to the western hemisphere.
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This included but was not limited to the U.S.
Most British slaves went to the Caribbean and
Portuguese went to Brazil.
Many Africans living on the west coast would use their
tools and weapons to capture people living further inland
and sell them to the Europeans.
At the height of the slave trade Europeans used the
triangular slave trade.
Forced Migration: Slave Trade
Slave Ships
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Approximately ¼ of salves
died on the trip due to the
terrible conditions.
Most were packed in so
tightly that the number of
dead wasn’t known until
they reached their
destination.
They were kept in chains
and barely fed.
Stronger and younger
villagers were often seized
first due to their high value.
Movement North
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After the Civil War and the end of slavery many African
Americans moved North.
East: Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
Central: Detroit, Cleveland
West: St. Louis, Chicago
Southwest: California, Los Angles
North American Ghetto Movement
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African Americans who
moved to cities ended up
in the same
neighborhoods as blacks
who were already there.
These neighborhoods
became known as ghettos
after the term for Jewish
neighborhoods in the
Middle Ages.
Ethnicity & Race
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Ethnicities display different cultural traditions that
originate at particular hearths.
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Asian is a race recognized by the census, Asian American is an
ethnicity.
African American and black are different groups. Not all blacks
are of African descent.
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African American infers a cultural background while black simply
refers to skin color.
Hispanic is not considered a race according to the U.S. census.
Race
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Traits that characterize race are genetic.
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Lactose Intolerance Affects:
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95% of Asian Americans
65% of African Americans
65% of Native Americans
50% of Hispanics
15% of European Americans
Most Europeans have a genetic mutation that continues to
produce lactase, enabling them to digest lactose for their
whole lives.
Usefulness of “Race” as a term
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At best: biological features very so widely as to be almost
unscientific
At worst: it is a basis for racism and the belief that one
race has superior biological characteristics.
Separate But Equal in the U.S.
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Plessy v. Ferguson
Brown v. Board of
Education
Jim Crow laws
South Africa:
Apartheid
While the U.S. was
ending segregation
laws South Africa was
creating laws.
The legal system in
S.A. was called
apartheid or
physical
separation of
geographic areas.
Classfications
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Under aparthied a newborn was 1 of 4 races.
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Black
White
Colored (mixed white and black)
Asian
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Under these classifications it was determined where you
could live, work, go to school, etc.
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This system was created by the settlers from Holland
who settled in Cape Town in 1652. These people became
known as Afrikaans, the name of their language.
Apartheid
Afrikaans Resistance
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While colonies lost power in African in the 20th century
the Afrikaans vowed not to turn the government of South
Africa over to the blacks.
Apartheid laws were to created to force blacks out of
powerful positions and allow whites to thrive
economically and politically.
This government created “homelands” for blacks where
they were expected to move and live, removing the black
population from the rest of society.
Changes
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Despite the multiple revolutionaries in South Africa,
including Nelson Mandela, apartheid wasn’t repealed until
1991.
Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years for being a member
of the African National Congress and advocating black
takeover of the government, was elected President of
South Africa in 1994.
While apartheid is over, the effects of the segregation
have been longer lasting:
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Economic disparity
Avg. income is about 10 times lower than white S.A.