Chapter 7: Ethnicity
Ethnicity
• Key Issues
1. Where are ethnicities
distributed?
2. Why have ethnicities been
transformed into
nationalities?
3. Why do ethnicities clash?
4. What is ethnic cleansing?
Issue 1: Distribution of Ethnicities
• Ethnicities in the United States
• Clustering of ethnicities
• African American migration patterns
• Differentiating ethnicity and race
• Race in the United States
• Division by race in South Africa
Ethnicity
Ethnicity: identification with a group of people
who share the cultural traditions of a particular
homeland or hearth.
Race: identification with a group of people who
share a biological ancestor.
Ethnicity is different from Race
The Study of Ethnicity
• Ethnicity is an important cultural
element of local diversity because our
ethnic identity is unchangeable.
• No ethnicity is attempting or even
aspiring to achieve global dominance.
• Ethnicity is not subjected to the tension
between local diversity and
globalization
Distribution of Ethnicities in the United
States
• Clustering of ethnicities can
occur at two scales:
• regions of the country
• particular neighborhoods
within cities.
• The two most numerous
ethnicities in the United States
are:
• Hispanics or Latinos, about 15%
• African-Americans, about 13%
Clustering of Ethnicities
• Clustering of ethnicities can occur at two scales:
particular regions of the country and particular
neighborhoods within cities.
• African-Americans are clustered in the Southeast
• Hispanics in the Southwest
• Asian-Americans in the West
• American Indians in the Southwest and Plains states.
African Americans in the U.S.
Hispanic Americans in the U.S.
Asian Americans in the U.S.
Native Americans in the U.S.
Concentration of Ethnicities in
Urban Cities
• African Americans and Hispanics are highly clustered in
urban areas.
• About 90% of these ethnicities live in urban areas
• Concentrations of ethnicities in urban cities is
disproportionate to the remaining state population:
Detroit: African Americans comprise 85% of city
population and only 7% total population
of Michigan.
Concentration of Ethnicities in
Urban Cities
• Similar disproportions
exist in Chicago, New
York City, and Los
Angeles.
• In highly populated
Hispanic states the
imbalance is not as
significant as in
Detroit.
African-American Migration Patterns
• Three major migration flows have shaped (AfricanAmerican) distribution within the United States:
1. Forced migration from Africa in the 18th century
2. Immigration to northern cities during the first half
of the twentieth century
3. Immigration from inner-city ghettos to other
urban neighborhoods in the second half of the
twentieth century.
Triangular Slave Trade
Catalyst for African-American
Migration Northwards
• Slavery abolished, but former slaves still have to
work for former slave owners (sharecropping)
• Sharecropping dies out due to mechanization
and decline in cotton prices
• African Americans were drawn to the Industrial
cities of the north for jobs
Differentiating Ethnicity and
Race
• Race has become less important as it is just a
generalization of all people of a similar biological
classification
• Asian is considered a race, but is also an ethnicity
• Hispanic and Latino are NOT considered Race: those
individuals must choose a race to identify with.
• Race can lead to broad discrimination, as it implies that
all people of race are share similar traits and capacities
Race in the United States
• “Separate but Equal” Doctrines:
Supreme Court Decisions on Segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson: Segregation is legal.
Brown v. Board of Education: Segregation
illegal.
Race in the United States
• Brown v. Board of Education results in
immediate desegregation of schools.
• Rather than integrate, white Americans fled
mixed neighborhoods: known as “White Flight”
• White Flight: the emigration of white
Americans from an area in anticipation of African
Americans moving in.
Division by Race in South Africa
• Discrimination by race reached
its peak in the late twentieth
century in South Africa
1948-1994.
• Apartheid was the physical
separation of different races into
different geographic areas.
Black “Homelands” in South Africa
During the apartheid era, South Africa created a series of black “homelands” with the
expectation that every black would be a citizen of one of them. These
were abolished with the end of apartheid.
End of Apartheid System
• In 1991, the white dominated
government of South Africa
repealed the Apartheid system
• They legalized the African
National Congress
• And released political prisoner
Nelson Mandela from jail after
27 years.
Chapter 7 Ethnicity
Key Issue 2
Why have ethnicities been transformed into
nationalities?
Issue 2: Ethnicities into Nationalities
• Rise of nationalities
• Nation-states
• Nationalism
• Multinational states
• Former Soviet Union
• Russia
• Turmoil in the Caucasus
• Revival of ethnic identity
• Ethnicity and communism
• Rebirth of nationalism in Eastern Europe
Rise of Nationalities
How are nationality, ethnicity, and race different?
Example: United States
• Nationality: identifies citizens of the US both
those born here and those who migrated here.
• Ethnicity: identifies groups with distinct cultural
traditions.
• Race: distinguishes individuals as person of color
from white.
The rise of Nation-States
• Nation-State: a state who’s boundaries correspond
with the boundaries of a specific ethnic group.
This occurs because…..
Self Determination: the belief that ethnic
groups have the right to govern themselves.
Nation- States exist because ethnic groups want to be
able to govern themselves.
Example of Nation State
Denmark:
• Almost all the people
who claim a Danish
heritage live in Denmark.
• This means…..the
territory occupied by the
Danish people
represents the political
territory of Denmark.
Nationalism
• Nationalism: is loyalty and devotion to a nationality.
• Typically promotes national pride or place one
nation above other nations.
• Nationalism acts as a centripetal force: an attitude
that unifies the people and enhance support for the
state. (centripetal being pushing towards the center)