IDENTITY: RACE, ETHNICITY,
GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
Chapter 5
What Is Identity, and How Are
Identities Constructed?
• Identity: “How we make sense of ourselves” – Rose
- constructed by us
• How identities are established
– Through experiences, emotions , connections, and
rejections
– A snapshot of who we are at a point in time
– Fluid, constantly changing, shifting, becoming
– Vary across scales, and affect each other across
scales
– Identifying against (defining the other and then
defining ourselves as “not that”)
What Is Identity, and How Are
Identities Constructed?
• Identity:
-we define ourselves at “not the other”
- the “orient” middle East and Asia : defined by
Europeans ….. mystical place
- define themselves as “not mystical” or “not
savages”
- One of the most powerful foci of identity
- The state : Nationalism
- language, religion (next chapter)
Race
- Technically we are all the same race - Human
• A categorization of humans based on skin color
and other physical characteristics
• Social and political constructions : differences in
socioeconomic classes fueled the concept of
superiority attached to race…. racism
- stories of the “mystical savage” perpetuated
the view of cultural superiority which led to
stereotypes that lead to racist beliefs
- melanin: protects skin from damaging UV rays
- Vitamin D: light skinned N Europeans, less
pigment to absorb more Vit. D
Race
- Technically we are all the same race - Human
• Major element in colonialism and imperialism
• Racial distinctions rooted in cultural history, power
relationships, and politics
• Typically imposed on people through
– Residential segregation : degree to which 2 groups live
separately
• not allowing certain groups to live in certain residential areas
– Racialized divisions of labor
– Racial categories defined by governments
• US Census Bureau & Congress
• Divided races by “white” and “non-white”
• The country is becoming increasingly “non-white”
U.S. Population by Race
2000. Census option of one or
more than one race
2050. White, non-Hispanic
population no longer the majority
Residential Segregation
The “degree to which two
or more groups live
separately from one
another, in different
parts of the urban
environment.”
– Massey and Denton
Highest rate of residential
segregation for African
Americans: Milwaukee, WI
Residential Segregation
Lowest rate of residential segregation
 For Hispanics/Latinos: Baltimore
 For Asians/Pacific Islanders: Baltimore
How Do Places Affect Identity, and How
Can We See Identities in Places?
• We have different identities @ different scales: indiv., local,
regional, national, global
• Sense of place: Infusion of places with meaning and
feeling, with memories and emotions
• Becomes part of our identity
• Effect of identity on ways we define and experience place
– Identity is fluid and intertwined not neatly “nested”
Gender
“A culture’s assumptions
about the differences
between men and
women: their
‘characters,’ the roles
they play in society,
what they represent.”
– Domosh and Seager
Gender
• Reflected in the division of labor
– Poorer countries of the world: most workers in factories are women
– Managers hire women over men b/c they see women as an expendable
labor pool
– Young women b/c they are more easily exploited, less likely to strike or
attempt to form labor unions, usually free from family responsibilities,
more adept at repetitive work
– In Asia younger women typically migrate to the cities to find
work….. Export production zones (EPZ)
• The $ earned is often sent home to support the schooling of their
brothers and younger sisters
• American Society – gendered divisions of labor
– Dominant assumption that heavy lifting work is the domain of men and that good paying jobs should go to
the head of the households (men)
- Society creates boxes in which we put people and expect them to live:
gendered division of labor – places can also be gendered (kitchen,
home, the mall)
Ethnicity
• A constructed identity
that is tied to a place
• Comes from idea that
people are closely
bounded, even related,
in a place over time
• Often result of migration
• May change in meaning
with migration
How do places affect identity, and How
Can we see identities in places?
• Constructing identities and identifying against is rooted in place
– Infusing place with meanings by attaching memories and exp. of the past
– Develop a sense of place that is fluid, changes as places and we change
• Feeling that you belong to that place (home), you feel comfortable, qualities of
place, “to be human is to have to know your place”
– The uniqueness of a place can become a part of who we are
• Ethnicity and Place
• Ethnicity – people are closely bond, even related, in a certain place
over time (ethnic: Greek, “people” or “nation”)
– Place where people share a culture and an ethnos, belongingness or
binding into group and place.
– Historically constructed like all cultural identities, implies ancient
relations among a people over time
– Greatly affected by scale and place
» Ex. – S Asians in America (often adversarial in their homelands,
India & Pakistan) in the context of the geography of the US they
often share supermarkets and leisure activities
How do places affect identity, and How
Can we see identities in places?
• Cultural groups often invoke ethnicity when race can not explain
conflicts between groups
– “Racial conflicts” are rooted in perceptions of distinctiveness based on
differences in economics, power, language, religion, lifestyle or historical
experience, so too are “ethnic conflicts”
• Conflicts where racial distinctions can’t be made are often called ethnic
– N. Ireland, Spain, Yugoslavia, Sri Lanka, Rwanda
– Ethnicity often invoked when a distinct cultural group is
clustered in one area
• Small, cohesive, culturally linked goup who stand apart from the
surrounding culture
– Scale must also be taken into consideration when examining this dynamic
phenomenon
• Mexicali
• Border region US/Mex…. Ethnic composition (largest Chinatowns
in Mex) began arriving in 1902, became prominent members of
community
Changes in Ethnic Space
• Few Chinese residents in Mexicali’s Chinatown
• Continued important place for the region’s Chinese population
How do places affect identity, and How
Can we see identities in places?
• Mexicali
– Over time the Chinese residents have dispersed to the edges of the city
and beyond
– Few Chinese continue to live in the city’s Chinatown
• Although many have moved out of the city center they have had a lasting impact on
the cultural landscape of the city
– Identity and Space
• Space: “Social relations stretched out”
• Place: “Particular articulations of those social relations as they have come together,
over time, in that particular location” - Massey and Jess
• Place making in the context of surrounding social relationships
– Social relations of place include the embedded assumptions about ethnicity,
gender, and sexuality
– Include: what groups “should” and “should not” do socially, economically,
politically, domestically
– Ex: gendered places: designed for women or men
Sexuality and Space
• Sexuality is part of humanity
– Cultures decide what is “normal” sexually (Ancient Greeks, Judeo Chist.)
– Heteronormative: Viewpoint that white, heterosexual, male is “normal”
• This is the point of view reflected in academic work and research
• Geographers studying sexuality initially focused on
• Identity clusters
– How spaces are created (what space do they created for
themselves), what impact does this have on their identities
– What problems do they have
– Other studies have focused on the role gays and
lesbians play on gentrification of city centers
- Process of wealthier people moving into , renovating and restoring
run-down housing in inner cities, shift from rental appts. to privately
owned occupancy
- Whereas prior studies saw “gay” neighborhoods being established in
opposition to the dominant culture more recent studies see gay and lesbian
neighborhoods as an extension on the norm rather than challenging it
Sexuality and Space
• Queer theory: social scientists appropriation a commonly used
negative word in society and turn it to describe a theory that is
in opposition to the heteronormative focusing on political
engagement of “queers” with the “heteronormative”
– Social scientists have mapped major cities concentrations of same-sex
households
• Higher concentrations in cities
Sexuality and Space
How does Geo. Reflect and shape Power
Relationships among Groups of People?
• Power Relationships and How People Are Counted
• The U.S. Census undercounts
– Minority populations
– The homeless
• Gross National Income (GNI) does not count
– Unpaid work of women in the household
– Work done by rural women in poorer countries
– The informal economy: Private, often homebased activities such as
– tailoring, beer brewing, food preparation
How does Geo. Reflect and shape Power
Relationships among Groups of People?
• Until 1924 – US did not recognize the right of Amer. Indians to vote (15th
amend, suffrage regardless of race 1870)
• 1920 19th amend. allows women to vote
• 1924 finally recognized the citizenship rights of Amer. Indians
• Gross National Income (GNI) does not count
– Unpaid work of women in the household
– Work done by rural women in poorer countries
– The informal economy: Private, often home-based activities such as
– tailoring, beer brewing, food preparation
– Scholars estimate that if woman's productivity in the household alone were given a
dollar value the world’s total annual GNI would grow by 1/3
Gender Empowerment Measure
How does Geo. Reflect and shape Power
Relationships among Groups of People?
• In most of Asia (50%) and Africa a majority of wage-earning women still work
in agriculture.
–
–
–
Sub-Saharan Africa – 80% of wage earning women work in agriculture
“
“ - only region of the world where women's participation in the labor force is
actually declining
Maquiladoras in N. Mexico – downturn in the global economy and mechanization led to mass
layoffs of women…. The primary workers in these factories
• Gross National Income (GNI) does not count
– Unpaid work of women in the household
– Work done by rural women in poorer countries
– The informal economy: Private, often home-based activities such as
– tailoring, beer brewing, food preparation
– Scholars estimate that if woman's productivity in the household alone were given a
dollar value the world’s total annual GNI would grow by 1/3
Women in Subsaharan Africa
• Populate much of the rural areas,
as men migrate to cities for work
• Regions become feminized zones
• Work on average 12 hours a day,
6 days per week
• Society and governments work in
conjunction to subjugate women
• Produce 70% of the region’s food
• Small percentage of women have
legal title to their land
• Banks do not lend rural women $
• Cycle of female poverty and
overwork
Dowry Deaths in India
• Murders of brides (often by burning) when a
dispute arises over a dowry
• Difficult to “legislate away” the power
relationships that lead to dowry deaths
• Female infanticide
also tied to the
disempowerment of
women
- Dowry deaths: 2006 :
7618 that were reported
Ethnic Groups in Los Angeles
• Barrioization: When
the population of a
neighborhood
changes over largely
to Hispanics.
• Changes in cultural
landscapes to
reflect changing
populations.
• Strife usually tied to
economic change