Race & Identity

1. Race & Identity

3. Race –a categorization of humans based on skin color and other physical characteristics. Racial categories are social and political constructions because they are based on ideas that some biological differences are more important than others.

4. On Racism and Colonialism - “Colonial racism was a major element in that conception of ‘Empire’ which attempted to weld dynastic legitimacy and national community. It did so by generalizing a principle of innate, inherited superiority on which its own domestic position was (however shakily) based on the vastness of overseas possessions, covertly (or not so covertly) conveying the idea that if, say, English lords were naturally superior to other Englishmen, no matter: these other Englishmen were no less superior to the subjected natives.” - Benedict Anderson

5. Acculturation • Acculturation is the psychological and social counter-part of cultural diffusion. • Originally "acculturation" referred to the colonial racist idea that so-called "savages" and "lower peoples" experience mental evolution when they imitate so-called "civilized" or "higher peoples“.

6. The White Man’s Burden

7. Racial Categories are typically imposed on people through: • Residential segregation • Racialized divisions of labor • Racial categories defined by governments

8. African-American Population

10. Population in the U.S. by Race, 2000In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau allowed Americans to categorize themselves as one race or more than one race.

11. Estimated Percentage of U.S. Population by Race and Ethnicity until 2050 In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau calculated race and Hispanic origin separately. Estimates are that by 2050, the “White, non-Hispanic population will no longer be the majority.

12. African-Americans • Forced migration from Africa • 1619-1863: over 10 million Africans • Source of labor for plantations • Triangle trade

13. African-Americans: Great Migration • Push of poverty, cotton mechanization, segregation • Pull of jobs, tolerance • 1910s-1920s; 1940s-1950s • Followed main transportation routes • Maintained strong connections to home

14. New Africans in America • Black ≠ African-American • Recent migrants from Africa, Caribbean • Tension between two groups • But seen as same by whites

16. Race in the Census • Asian = race • Multiple ethnicities within one race • African-American, black = race • Only one category • Hispanic = ethnicity • Multiple ethnicities, one race

17. 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

18. Highest Rate of Residential Segregation for African Americans: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

19. Lowest Rate of Residential Segregation for Hispanics/Latinos: Baltimore for Asians/Pacific Islanders: Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland

20. Identities in Neighborhoods change over time: Invasion and Succession: new immigrants to a city often move to areas occupied by older immigrant groups.

21. Recall the last time you were asked to check a box for your “race.” Does that box factor into how you make sense of yourself, locally, regionally, nationally, and globally?

22. MIXED-RACE IDENTITIES Racial “boundaries” are difficult or impossible to establish Mestizo: Spanish and Indian Métis: French and Indian Mulatto: Portuguese and African “Coloured”: Dutch and (South) African