Race & Ethnicity

Intercultural LiteratureC. Valverde

Racism: Introduction

Castaneda & Zuniga Race as a socio-political construct History of Racism: A Brief Snapshot Racial Identities, Racial Hierarchies, and White

Supremacy Contemporary and Intersecting Manifestations of

Racism and White Supremacy

Racial Identities, Racial Hierarchies, and White Supremacy

Historically, White supremacy has divided racialized groups into artificial hierarchies.

Social diversity is defined in binaries which rationalizes inequality: racism.

Examples: the one drop rule, Jim Crow laws, “blood quantum” rule.

Result: preserved slavery, maintained segregation, decreased claims on land and property, perpetuated “a system of advantages benefiting white wealth and ownership.”

Obama: despite being of mixed background, he is considered mainly Black and White. The invisibility of his mixed background illustrates society's social construction of race as a binary.

Contemporary and Intersecting Manifestations of Racism and White

Supremacy Despite the many efforts of the US to eliminate racial

structures that promote racial hierarchies, racial practices continue today.

Legacies of racism can still be seen today through continuing economic, political, and social disparities (i.e., wealth and income gap, employment disparities, achievement gap, restrictive voting practices, access to healthcare, criminal justice system, etc.)

Some intersecting identities produce unique oppressive social locations (i.e., racism, sexism, and classism create huge health disparities for women and their children; racism combined with religious oppression suppress cultural expressions of indigenous groups' religious beliefs and practices, etc.)

Racism and nativism continues the criminalization of immigrants.

Use of incarceration: border communities with immigrants; Arab Americans following 9-11 attacks; immigrant raids in rural and urban centers; racial and religious profiling of African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern people; etc.

Racism can be encountered simultaneously in multiple ways by belonging to multiple social identities: gender, class, national origin, religion, etc., affecting different people in different ways.

* Social location is not just identifying with social categories, but understanding how these categories contain unique forms of oppression.

Defining Racism: “Can We Talk?”

Beverly Daniel Tatum Racism: A System of Advantage Based

on Race Racism: For Whites Only? Cost of Racism

Tatum cont.

Many communities throughout the US continue to be segregated. Most information learned about people of diverse backgrounds is learned as second-hand information; not through direct contact.

The secondhand information we receive about “others” is often distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, and left incomplete.

We make assumptions of people that may go unchallenged for a long time...

Omitted information about people (i.e., Black authors) can lead to unwarranted conclusions (i.e., “Blacks don't write books.”).

Tatum cont.

Prejudice is produced through misinformation about others.

Cultural Racism: the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of Whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color.

The bombardment of stereotypical images in the media, jokes, and the lack of knowledge of the accomplishments of oppressed groups leads to negative categorizations: prejudice.

People of color as well as Whites develop these categorizations: oppression.

Tatum cont.

We must all take responsibility. We must change our behavior.

Am I perpetuating and reinforcing the negative messages so pervasive in our culture, or am I seeking to challenge them?

If I have not been exposed to positive images of marginalized groups, am I seeking them out, expanding my knowledge base for myself and my children?

Am I acknowledging and examining my own prejudices, my own rigid categorizations of others, thereby minimizing the adverse impact they might have on my interactions with those I have categorized?

Tatum cont.

Racism: A System of Advantage Based on Race

Racism and prejudice are not interchangeable

Racism is a system of advantage based on race; prejudicial thinking does not have to be present for this system to occur.

White privilege: major and minor advantages of Whites (i.e., employment opportunities, access to housing, racial profiling, criminal justice, etc.).

Racism is antithetical to traditional notions of an American meritocracy.

Tatum cont.

Racism: For Whites Only?

Not all Whites benefit from racism.

The intersection of other factors (i.e., socio-economic status, gender, age, religious affiliation, sexuality, , mental and physical ability, etc.) also interfere with access to social influence and power.

A White woman on welfare is not privileged to the same extent as a wealthy White heterosexual man.

Not all people of color are equally targeted by racism.

One can be systematically disadvantaged by belonging to one category and systematically advantaged by belonging to another.

Our lives can be affected by multiple -isms

Tatum cont.

Cost of Racism The American economy is hindered by institutional

racism.

Examples: Productivity lowered by racial tensions at the workplace, real estate equity lost through housing discrimination, tax revenue lost in underemployed communities of color, high cost of incarceration, loss of talent in under-performing racially segregated schools, etc.

A Different Mirror

Ronald Takaki The social construction of

“Americanness” is defined as “white” How should we be defined?

Takaki cont.

African Americans – the central minority throughout American history;

Endured the transformation of Africans into slaves; system of black labor was instituted; the consequences of such a system continue today.

Flip: Cutting edge of the civil rights movement; their struggle is a constant reminder of America's moral vision and commitment to liberty; America's destiny.

Takaki cont.

Asian Americans In the US for over 150 years but stereotyped as

the perpetual foreigner; “strangers,” exotic; CEA 1882 led to future restrictions against Italians, Russians, Poles, and Greeks; Japanese Internment.

Flip: fastest growing ethnic group today; immigrant group with the highest educational achievement

Takaki cont. Chicanos (Mexican Americans) Largest sub group within Latinos; Chicanos

ancestry is rooted in the southwest US; the US is their native land; found themselves as foreigners after the war against Mexico; most have immigrant roots from Mexico; many share the trek to “el norte;” proximity has reinforced their language, identity, and culture; LA has more Mexicans than any other city in the world, except Mexico City; mestizo people of Indian, African, and Spanish ancestries.

Flip: their presence has visibly transformed culture and American society; projected to outnumber African Americans.

Takaki cont.

Irish The second largest immigrant wave in US

history; tied to America's past since the beginning; Irish fled English persecution, seen as “savages;” the US represented a safe haven; benefited from the Naturalization Law of 1790 (Whites only); pioneers of the American ghetto; assimilated easier into American society (White privilege??); promoted Irish solidarity to gain political power.

Flip: dominated the skilled blue-collar occupations; represent the labor force that initially built America's first metropolitan centers.

Takai cont.Jews Fled religious persecution from Russia (early

1900's); America represented the “promised land;” adopted the African American agenda for civil rights and liberty; 2/3 of white volunteers at 1964 Freedom Summer were Jewish; victims of continued prejudice; most immigrant Jews arrived as literate and skilled (initial advantage).

Flip: Jews are considered a highly successful ethnic group; huge socio-economic strides in the US; quickly lifted themselves from poverty into mainstream society.

Takaki cont. Native Americans (Indians) Do not share the immigrant experience; removed from

their native land; killed; their perspective is “how the West was lost;” given “reservations” as treaties for lost land; most go through assimilation and acculturation.

Flip: most native languages are extinct or disappearing; only 10 individuals still speak Karok language of California; 50-85 % of Native Americans are unemployed; lowest life expectancy compared with other ethnic groups in US; highest rates of diabetes, TBC and alcoholism, connected to cirrhosis, deadly accidents, suicide and crime.

Takaki cont.Connectedness Through a multicultural lens, we can

comparatively analyze their experiences in order to develop an understanding of their differences and similarities.

Many shared contexts in American history: labor revolts, political movements, shared labor market; farm workers; etc.

We share a common past; we are a society “unique” in the world because “the world is here” - a place “where the cultures of the world crisscross.”

We must always be dedicated at affirming the struggle for equality.