Learning Objectives

This chapter introduces students to the concept of ethnicity. It shows how ethnic categories are only somewhat related to categories or race, nationality, or culture. Finally, it discusses how ethnic categories can be created or altered, and how conflict along ethnic lines is increasingly prevalent.

I.

You have to be able to distinguish between ethnicity and race and understand that ethnicity is not just a politically correct term for race.

II.

You need to understand the difference between ascribed and achieved statuses.

III.

You need to understand what it means that a person's status is situationally negotiated.

IV.

You should understand the difference between the terms "nation-state" and "nation." It is critical to know the roles that migration, conquest, and colonialism have played in ethnically homogenizing most nation-states and creating nationalities and imagined communities.

V.

You need to know the three different ways in which a peaceful coexistence of ethnic diversity can be achieved. You should know how these differ and the important attributes of each.

VI.

You need to know the difference between prejudice and discrimination as well as the different forms of discrimination.

VII.

You should be able to identify the problems of multiculturalism in the United States as represented by the 1992 South-Central Los Angeles riots.

VIII.

You should be able to identify the aftermaths of ethnocide, forced assimilation, and cultural colonialism.

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