Members of ethnic groups share certain beliefs, values, customs,
and norms because of their common background.
Ethnic groups may define themselves as different because of language,
religion, historical experience, geographic isolation, kinship, or
"race."
Markers of an ethnic group may include a collective name, belief
in common descent, a sense of solidarity, and as association with
a specific territory which the group may or may not hold.
Ethnicity means identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic
group and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation.
Status encompasses the various positions that people in society.
All people occupy multiple statuses, with particular ones dominating
in particular settings.
Ascribed statuses are those that people have little or no choice
about occupying (e.g., age, "race," gender).
Achieved statuses—those that people acquire through their
own choices, actions, efforts, talents, or accomplishments—may
be positive or negative.
Status Shifting
Some statuses, particularly ascribed ones, are mutually exclusive,
while others are contextual.
Adjusting or switching one's status in different social contexts
is called the situational negotiation of social identity.
In many societies ascribed statuses are associated with positions
in the social-political hierarchy.
So-called minority groups have less power and less secure
access to resources than do majority groups.
Ethnic groups often are minorities.
When an ethnic group is assumed to have a biological basis, it
is called a race.
Discrimination against a race is called racism.
Race
Race, like ethnicity, is a cultural category rather than a biological
reality.
Ethnic groups, including "races," derive from contrasts perceived
and perpetuated in particular societies, rather than from scientific
classifications based on common genes.
Only cultural constructions of race are possible, even though
the average person conceptualizes "race" in biological terms.
Most Americans fail to distinguish between ethnicity and race.
Given the lack of a precise distinction between race and ethnicity,
it is probably better to use the term "ethnic group" instead of "race"
to describe any such social group.
Social Race
Charles Wagley defined social races as groups assumed to have a biological
basis but actually defined in a culturally arbitrary, rather than scientific,
manner.
Hypodescent: Race in the United States
In the United States, race is most commonly ascribed to people
at birth, although not necessarily on the basis of heredity or genotype.
Rules of descent assign social identity on the basis of ancestry.
In the United States, children of a union between members of
different groups are automatically placed in the minority group; this
rule of descent, known as hypodescent, is rare outside of the contemporary
United States.
In the United States, there is a growing number of interracial,
biracial, or multiracial individuals who do not identify only with
one racial identity.
Not Us: Race in Japan
Despite the presence of a substantial (10%) minority population,
the dominant racial ideology in Japan portrays the country as racially
and ethnically homogeneous.
The (majority) Japanese define themselves by opposition to others,
whether minority groups in their own nation or outsiders—anyone
who is "not us."
Japanese culture regards certain ethnic groups, such as the burakumin,
as having a biological basis even when there is no evidence that they
do.
Burakumin are descendants of a historically low-status social
class.
Despite the fact that burakumin are physically and genetically
indistinguishable from the dominant population, they are stigmatized
as a separate, inferior race.
Phenotype and Fluidity: Race in Brazil
Compared to the United States and Japan, Brazil (as well as the
rest of Latin America) has less exclusionary categories which permit
individuals to change their racial classification.
Brazilian racial classification recognizes and attempts to describe
the physical (phenotypical) variation that exists in the population.
More than 500 distinct racial labels have been reported.
In Brazil, racial classification is flexible; individuals'
racial labels may change along with their phenotypical characteristics
because of environmental factors.
The racial labels that people use to describe themselves
or others can vary from day to day.
Although Brazil and the United States both have histories of
slavery and "racial" mixing, no hypodescent rule ever developed in
Brazil to ensure that whites and blacks (and other "races") remained
separate.
Ethnic Groups, Nations, and Nationalities
Nation and nation-state now refer to an autonomous, centrally organized
political entity.
Because of migration, conquest, and colonialism, most nation-states
are not ethnically homogeneous.
Nationalities and Imagined Communities
Nationalities are ethnic groups that once had, or wish to have
or regain, autonomous political status (their own country).
Nationalities are "imagined communities" (a term coined by Benedict
Anderson) since most of their members, though they feel comradeship,
will never meet.
In the 18th century, language and printed media (e.g., novels,
newspapers) played a crucial role in the growth of European "imagined
communities."
Political upheavals, wars, and migration have divided many imagined
national communities (e.g., Germany, Korea, the Kurds).
While colonialism often erected boundaries that corresponded
poorly with preexisting cultural divisions, it also helped create
new "imagined communities" beyond nations (e.g., the idea of négritude
in West Africa).
Ethnic Tolerance and Accommodation
Assimilation
Assimilation occurs when a minority group adopts the patterns
and norms of a dominant host culture to such an extent that it no
longer exists as a separate cultural unit.
Assimilation may be forced depending on historical circumstances.
The Plural Society
Interethnic contact does not inevitably lead to assimilation.
Fredrik Barth defines plural society as a society combining ethnic
contrasts, ecological specialization (i.e., use of different environmental
resources by each ethnic group), and the economic interdependence
of those groups.
According to Barth, ethnic boundaries are most stable and enduring
when groups occupy different ecological niches, do not compete, depend
on each other's activities, and exchange with one another.
Multiculturalism and Ethnic Identity
Multiculturalism is the view of cultural diversity in a country
as something good and desirable.
This view is opposed to assimilationism, which expects minorities
to abandon their cultural traditions and values, replacing them with
those of the majority population.
Basic aspects of multiculturalism at the government level are
the official espousal of some degree of cultural relativism along
with the promotion of distinct ethnic practices.
A number of factors have led the United States to move away from
the assimilationist model and toward multiculturalism.
Large-scale migration—driven by globalization as well
as population growth and lack of economic opportunity in "less
developed" countries—is introducing unparalleled ethnic
variety to host nations, particularly the "developed" countries
of North America and Europe.
Ethnic identities are used increasingly to form self-help
organizations focused on enhancing groups' economic and political
competitiveness and combating discrimination.
Roots of Ethnic Conflict
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice is the devaluation of a group because of its assumed
behavior, values, capabilities, or attributes.
People are prejudiced when they hold stereotypes (fixed, often
unfavorable ideas about what the members of a group are like) about
groups and apply them to individuals.
Discrimination refers to policies and practices that harm a group
and its members.
De facto discrimination is practiced but not legally sanctioned.
De jure discrimination is part of the law.
Chips in the Mosaic
In the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King verdict,
much of the violence played out along ethnic lines: African Americans
attacked whites, Koreans, and Latinos, and Korean- and Latino-owned
businesses were looted and destroyed.
This violence expressed frustration by African Americans about
their prospects in an increasingly multicultural society.
The attitudes expressed by some African Americans following the
riots suggest a shortcoming in the multicultural perspective: Ethnic
groups (in this case African Americans) expect other ethnic groups
in the same nation-state (e.g., Korean Americans) to assimilate to
some extent to a shared national culture.
Aftermaths of Oppression
A dominant group may try to destroy the cultures of certain ethnic
groups (ethnocide) or force them to adopt the dominant culture (forced
assimilation).
Ethnic expulsion aims at removing groups that are culturally
different from a country.
Expulsion may create refugees, or people who have been forced
(involuntary refugees) or who have chosen (voluntary refugees) to
flee a country, to escape persecution or war.
Colonialism refers to the political, social, economic, and cultural
domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an
extended time.
Because the frontiers imposed by colonialism usually did
not reflect preexisting cultural units, colonial nation-building
frequently resulted in ethnic strife.
Cultural colonialism refers to internal domination—by
one group and its culture/ideology over others (e.g., the domination
over the former Soviet empire by Russian people, language, and
culture, and by communist ideology).
Box: The Basques
Under the Franco dictatorship (1936-1975), the Basques were executed,
imprisoned, and exiled, and Basque culture was systematically repressed.
In the late 1950s disaffected Basque youths founded ETA, an organization
that still exists and whose goal is complete Basque independence from
Spain.
In the past few decades, the Basques have gained greater political
autonomy, and the Basque language has experienced a resurgence.
Some 50,000 Basques now live in the United States, where many work
as sheep herders.
Basque Americans have suffered from some discrimination.
