PGE - Ethnicity Within and Across Boundaries Lesson

Ethnicity Within and Across Boundaries

Ethnicity

  • Ethnicity is identification based on common traits and a common hearth
    • Many times this is tied to a common hearth, but if this is the specific indicator, then it is nationality
  • Race is identification based on common physical characteristics and a biological ancestor
    • Racism is believing a group is inferior
  • Conflicts between races/ethnicities have led to ethnic cleaning and genocide
    • Ethnic cleansing is an attempt to solidify the homogeneousness and power of your own group
    • Genocide is the attempt to kill off an entire group (race or ethnicity)
  • Ethnocentrism can also play a role, when one group is confident of their own superiority to other ethnic group

Ethnic Distribution in the United States

  • The US census includes five races (White, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander)
    • The only ethnicity referred to on the US Census is Hispanic
      • Hispanic is the largest ethnic group in the US, followed by African-American

African-American Migration

    • Millions of Africans were forced to the New World via the Triangular Trade (slavery)
      • Most slaves in the US were sent to the southeastern states
    • Following the Civil War and the enactment of the 13th Amendment, many African-Americans hoped to live peacefully in the South
      • After years of Jim Crow laws and rulings such as Plessy vs. Ferguson ("separate but equal") many African-American citizens migrated to Northern cities into areas of shared ethnicity and low socio-economic status (ghettos)
    • Upon arrival in the North, many African-Americans faced ongoing discrimination and attempted to leave ghettos, only to encounter "white flight" in the surrounding neighborhoods
    • In the last fifty years there has been an increase in African Americans moving to the South for the lower cost of living and improved economic opportunities
  • As migration continued from all over the world (the regions of Europe, Asia and Latin America) ethnic enclaves continued to form in urban areas
    • In the United States the percentage of Hispanic, African-American and Asian population is higher in all urban areas compared to the rest of the US
      • When people stay with other similar people/groups, this will form ethnic neighborhoods (ethnic enclaves) within urban areas
  • America is not the only nation with a history of segregation
  • South Africa upheld the policy of apartheid (political, economic and social discrimination of black South Africans) until 1991

State vs. Nation

Map of Triangular Trade

Triangular Trade Map

Triangle Trade Map description Links to an external site.

  • State is a political boundary (i.e. a country)
  • Nation is identity with the culture of and legal attachment to the place
    • Nation-state is formed when the territory and ethnicity match up
      • There are not any "perfect" nation-states left in the world - locations such as Japan and Iceland have a large majority of a single ethnic group
    • Nationalism is the loyalty to one's country
    • There are stateless nations in the world (groups that do not have their own sovereign state)
      • Kurds in Iraq and Iran
      • Basque in France and Spain
      • Zulu in South Africa
    • Self-determinism is the right of a country or ethnicity to determine their own political status – it is necessary to have sovereignty in order to have self-determinism
    • Separatist movements occur when an ethnic group moves for their own state
  • Issues within a country can either bring people together (centripetal forces) or pull them apart (centrifugal forces)
    • Centripetal forces include nationalism, a shared religion, a strong military, strong economy
    • Centrifugal forces include multi-nationalism, physical landforms, multiple religions

Multi-ethnic (or multi-national)

  • Multi-ethnic (or multi-national) - states have groups that see themselves as different from each other, but all live within one country
    • These can be successful (Canada, UK, US) or can lead to open conflicts
      • Domestically and internationally there have been numerous conflicts based on ethnicity
        • Yugoslavia
        • Rwanda
        • Sudan
        • Somalia
        • South Asia (India-Pakistan-Bangladesh)
        • Sri Lanka
        • Lebanon
        • India
        • Congo
  • When a group of people are different from those that they are surrounded by, they are known as an enclave (i.e. Kurds in Iraq)
  • If the group is separated from another location where there is a large population of their ethnicity, it is known as an exclave (i.e. large Muslim population in Dearborn, MI)

Centripetal vs. Centrifugal Forces Matching

Issues within a country can either bring people together (centripetal forces) or pull them apart (centrifugal forces). Choose the correct type of force for each question.

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