1
The Difference Between Ethnicity & Race By Elizabeth Cruz Ethnicity and race. Two very closely associated terms, there’s no difference, right? Wrong. According to the Oxford Dictionary, ethnicity can be defined as “the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition” and race can be “each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics”, “a group or set of people or things with a common feature or features”, or “a population within a species that is distinct in some way, especially a subspecies”. Race has no genetic basis, there is no one characteristic, trait, or gene that separates all members of one race from another. Skin color? Is just skin color. Genes that influence skin color are not related to genes that control hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability, or intelligence. It really doesn’t matter what color your skin is because humans are actually one of the most similar species on the planet, due to the fact that we have not been around or isolated long enough to evolve into different subspecies and races. Race is even such a new term that slavery outlives race. Long before race was defined as something that highlights differences, people were enslaved as a result of war, conquest, or even debt. People were not enslaved because their enslavers believed that they were superior, but because they used them as a token of victory. But as society changed and their motives did too, the term race evolved into a term to justify discrimination against certain groups, such as enslavement, exploitative labor, and strategic immigration policies. All while the United States Census Bureau used the term ethnicity to conclude whether a person is Hispanic or Latino or Not Hispanic or Latino. However, present-day society likes to think of race and ethnicity in a different
way. Sociologically, one’s ethnicity is represented by their language, religion, values, beliefs, norms, and customs. The prefix, ethn-, relates to the Greek term ethnos, something that has originally mean “nation”, indicating that someone’s cultural and national identity serves as their ethnicity. French, Italian, Japanese, and Korean are all examples of ethnicities a person can identify as. Race is described as a group of people that share certain traits that are shown physically, ones that are biologically inherited such as skin color, hair color and texture, facial features, or height. This suggests the race is determined by the country or area that ancestry of your DNA can be traced from. Some racial categories include White, African American, Latino or Hispanic, and Asian. It is never truly agreed on what the true definitions of race and ethnicity are, and people will continue to fight over their similarities and differences for many years to come. Race is just a modern idea, after all. That brings us to critical race theory. What exactly is critical race theory? As defined by Robert Kim on heinemann.com , critical race theory is “a school of thought that explores and critiques American history, society, and institutions of power (including government and legal systems) from a race-based perspective.” It was created by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a law professor at U.C.L.A.’s School of Law as well as Columbia Law
Kimberlé Crenshaw, keynote speaker at the Women of Color Conference Photo: Karl Rabe
2
Derrick Bell, a Harvard Law School professor, walking with a group of students protesting the law school’s practice of not granting tenure to female professors Steve Liss/Time Life Pictures via Getty Images
School. She created it about 40 years ago in the 1980s after Derrick Bell left Harvard Law School, a Professor whose work explored the idea of racism as a permanent feature of American life. The school had 60 tenured law professors, one of which was female and one of which was black. The goal was to rethink institutional teachings and transform their ways. This theory introduces the idea that racism is present in everyday life, a part of every aspect. It is not a single worldview, but more a verb than a noun. A way to identity and analyze the multiple ways that race is produced, a map of change. People who believe in critical race theory reject the idea of colorblindness, recognizing that racial inequalities have endured in the United States, even with civil rights reforms. They also cause others to think about how racist hierarchies are reinforced, despite good intentions. They critique liberal ideologies and attempt to encourage research scholars to pursue the roots of why racial inequalities are able to
endure so much overtime so racism can systemically be dismantled. Critical race theory is a framework, one the United States can use to live up to its standards, and a model to use when considering problems that affect our planet. Many who don’t understand it wish for it to be banned, which tends to mostly be people who have more republican views. There are laws banning critical race theory in seven states and over fifteen that have possible bans in progress. They argue that it is “state-sanctioned racism”, a flawed argument due to the fact that it is a decades-old tactic that acknowledging racism itself is racist. Critical race theory has been being developed for decades since Professor Bell made his departure from Harvard Law School, and its purpose is to explain how racism operates in American law and culture. Whether it will someday finally succeed, is unknown. But it is only hoped for that a healthy world will one day be achieved.
3
Identity & the Importance of Intersectionality By Elizabeth Cruz Identity is a coherent sense of self that is stable across everything. Personal identity is what makes everyone unique, which can be specific biographies, role identities, unique characteristics, and public or private experiences. Social identity are the groups that you belong to, most commonly referred to as the Big 8 Identities: Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Gender, Sexual orientation, Religion, Ability, and Socioeconomic Status. Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorization, a term that helps recognize the different kinds of identities that people have and how they cross over in a person’s life. Crossovers between race, gender, sex, ability, and sexual orientation can impact one’s life, in both negative and positive ways. Another term created by
Photo from genesisshelter.org
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, intersectionality acknowledges how power imbalances are created due to the systems of discrimination. It is a lens that helps you see the roots of power and where it intersects. Many people are marginalized or treated as insignificant because of one of their identity groups which leads others to disenfranchise them and deprive them of rights or privileges. Often in institutions, the numerous parts of people’s identities are ignored. Race, religion, and economic status are the aspects that tend to be most seen, helping people to conceive views that allow them to develop prejudice and oppression. Because of the fact that people are members of multiple identity groups, these multiple identities can complicate or ease the experience of discrimination. It influences the impact that oppression and privilege have on each other and on members of society, oppression being unfair treatment towards a certain person or group of people and privilege being a special advantage someone attains due to their identity. When stereotypes of these identities intersect, they build prejudice that enforces stronger discrimination. Intersectionality is important because it acknowledges the discrimination against people who belong to more oppressed minority groups. It serves to name the problem that no one has a name for because when you have no name for a problem, you can’t see it, and when you can’t see a problem, you can’t solve it. Many issues are intersectional due to fact that you can’t belong to just one group and intersectionality provides a view to more carefully consider the situations of others. One of the biggest examples of power due to intersectionality is Straight, White, Wealthy, Cisgendered Men. Many of these groups individually carry a lot of privilege within society and when these identities are crossed over they help these groups remain dominant and in power.
4
The Three A’s By Elizabeth Cruz What exactly are the three A’s? The three A’s are as follows: Acculturation, Assimilation, and Appropriation. They are the three main ways in which cultures are celebrated, whether they are respectful or disrespectful. Acculturation is the process of change that stems from blending culture, it could be music, language, customs, etc. Think of a salad. Acculturation is just like that, many different things mixed into one that remain separate but make each other better. Acculturation encourages others to celebrate their differences, don’t conform to others, and balance cultures. Next is assimilation, the complete opposite of acculturation. Assimilation is the process by which a dominant culture affects a minority individual group. Take a melting pot. You can put in as many things as you want and in the end, you’ll have one final result- a mixture of everything mainly dominated by one ingredient. Assimilation pressures people to fit in and succumb to the ideas and cultures of others. It causes loss of culture and customs, oppressing one’s identity because the dominant group said so. One of American history’s biggest examples of assimilation is in the late 1800s when the U.S. government removed Native American tribes from their homes for their land. They forced indigenous children to attend boarding schools that taught them to abandon their cultures and adopt American beliefs and values. They were separated from their families and dressed to wear American-style clothes with American-style hairstyles. Tribal languages were prohibited and native religions were given up for Christianity. Their tribal culture was oppressed and they were forced to become people who would be acceptable in American society. Lastly, there’s appropriation. Appropriation is when a member of the dominant culture adapts
aspects of a culture that is not their own. Appropriation allows members of groups to select certain aspects of another culture and ignore the true value of it to use it for their own personal interest. For example, if someone who is not muslim wears a hijab, a scarf wrapped around a women’s head to cover her hair, just because she thinks that it’s pretty without appreciating and acknowledging its purpose then that is appropriation. Instead of participating in cultural appropriation, work towards participating in cultural appreciation. Although they may sound similar, they could not contrast more. Cultural appreciation allows people to honor and respect other’s cultures and practices, something that can help broaden one’s perspective. It spreads awareness and helps achieve harmony between cultures. Here’s how you can avoid cultural appropriation, adapted from greenheart.org Before you use a symbol or sign that is not from your own culture, take some quick steps to check that you are able to appreciate its culture and significance. 1. Is this symbol or object from a culture that is not yours? 2. Do you understand the meaning of this object? 3. Are you using this object appropriately? Make sure that you are able to answer yes to all three of these questions before you use or wear objects or symbols from other cultures.
Photo from travelbytreaty.wordpress.com