Chapter 7: Ethnicity

Ethnicity: identity with a group of

people who share cultural traditions of

a homeland or hearth

Race: identity with a group of people who

share a biological ancestor

Key Issue 1: Where are

ethnicities distributed?

Hispanics: - 15% of total

population - Clustered in

Southwest - Some adopted term

Latino/Latina

African Americans: - 13% of total

population - Clustered in Southeast

- Black/African American

Asian Americans: - 4% of total population - Clustered in the West

- 1/4th are Chinese

American Indian and Alaska Natives: - 1% of total population

- Clustered in Southwest and Plains states and of course Alaska

3 main African American migration patterns:

Forced migration from Africa in 18th century

- 10 million slaves to Americas

- Less than 5% to U.S. - Triangular slave trade

Migration from South to North in early 1900’s

- From sharecroppers to factory workers

- From farms to cities

From inner-city ghettos to other urban

neighborhoods since the mid 1900’s

“separate but equal” - 1896 in Plessy v.

Ferguson

- 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of

Topeka Kansas says separate is not equal

and orders integration

- “white flight” from cities and

neighborhoods

Apartheid in South Africa

F.W. de Klerk/Nelson Mandela

Key Issue 2: Rise of Nationalities

Nationality – a country and its citizens Ethnicity – distinct ancestry and cultural

traditions Race – distinguishes people of color from whites

Nation-state: territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular

ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality

Self-determination: the concept that ethnicities have the right to

govern themselves

Nationalism: loyalty and devotion to a

nationality

Centripetal “directed toward the center”

force: an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state

Centrifugal force: “to spread out from the center”

Multiethnic state: state that contains more than one

ethnicity

Multinational state: contain two ethnic

groups with traditions of self-determination.

Example: United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern

Ireland

Russia now the largest multinational state

Turmoil in the Caucasus

Soviet Union dissolves into 15 republics

Key Issue 3: Why do ethnicities clash?

Horn of Africa

Ethiopia and Eritrea

Sudan and South Sudan

Somalia

Lebanon: religious and ethnic diversity

Kurds split among several countries fighting for a

homeland

India and Pakistan fighting over Kashmir

Sinhalese and Tamil in Sri Lanka

Ethnic cleansing is a process in which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically

homogeneous region

Key Issue 4: What is ethnic

cleansing?

Creation of Yugoslavia: Josip Tito

“ 7 neighbors, 6 republics, 5 nationalities, 4 languages, 3

religions, 2 alphabets and 1 dinar”

Destruction of Yugoslavia:

Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo

Balkanization is the process by which a state breaks down through conflicts

among its ethnicities

Ethnic cleansing in central Africa:

Tutsi and Hutu in Rwanda and Darfur regions

All photos: Sean Simons