3. Race & Ethnicity Flashcards
Biological race does not exist but what does?
Perception f race and discrimination based on perceived differences.
Prejudice?
An opinion that is not based on facts, with an unfavorable bias towards something or someone
Discrimination?
Negative treatment of someone based on prejudices.
Systemic race?
Widespread and deeply rooted discrimination that exists on all levels of society to oppress certain people and privilege others
Phenotype?
Human variations that we can see in a person’s physical body
Melanocytes?
The pigment produced by human skin cell
Cosmologies?
Cultural models, learned, shared, and communicated symbolically, adaptive and changing.
Three reasons why biological race doesn’t exist?
- Humans share 99% of their DNA, which is not enough to classify us into different species
- Human variations lie in a continuum and can’t be sorted into groups.
- Most human variation is human variation.
Genetic distance?
A measure of mutations between populations: the less breeding among populations, the greater genetic distance between them.
FST of fixation index?
A measure of population differentiation.
Attributing physical talent to genetics?
Talent is individual, but the cultural environment can be more or less supportive.
Attributing occupation to genetics?
The immigration process leads to communities of people that come together due to available opportunities and personal networks.
What are some ethnic relations reasons for poor mental health?
- Discrimination
- Educational
- Geographic
- Economical barriers
- Generational trauma (residential schools) -> PTSD can permanently alter one’s expression to then be passed on
(Children of Holocaust survivors are more likely to develop PTSD due to lower cortisol reasons to stress)
Epigenetics?
The study of inherited changes in gene expression without changes to the DNA itself.
Ethnic cleansing / genocide?
Death of an entire ethnic group.
Food sovereignty?
When a group controls its own self-sufficient, local food system.
What is the link between ancestral foods and predisposition to disease?
- Eating one’s ancestral foods can reverse the deterioration of health from disease.
- Also improve general well-being with a deepened connection to one’s community and traditions.
Nutrition transition?
The shift to a Western diet and its associated health problems like obesity.
What did Carolus Linnaeus do? + Taxonomy
Early thinking about race.
T: Human classification 6 “variations”.
Biased observations, skewed towards Europeans.
Christopher Columbus 1492?
Early thinking about race
Religious mission
Political power and economic resources
Horrible consequences brought disease and genocide.
Captain James Cook 1778?
Science, politics and economics
Mapped the world
Colonies, genocide
The arrival of invasive species, rats etc.
Johann Blumenbach?
Five division classification of humans, manly based on skin color.
Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American and Malay
Became a base for pseudo-science of race biology
Eugenics?
Pseudo-scientific plan to purify the human race ( World War 2)
Racialization?
Assigning biological race to a culture or ethnic identity where it did not exist before
Blood quantum?
The fraction of “Indian blood” a person has, measured by tribal documents demonstrating the membership of relatives.
Why can DNA tests be misleading?
Limited accuracy
Cultural identity is based on being a part of a particular community, and not genetics!
Define ethnicity?
- Classifying based on common history, culture, language, social ties and symbolic shared identities.
- Created by historical processes
- Is fluid and flexible
- Is not based on biology
Why can’t we classify ethnicity?
Ethnic labels are random and too general to be meaningful
How can ethnicity be used for political resistance?
- Protests and organized movements
- Force for individual agency and collective actions (Black Lives Matter)
Cultural appropriation?
When members of a dominant group use designs, artifacts behaviors or ideas taken directly from a group that has been historically oppressed.
Native appropriation?
Those items that originate with a self-identified Indigenous group
White privilege?
The unearned power that society gives people with fair skin over those with darker skin -> ethnic privilege
Identity politics?
Focusing on one’s identity and validating one’s sense of belonging to a particular group with a particular identity.
Occularcentrism?
Visual, look first when making judgment. Western culture does this
Ethnocentrism & Eurocentrism?
Your own culture is superior
Europes culture in the center of the world.
