Lecture Racism & Ethnicity Flashcards
Can POC be racist?
people who say yes are usually talking about holding prejudice attitudes
Yes they can commit racist acts on some levels
On the institutional level NO they can not be racists
What is the definition of racism?
No agreement
- an ideology?
- a feeling?
- a set of social arrangements?
Common idea: Includes prejudice + power
“Racism”, in this class, means:
Attitudes (prejudice)
Behaviors (discrimination by individuals)
Institutions & social systems
[always define what you mean in conversation when talking about racism]
What is systemic racism?
combination of systems/institutions/factors that advantage white people and cause harm to people of color
it is
- grounded in the history of our laws and institutions which were created on a foundation of white supremacy
- exists in the institutions and polices that advantage white people and disadvantage people of color
- takes place in interpersonal communication and behavior (e.g. slurs, bullying, offensive language) that maintains and supports systemic inequalities and systemic racism
what are the two different approaches to defining ethnicity?
objective: ancestry/descent, culture, shared historical memory (“we are the people who went through..”)
subjective: “ethnic options” are not objective, how much culture do you have to share, what if your language/culture was stolen and your ancestors assimilated
What are “ethnic options”?
widely something that white people have, they can choose to associate or be called “irish” vs. “german” vs. “scandinavian” etc.
for people of color their ethnicity is often seen in terms of their race
Race vs. Ethnicity
racial identity: imposed from outside
ethnic identity: typically self generated
What is confusing about defining ethnicity?
If we go back far enough we are all related. How much we are related to an ethnicity is largely a choice
a lot of the groups we define today were not actually groups in the past - for instance italy was not actually a country for a long time and was made up of many different groups so “italian” is not a group that was created until recently
what is code switching
dialect differences in setting
example black people may use different type of language at home vs school
what is the complicated part of including culture in the definition of ethnicity?
shared ways of doing things
this could be academics, work, 12 step meetings etc.
What is a combined approach to ethnicity?
- kinship, but not necessarily literal
- common history/collective memory
- cultural distinctiveness…but may be symbolic
- self - consciousness as people
are race AND ethnicity socially constructed?
yes both are, humans have always moved and mated
What is the WI Thomas quote?
“if men define a situation as real, it is real in its consequences.”
