V8: Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

How Does Intersectionality Help Us Understand Power and Inequality?

Answer 1

Intersectionality is a analytical tool of understanding complexity in human experiences.

• It examines how multiple factors (race, gender, class, etc.) intersect to shape social and political life.
• It rejects binary thinking (e.g., race vs. gender) and instead focuses on how these factors interconnect.

Power & Social Divisions

• Social inequalities are not isolated but mutually influencing (e.g., racism and sexism together create unique challenges).
• Intersectionality analyzes the organization of power in society.

Relational Thinking

• Encourages a both/and approach instead of either/or thinking.
• Helps avoid simplification by acknowledging all influencing factors.

Question 2

What is Race?

Answer 2

Social Darwinism:

• Rational order in the world based on Nature

Race:

• Refers to biological and physical characteristics (pigmentation, intelligence)
• 18th and 19th century in enlightenment to find a rational explanation
• form of identity
• social construction

Essentialist view:

• Race is grounded in nature and not in culture

Question 3

What is Ethnicity?

Answer 3

• Ethnicity refers to cultural boundary formation between groups who are seen— by themselves and others — as sharing values, norms, practices, symbols, and artifacts.
• It creates communities that provide a sense of belonging.

Anti-Essentialist approach:

• Ethnic groups are not based on fixed, inherent traits.
• Formed through discourse and social practices rather than biological or primordial ties.
• Ethnicity is often seen as an alternative to race, shifting focus to culture and history.

Question 4

What is Hybridization?

Answer 4

Structural Hybridization:

• Soical or Institutional sites of hybridity (Miami, Signapore or border zones)

Cultural hybridization:

• distinguishes cultural responses
• Assimilation: One culture absorbs another (problematic).
• Separation: Cultures remain distinct.
• Blurring Boundaries: New cultural forms emerge.

Homi K. Bhabba’s hybridization:

• mixing tradition
• no culture is homogenous -> mexican american (mexican is already hybrid and american too -> hybrid and hybrid mixing)