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Download ANT 2410 Fall 2015 RACE
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RACE: THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION Recap: Social Construction of Race Race = arbitrary category used to designate an ethnic group that is identified by common phenotypical features (skin color, hair facial features) Biological human “races” do NOT exist. Racial classifications are based on phenotypes, not genotypes, and are therefore NOT scientifically valid. Ethnic group is a more inclusive term than race Racism = discrimination based on one’s assumed race The Social Construction of Race Hypodescent rule – children of a union between members of different groups are automatically placed in the minority group Hypodescent has been used throughout US history to discriminate against people with any African-American heritage. State laws banning ‘racial mixing’ Nazi Germany (1935-1945) US (anti-miscegenation laws until 1967) South Africa (apartheid system until 1985) Growth of interracial/biracial/multiracial categories Genotype and phenotype Genotype: the genetic makeup of an individual. Phenotype: the observable characteristics of an individual. Genotype ≠ Phenotype Do Biologically Separate Races Exist? Fuzzy Boundaries in a WellIntegrated Gene Pool The Wild Goose Chase: Linking Phenotype to Genotype Classification Why Not Construct Race on the Basis of Earwax? An experiment: An experiment: 1. Americans are still prejudiced against black people. An experiment: 1. Americans are still prejudiced against black people. 2. Americans still make less money than white people. Race in Japan 10% of Japan = ethnic minorities Burakumin – stigmatized group of 4 million; similar to ‘untouchable’ caste in India Based in historical system of stratification from Tokugawa Period (1603-1868) Face discrimination in housing, education, and jobs in Japan Anti-discrimination movement: http://blhrri.org/index_e.htm Race in Brazil Categories in Brazil are more fluid and allow people to change their racial classification easily More than 500 categories exist. No hypodescent rule ever existed to separate whites and blacks like in US. What is Racism? Definition: “Racism is a complex system of power that draws on the culturally constructed categories of race to rank people as superior or inferior, and to differentially allocate access to power, privilege, resources, and opportunities.” -Guest What is Racism? Definition: Types of Racism Individual Racism Institutional Racism Racial Ideology Resisting Racism Race, Racism, and Whiteness De jure and de facto discrimination Discrimination – de facto and de jure Racial profiling and de jure discrimination 1992 Rodney King riots in LA 1999 Amadou Diallo murder by NYPD Ferguson riots Hypersegregation (de facto discrimination) Six metropolitan areas defined as hypersegregated in recent study (Wilkes and Iceland, Demography 2004: v41n1) Chicago Cleveland Detroit Milwaukee Newark Philadelphia http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/5010391741/in/set-72157624812674967/ Tampa and St Pete; both maps derived from census data Housing segregation: de jure… Before 1900, blacks and whites were largely residentially integrated; a shared social world, frequent interaction Early 20th century: blacks move into industrial areas; white flight into whiter and whiter suburbs. As stable industrial jobs disappear, inner city ghettos left behind Segregation legally enforced through zoning ordinances, deliberate housing policies Housing segregation: …and de facto Beginning in the 30s, the federal government subsidizes low-cost home loans, creating the possibility of home ownership and middle-class aspirations for millions of Americans But neighborhoods marked as “in decline” are redlined, and deemed ineligible. It just so happens that black and integrated neighborhoods are almost all redlined. Result: Of the $120 billion in home loans underwritten by the federal government between 1934 and 1964, 98% went to white homeowners. De facto segregation continues Around 1930, most black Americans in Northern cities were in neighborhoods that were about 30% black. By the 1960s, those neighborhoods were 74% black. Today, over 85% of suburban whites live in communities where the black population is less than 1%. Today only 44% of blacks own their own home, as compared to 71% of whites. The average black household that makes $75,000 a year lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average white family that makes $40,000 a year. Who goes to prison? De facto discrimination 70% of the incarcerated population is of color The fastest growing imprisoned demographic is black women Native Americans are the largest imprisoned group per capita But in reality, people of color are no more likely to use or sell drugs than whites Despite this, the War on Drugs is waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color Race, prison and the drug war Drug convictions account for about 2/3 of the increase of the federal prison system and more than half of the increase in the state system between 1985 and 2000. America has the highest incarceration rate on earth We have over 7.2 million people in prison, jail or on probation (3.1% of American adults) Black Americans are incarcerated at rates roughly six times that of white Americans Yet crime rates in black-dominated cities and in whitedominated cities are about the same And crime rates are going down Who goes to prison in the U.S.? The New Jim Crow “Our system of mass incarceration operates more like a system of racial and social control than a system of crime prevention.” –Michelle Alexander Felons experience many of the very same legalized restrictions and discrimination as blacks did in the Jim Crow South: Employment discrimination Housing discrimination Limited access to education, public benefits Ineligible for food stamps The right to vote, temporarily or permanently Enormous debt- fees, court costs, etc. Many states (including Florida) make you pay back the cost of your incarceration… and make paying all of these debts a condition of your parole The New Jim Crow It is almost impossible to overstate the extent to which the drug war has driven the mass incarceration of poor people of color Florida: 14% black 80-90% of all drug offenders sent to prison are black The result: blacks are actually a majority (54%) in Florida prisons Race: The Power of an Illusion Most of human variation is nonconcordant: skin color and eye color do not correspond with height or weight, and they definitely do not correspond with traits for musical ability or athletic ability There is no gene for athletic performance. There would be dozens of genes, interacting with cultural aspects, social and environmental factors (like motivation, opportunity, and training) Kalenjin in Kenya, either by selection or drift, do seem to have a certain set of genetic traits that make them amazing runners… but they are not a race! Long before African-Americans came to dominate the sport, Jews were the original hoop dreamers
