Download Race

What is Race?
• Race – classification of groups of people based on
inherited physical characteristics
• Europeans (1800’s) categorized people on perceived
racial characteristics
•
Caucasian – lighter skin, fine hair (white)
•
Negroid – darker skin, coarse hair (black)
•
Mongoloid – yellow/brown skin, folds of skin on
eyes (Asian)
• current accepted idea is that inherited racial
characteristics are only skin deep
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What is Race?
• Genotype – genetic make-up, chromosomal structure
• Phenotype – observable characteristics
• Homos sapiens share one genotype with a range of
phenotypes
• Phenotype (physical characteristics) varies, genotype
(genetic make-up) does not
• there is greater genetic variation within racial groups
than between groups
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What is Race?
• common genetic make-up interacted with
environmental conditions historically
• Intermarriage & reproduction following human
migration, exploration & invasion spread inherited
characteristics globally
• interest in categorizing people into racial groups
based on explaining how people think and where
they end up in life
• presumed differences were used to justify different
treatment of groups (level of intelligence)
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What is Race?
• there is little credible evidence that race & racial
characteristics are related to how people think & act
• it is important to focus on the meanings society has
given to inherited racial characteristics
• meanings shape life changes in general & social
mobility in particular
• Racialization – broad ways of thinking & acting that
make inherited physical characteristics matter
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What is Race?
• Race is often associated with ethnicity – shared set
of non-physical characteristics
• commonly understood as relationships to countries,
nationalities or religious beliefs
• ethnic groups may be associated with particular
races
• Ethno-racialization – thought & action that makes
inherited physical & non-physical characteristics
mean something
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What is Race?
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(1700’s) conflict between French & British in Canada
British won The Seven Years’ War over global trade
French lost claim to Canada (Treaty of Paris, 1793)
remaining French settlers spoke a different language
were Roman Catholic, had a different way of life
• French barred from government became a problem
• Pluralism –British granted French-speaking British
citizens separate but equal legal status
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What is Race?
• Constitution Act (1867) - further French language
rights
• Bilingualism does not mean equality
• French expressed anxiety over decline in culture &
identity
• constitutional challenges played a significant role in
strengthening separatist sentiments in Quebec
• Colonialism – cultural, political & economic system in
which one society invades an indigenous group
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What is Race?
• (late 1700’s)European settlers were dependent upon First
Nations people
• as more Europeans settled, First nations communities became
a threat to them
• Royal Proclamation of 1763 – acknowledged sovereignty of
First Nations people & ownership of land
• British Crown limited what First Nations could do with the
land
• Gradual Civilization Act (1857) – opportunity for First Nations
people to become British citizens
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What is Race?
• But were stripped of rights as First Nations people
• Indian Act (1876) Canadian Federal government had
sole authority over first Nations communities
• Eg. residential school system – assimilate First
Nations children into dominant culture
• (1960’s) began to demand better treatment from
government
• slowly granted what was ultimately theirs all along
• Consequence – Nunavut in 1999
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What is Race?
• (1872) Dominion Lands Act – offered Canadian
immigrants land & citizenship
• preference for northern Europeans
• others treated poorly and/or denied entry (Chinese,
Indian, Jewish refugees, Japanese)
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