Introduction to terminology: Ethnicity, race, minority, multiculturalism

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Unit 3

• Introduction to terminologyEthnicity, race,
  minority, multiculturalism racism
• Laura Laubeova
• laubeova_at_fsv.cuni.cz

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Unit Structure

• Activity on identity
• Ethnicity, race, minorit, relationship, racism
• Multiculturalism
• Racism, discrimination
• Inclusion, rights, equity
• Homework 1

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Identity and Inclusion

• Citizens are not only individuals, but also
  members of particular religious, ethnic, cultural
  and regional communities.Britain is both a
  community of citizens and a community of
  communitiesEvery society must find a way both to
  nurture diversity and foster a common sense of
  belonging and a shared identity. (Parekh, 2000,
  pp. viii-ix)

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ActivitySpend a moment now thinking about your
own multiple identities

• I have thought about my own and started off
  with..white woman, wife, mother, grandmother,
  grandchild of Russian immigrants who fled the
  pograms raised in South Africa, lived and worked
  in England for most of my life teacher and
  writer immediate connections through my
  upbringing and my family with Dominica in the
  Caribbean, Canada, South Africa, West Africa, New
  Zealand, Guatemala loves music and gardening.

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When you have done this, the next step is for you
as a group to learn about each other and consider
the overlaps between your own and others sense
of who they are.

• Physically move around the room to form small
  groups who share at least one of your identities
  (e.g. thinks themselves as musical). Change the
  categories decide for yourselves a category.

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• Whilst you are emphasising your personal and
  individual identities through let us say, art,
  poetry, music or dance, the important concept
  here is how identities overlap.

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Ethnicity, race, culture, identity, racism,
discrimination

• Eriksen, T. H. Ethnicity, Race, Class and
  Nation ,
• text 4, in Hutchinson, John, Smith Anthony, eds.
  (1996) Ethnicity
• Van den Berghe, Pierre Does race matter?,
• text 9, in Hutchinson (above)
• Cornell, S., Hartmann, D. (1998) Ethnicity and
  Race. Making Identities in a Changing World
• text on The definition of race
• Richmond, A. (1994) Global Apartheid
• on power, conflict, identity (good description
  of race and ethnicity)

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Definitions related to ethnicity

• From ethnic category to concepts of ethnic
  community.
• Ethnie is
• a named human population with myths of common
  ancestry, shared historical memories,
• one or more elements of common culture, a link
  with a homeland,
• a sense of solidarity among at least some
  members.
• - covers both majority and minority population.
• vs
• multiple identities,
• situational (transcending) ethnicities,
• hybridity

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2 basic 3 complementary approaches

• 1. Primordialists
• focus on primordial ties (but static naturalist,
  ethnic id. overlapping with other types of id.)
• Sociobiologists - mechanisms of nepotism and
  inclusive fitness based on genetic reproductive
  capacity (reductionism)
• 2. Instrumentalists
• Symbols for political goals, rational choices.
  Socially constructed nature of ethnicity.
• But neglect wider cultural environment,
  affective and collective dimensions. Interests
  only in material terms.

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Approaches to ethnicity cont.

• 3. Transactionalists
• Frederick Barth social boundaries, ascribed
  ethnicity
• 4. Social psychological
• Horowitz, Tajfel
• 5. Ethno-symbolists
• Myths symbols. nostalgia AD Smith, Armstrong
• (Hutchinson, Smith Introduction)
• See also Cornell, Hartmann, in Reader p. 15
• Circumstantialists vs Primordialists

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Race

• Biology natural sciences no longerr since
  70s
• Race remains a legitimate concept for
  sociological analysis because social actors treat
  it as real and organise their lives and practices
  by reference to it (van den Berghe)
• Robert Miles race is only an ideological
  construct that is used by social scientists for
  legitimising the status quo
• D. Mason Clearly there are no such things as
  races. Yet it is equally clear that large numbers
  of people behave as if there are

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Race in biology

• see researches in genetics in the 80s
• e.g.
• Rose, Steven, Lewontin, Richard, Kamin, Leon
  (1990) Not In Our Genes. Biology, ideology and
  human nature, London Penguin Books
• Stephen Gould (1996) The Mismeasure of Man
• Ellis Cashmore (1996) Dictionary of Race and
  ethnic relations

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Race cont.

• Mason race is a social relationship in which
  structural positions and social actions are
  ordered, justified, and explained by reference to
  systems of symbols and beliefs which emphasise
  the social and cultural relevance of biologically
  rooted characteristics.
• In other words, the social relationship race
  presumes the existence of racism and
  institutional racism.

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Preamble of the EU Race Directive

• The European Union rejects theories which
  attempt to determine the existence of separate
  human races. The use of the term "racial origin"
  in this Directive does not imply an acceptance of
  such theories.
• Race is a social construct, i.e. a category
  without any biological underpinning

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Race vs ethnicity

• Race is often treated as ideology
• ethnicity as a real phenomenon.
• Racial refers mainly to physical terms,
• ethnic rather to cultural terms.
• Race refers to them,
• ethnicity to us.
• Both concepts always imply social relationship.

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Minority

• group of people distinguished by physical or
  cultural characteristics
• subject do different and unequal treatment by
  the society in which they live
• and who regard themselves as victims of
  collective discrimination
• 1945 Louis Wirth

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Minority - cont.

• must be a 'non dominant' group
• its members must 'possess ethnic, religious or
  linguistic characteristics differing from those
  of the rest of the population
• must also 'show, if only implicitly, a sense of
  solidarity, directed towards preserving their
  culture, traditions, religion or language'
• (Capotorti as quoted from MRG).

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Minority - cont.

• Also non dominant groups that may be a numerical
  majority in a state,
• those who are not necessarily nationals or
  citizens of the state where they reside.
• MRG