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The Process of Ethno-Racialization. Ethnic And Racial Identity. Ethnicity is a principle by which people are defined, differentiated, organized, and rewarded on the basis of commonly shared cultural characteristics. From the Latin ethos – “my people.” Consciousness of kind.
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Ethnic And Racial Identity • Ethnicity is a principle by which people are defined, differentiated, organized, and rewarded on the basis of commonly shared cultural characteristics. • From the Latin ethos – “my people.” • Consciousness of kind. • Common stock of knowledge. • In modern everyday usage ethnicity connotes identification of people on the basis of “cultural characteristics.”
The Social Category of Race • Race refers to a group that is "socially" defined but on the basis of real or imagined "physical" characteristics. • Origin uncertain – in early Italian razza – “breed, lineage, common descent” • A particular people or stock. • Is generally regarded as having no empirical validity or scientific merit.It exists instead as a “social construction” that is manipulated to define and reinforce the unequal relations between dominant and subordinate groups.
Ethno-Racial Process • One of the most difficult things for students to understand is that race and ethnicity are social realities not objective/biological/genetic realities == it is not just that they change over time and space == it is that people do not look at how they change == people tend to treat them as a "thing-in-itself”, not as "a way of organizing "meaning" and "status" in the world" • Race is not a “thing in itself” == but rather == “a social process.”
Ethno-Racial In-Distinctions • Now, although the distinction between race and ethnicity is clear – one is biological, the other cultural – people often confuse the two] • Ex: German use to be thought of as a race – Aryan (more specific than Caucasian). Now we define it as a ethnicity – cultural characteristics not physical biological attributes. • Ex: poles and Ukrainians were known as “Galicians” – imported into Canada to farm empty prairies – viciously attacked as “social sewage” and “human vermin”. • Implications: When you define a race you “physicalize” or “biologize” them – treat them as having biological aptitudes/attributes (often inferior and/or repugnant). • The concepts of ethnicity and race have a elastic character in that they change in space and time.
Racial Ambiguity • If we think about “racial ambiguity” in our mixed-genetic lives it is much easier to understand how ethno-racial categories are socially constructed. • (Modern life is subject to wide biological variations that have lead to a modern phenomenon of racial ambiguity– ex: Mariah Carey, Amanda Marshall, Jennifer Beals] == which exposes the “social construction” of race == their bodies don’t define them, we define their bodies — and “only when they are defined, do certain expectations about their lives and sensibilities come into play”.
Genetically Mixed Postmoderns • Although we may assume that we can distinguish between people on the basis of "race", biology would confirm that most Canadians, like people all over the world, are genetically mixed. • Ex: Tiger Woods - mother is one-half Chinese and one-half Thai, and his father had one White, one Native, and two Black grandparents. (What is he? Fuzzy Zeoller - fried chicken and collar greens). • Racial ambiguity in everyday life shows us there is no clarity or exactness to bio-physical characteristics. But it also shows that we interact with people “as if” there is no ambiguity.
Somatic Understandings in Everyday Life • Ethnicity and race are malleable concepts that change in space and time. • Ethno-racial reality, then, is in historical flux – meaning – it actually has an interpretive foundation as opposed to a natural [objective nature] one. • People do not see “race” they see what sociologists call “racialized” formations” == or, “biologized formations.” • Combinations of real and imagined somatic {of the body} and cultural characteristics that they attribute meaning to (with the idea of race). • To see race is engage in a thought process which biologizes people by attaching meaning and status to the physical.
The Personal and Sociological Level • The interpretive nature of designations of ethnicity and race function at two levels: • At a personal level ethnicity and race provide meaning for life, and sense of self and self-respect, and can furnish a sense of belonging and security. • They are designations that involve a search for continuity, community, and commitment in a world of diversity, change and uncertainty • At asociological level (social and historical context) they represent systems of differential power, property and prestige -- "graduated privilege" -- often unintended, non-malicious, unassertive totem pole]. • “They are determinants of who gets what there is to get” – structured inequality and stratification systems [ranking scales].
Racialized Formations • To see race is engage in a thought process which biologize people by attaching status to the physical. • People are the subjects and objects of "racialized formations" -- meaning -- people do not see "race"; Rather they observe certain combinations of real and sometimes imagined somatic [of the body] and cultural characteristics that they attribute meaning to with the idea of "race". • A difference in skin colour is not essential to the process of "marking" here -- it actually goes beyond the biological • Race is a social process of attributing superior- inferior status === the complex relationships of exploitation, control, and exclusion grounding the differences of race, and giving rise to (the ideological construction of) "the racialized other" • Racialization refers to the assigning of racial connotations to the activities of minority people.
Social Theorists (Theoretical) Stipulation • Society is pervaded by race-based advantages and disadvantages. • Most people don’t go out of their way to assert power and privilege. It isall ready assigned – “built into the system.” • Ex: there is nothing normal and natural about the inequitable status of minority women and men in Canada. Rather, their inequities are embedded within institutional structures, or imposed by those with power to make these decisions within structural frameworks. These inequities are racialized in that they adversely affect those who are most visible.
Racial Discourse in Society • Many theorists have focused on the concept of "race" as an ideology, as a discourse (a way of mapping out the world == that confers meaning and status). • [[Sociological note: “Discourse - is a set of topics for discussion and a way of talking about those topics that is continued over time by a number of people who have certain interests in common. Through discourse, the participants come to have a shared "knowledge" about the world.]] • Cultural discourse” provides the conceptual models for people around which they map the world === “racial discourse” part of a dominant cultural discourse in our society that provides the conceptual models for people around which they map the world • The dominant discourse on race maps a “social biology” as an assumptive reality {meaning it is often assumed that certain “bodies” are connected to certain “patterns of action”} ]]
So What Is Racialization? .Racialization- is the social process by which certain groups of people are singled out for unique treatment on the basis of real or imagined physical characteristics == conferring a racial meaning to events and/or investing people with biologically determined attributes == a process by which some groups and their activities come to be defined on the basis race (biology). • Racialization== as a sociological concept preserves the idea that race relations do not exist (since there is no such thing as race) but focuses on why certain relations between groups become defined by reference to race — why patterns of interaction become defined by reference to race — why patterns of interaction become imbued with perceptions of biological differences to account for differences and similarities.
The Politics of Race • Many social scientists suggest that the concept of "race" is really a myth -- (race is really a invidious status distinction). • The malleability of the concept allows for definitional maneuvering in terms of “power politics.” • Ex: The concept of race is only in existence because of racism - the acquisition of power and status -- "politics of dominance and domination" - creates "status and status anxiety". • This is established through the racialization process.
Racialized Formations • Racialization also entails the idea that certain ideas or activities become linked with race (racialized) when and because minorities are invested with negative biologically determined attributes that are seen as creating problems, posing a threat to society, and providing unwanted competition for scarce resources. • Ex: racial schemes and unarticulated analytic frameworks == “minorities as problem people” == dark bodies have and cause problems]] • Ex: minorities seem as creating social problems [Blacks-crime culture], posing a threat to society [Asian “boat people”], and providing unwanted competition for scarce resources [“Third World” immigration].
Racialization as a way of “Othering” People • Many social scientist argue that the existence of races in a given society presupposes the presence of racism, for without racism physical characteristics are devoid of significance. • I.E., Racial majorities carry a social prestige and stature along with their experience of dominance that becomes associate with their physical appearance. • Racial minorities carry a social stigma along with their experience of oppression that becomes associated with their physical appearance. • In contemporary sociological terms, distinctions of race are made for “Othering" people - making people into the "not-us" - when they are not-us they lack something -- when they lack something then they are "less than us". • I.E., It is a way of "protecting" status from acquisition by others, and justifying its being deprive from others • I.E., It comes into play only in an attempt to establish “status” and identify the object of "status anxiety".
Status Ascription Through “Othering” • The concept of “Othering” was first elaborated in the work of Simone de Beauvoir (1908-86), in particular in her work The Second Sex, in which woman is defined and constructed as “Other” to “Man” (man in the generic sense as well as in the specific sense). “Man” represents both the neutral and the positive poles while “Woman” represents the negative – not man. “Man” requires the social and biological construction of “Woman” as “Other” in order to construct himself. • Some sociologist believe race was used (historically) to construct an “Other” that established and affirmed the normal and natural definition of “Whiteness” as a neutral standard by which all else is measured – e.x., the “White man’s burden” and “manifest destiny” to bring progress to less intelligent races. • The concept of “Othering” produces complex interlocking discourses that are used to justify the power wielded by those who do the defining.
Synchronizing Differences:Re-aligning the Social to fit the Forces of History • Even if we see ethnic and racial differences are socially constructed and not objectively given; arbitrary and not essential – they are still real in their consequences -- and the social problems they induce. • The purpose of isolating and clarifying the components, perspectives, and dynamics of these “kinds of people” categories in Canada and elsewhere is to avert the danger of applying incorrect solutions to the poorly defined problems. • The sociological presumption is we can change consequences {“power politics/dynamics”} by introducing resources that promote enrichment, empowerment and community. • [So] the sociological understanding of ethnicity and race is necessary for effective socio-political arrangements and policy instruments to get the best out of our human resources. • It is crucial to understanding the forces of ethnicity and race in modern life to meet the challenges of managing our accelerated diversity, and/or the new globalism.
Ethno-Racial Diversity as Basis of Multiculturalism • Canada, like much of the world, has become conspicuously complex, diverse and demanding. • How does Canada engage the global phenomenon of growing ethno-racial diversity? • To meet this challenge, it has introduced (what many consider) an enlightened philosophy, a potential mandate for the future to "promote unity through diversity” • Canada officially sanctions ethno-racial diversity under a “mosaic” umbrella – where ethno-racial differences are recognized and legitimated as integral components of society • Ethno-racial identity is celebrated in the form of"multicultural policy“ {a framework for inclusiveness}. • [Everyday definition: tolerance of and encouragement for all cultural groups as vital to Canadian society. Recognition and celebration of cultural differences.] l
Riding the Wave of 21st Century Diversity:Or to be Continued
