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What are race / ethnicity?

What are race / ethnicity?. Shrinking White majority, U.S. Race / ethnicity. Poverty rate 8% 11% 21% 23% Infant mortality 5.7 4.9 5.6 13.6 U.S. Congress House 85% 1% 5% 9% Senate 95% 2% 2% 1% US Population 72% 4% 12% 13%. White Asian Latino Black. Race/ethnicity and health.

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What are race / ethnicity?

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  1. What are race / ethnicity?

  2. Shrinking White majority, U.S. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

  3. Race / ethnicity • Poverty rate 8% 11% 21% 23% • Infant mortality 5.7 4.9 5.6 13.6 • U.S. Congress • House 85% 1% 5% 9% • Senate 95% 2% 2% 1% • US Population 72% 4% 12% 13% White Asian Latino Black Source: U.S. Census; NCHS; Ethnicmajority.com

  4. Race/ethnicity and health U.S.: Percent of adults 18-64 reporting health “excellent,” by race/ethnicity, 2000 Source: Cohen's analysis of 2000 March Current Population Survey.

  5. Infant mortality by ethnicity, 2000 Asian Latino National Center for Health Statistics, Health, 2002.

  6. Race/ethnic inequality Incarceration rates Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

  7. U.S. Federal data collection • In recent Censuses: • Spanish / Hispanic / Latino is ‘ethnicity’ • White / Black / Indian / Asian are ‘races’ • Starting with Census 2000 • Still separate Hispanic and race questions • But now multiple race check-off option

  8. Census 2000 questions: Hispanic Is the person Spanish / Hispanic / Latino? • No • Yes, Puerto Rican • Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano • Yes, Cuban • Yes, other Spanish / Hispanic / Latino (print group)

  9. Census 2000 questions: Race Mark one or more races to indicate what this person considers himself/herself to be: • White • Black, African Am., or Negro • American Indian or Alaska Native (print name of enrolled or principal tribe)  Asian Indian  Japanese  Native Hawaiian  Chinese  Korean  Guamanian or Chamorro  Filipino  Vietnamese  Samoan  Other Asian (print race)  Other Pacific Islander (print race) • Some other race (print race)

  10. Two or more races: 2.4% of total Source: 2000 Census.

  11. Going by color?

  12. Definitions: race • Common phenotypical traits (not) • Attempts to classify races biologically fail • Greater difference within than between • After lines drawn socially, traits are identified and labeled • E.g., African slaves becoming ‘black’

  13. Definitions: race • Changing definitions over time • National origin as race • E.g., Italian, Jewish, English races (1900) • Asian nations as races? (2000) • Changing definition of black • One-drop rule (original legal definition) • mulattos, quadroons, octoroons, etc. (1800s) • Black nationalism or ethnicity (Afr. Am.)

  14. Definitions: ethnicity • Cultural community • E.g., nationality, language or religion • Anglo, Mexican/Chicano, African-American • Israel: European Jew, Arab Jew, Palestinian • Varying degrees of identification • ‘Voluntary’ ethnic status • Changing identification over time • Success / assimilation undermines identity

  15. Definition and counting • The politics of identification • Need to quantify grievances and power • So people need to be labeled • Political groups fight for labels • Counting creates, or reinforces, identity • Statistics become tools in conflicts • Conflict creates community and identity

  16. Definitions: racial-ethnicity • Would drop term ‘race’ but we can’t • Recognizing that ethnicity is ‘racialized’ • Racial ideas imposed on ethnic groups • Racially-identified ethnic groups • Latinos, Whites, Black / African-Americans • Sometimes these are panethnic • European and Indian Latinos? • Africans and African-Americans?

  17. Affirmative action • Not required by law • Except some government agencies (before) • Data collected by federal contractors, used in suits • Positive effort • E.g., advertise in new places, quantify and counter discrimination • Question ‘objective’ standards • What is the standard, and what does it serve? • ‘Diversity’ as an educational goal • Not necessarily by quota or ‘preference’

  18. Michigan affirmation action case • White students denied admission in 1996 • 2003 decisions: • Grutter v. Bollinger • OK to consider race • Gratz v. Bollinger • No point system

  19. Michigan’s undergraduate index • Race as one factor • Educational goal is ‘critical mass’ of minorities • Supreme Court said ‘No’

  20. Effects of affirmative action • Effects too great? • Discriminating against the privileged • Lowering ‘standards’ (e.g., education) • Effects too limited? • Helps the top of subordinate groups • Exacerbates inequality • Allows inequality to persist

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