Exploring Ethnicity & Culture

1. MOSAIC Mentoring Program Exploring Ethnicity & Culture Spokane Community College 1810 N. Greene St. Spokane, WA 99217

2. MOSAIC Mentoring Program How do you Identify yourself? Is this your identity or a label that has been attached to you because of your personal traits? (hair color, skin color, or sexual orientation) Have your researched all parts of your cultural heritage? Well this presentation will help you explore ethnicity & culture

3. Ethnicity All around the world, members of ethnic and so called "racial" groups commonly use ethnic symbols as badges of identity to emphasize their distinctness from other groups.  Language, religion, and style of dress are common ethnic symbols.  In addition to such cultural traits, biological characteristics may be important at times as well.

4. Ethnic Identification Process • One's ethnic/racial identity may result from self-identification or from an imposition by others.  Identifying other people's ethnicity for them has always been a powerful political tool for controlling, marginalizing, and even getting rid of them.  From the early 1930's through the mid 1940's, the Nazi's in Germany methodically labeled people as being Jews even though they did not always personally identify themselves as such.

5. People in political and economic power usually define their own ethnic/racial group as being superior and others as being inferior.  This can be done by laws that restrict rights and privileges.  It also can be done in subtle pervasive ways even when ethnic favoritism is officially illegal.  For example, throughout much of the 20th century in America, "white" became identified in popular literature, films, and the mass media with intelligent, good, pretty, and successful, while "black" was identified with the opposite. 

6. The unfavorable portrayal of African Americans still continues today, to some extent, with TV news programs focusing on black gang violence, welfare mothers, and relatively poor performance in school.  After generations of images reflecting this view, many African Americans came to define themselves negatively.  • African Americans are not unique in having a relentless negative image of themselves portrayed in the popular media.  Mexican Americans, Arab Americans, and some Southeast Asian groups are also experiencing it to some degree.  In fact, most minority groups in heterogeneous societies like the United States have had a similar experience.  Even European immigrants, such as the Irish in the 19th century, were commonly portrayed in the press as being dirty, stupid, alcoholic, and violent.

7. Hollywood's strongly negative portrayal of specific ethnic groups continues.  However, the targets have changed.  Today, Moslem Arabs, Iranians, and Afghans are consistently cast as irrational terrorists and villains in action films.  They have been impersonalized and stereotyped on-screen with derogatory slurs such as "rag heads."  They have mostly replaced Germans, Japanese, American Indians, African Americans, Eastern European, Chinese, and Communists from any nation as the most dangerous "bad guys."

8. Self –fulfilling Prophecy • Whether you have a negative or a positive self-image stemming from your ethnicity/race, gender, or physical condition generally has a powerful effect on the way you relate to others and lead your own life.  For instance, a belief that you are not likely to succeed in education, because "members of your group are inherently less intelligent," can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Why try to succeed in school if you think that you will fail? 

9. Classification •  Shortly after birth, most Americans have the ethnic/racial group identity of their biological parents placed on their birth certificates.  This provides an identity for children that will usually stay with them throughout their lives and will have a major impact on how they see themselves and how others treat them.  It often restricts their choices of friends and marriage partners.  It may give them advantages or it may create road blocks in their educations, careers, and the neighborhoods in which they wish to live.

10. Multiethnic • Many Americans of mixed ancestry do not fully identify with the single racial/ethnic category that they have been assigned to and do not feel comfortable with it.  For instance, when one parent is of European and Chinese descent and the other is African and Native American, what single category would their children fit into?  For many Americans with complex ancestries such as this, the answer is that they are multi-racial, mixed-racial, or multi-ethnic.  The number of these multi-racial children in America has doubled during each of the last 3 decades. 

11. What is API • There has been an inconsistency in the official definition of ethnic/racial group categories in America.   Depending on the company, institution, or government entity, the number of categories used over the last two decades has ranged from 5 to 20 or more.  The trend has been progressively to break down all categories, except "black" and "white", into smaller, more specific groupings.  For example, the Pacific Islander group category is now commonly divided into Filipino, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Samoan, and "Other Pacific Islander."

12. Complex Cultures • We have seen that ethnic identity is often complex.  It can change dynamically through time as situations alter.  It can be created by self definition or others can define it for us whether we wish them to or not.   The power to label others is the power to control them.  Our stereotypes of groups has a strong effect on how we view and relate to members of those groups.  It also can have a profound effect on how we see ourselves

13. EXPLORE • Please write a one page double spaced paper on your ethnicity and culture and turn it in to Multicultural Student Center by the end of the quarter or email to: kmcclure@scc.spokane.edu