GEO4421 Exam 2 review guide—Race and ethnicity2/12 Our experiences shape how we perceive the world criticallyRace: biologically born into it, unable to be changed, genetic, expression of phenotype (skin color)Ethnicity: social distinction, outcome of practices & traditions, can be changed• Ex: language, religion, societal variationso Hispanic, Latino, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc. I. Western thinking vs the Resta. Rationality: induced through scientific exploration categorization leads to the development of race distinctions • Used as a way to separate people who are different from us (ex. Europeans began this during colonial exploration)II. Does race actually identify any differences other than skin pigments?1. One argument is, NO, it is simply a societal distinction that creates stereotypes and differences that are not based on biological characteristics.2. Another argument, NO, race is just as much of a social characteristic as ethnicity• Shaped by conquest for power—simply a means to separate individuals III. How do we define race/ethnicity?1. List of characteristics: categories to describe people • Fixed , very hard to change, “natural determination ”• Forgone conclusions of your actions/possibilities, trajectory established• This led to the development of environmental determinism [people made definable distinctions based on geography]2. Process based-approach: through a series of events, debates and defining moments categories are derived• Power of one group to asserts its influence over another• Different attributes to yield power over another by creating distinctions• Used to validate colonial conquest• People mobilize socially produced categories to exert power o Ex: Archer Ash on Monument Avenue—people fought against the construction of Ash’s statute on Monument Ave over racial distinctions. He was black and all of the other statues are of white generals. • Social production implicates taxonomy [aka there is something basic about social characteristics based on phenotypes—meaning it can change]• Daily actions reify/challenge stereotypical distinctions (ex. power dynamics)o Ex: Marco Rubio’s response to the State of the Union on immigration2/12 highlights: Race=biological & ethnicity=social distinction Defined through 1) List of characteristics (fixed, natural, determinism) 2) Process (power, socially produced, can change)2/13 The White South’s Last defeat Notes from the reading The White South’s last defeat by Micheal Lind:• Defeats: civil war, civil rights, immigration• Unhyphenated Americans: pure, originated fro white British decentMigration, isolation, segregation, defeatThe “whiteness” that defines this group is a social distinction/process Social product of race, ethnicity, and regional distinctions**direct result of slavery and Jim Crow Laws (segregation)• Hyphenated Americans: less American, impure, tainted• Isolation of the South from the rest of the US (civil war)Antebellum South: prior to the civil war, white-pillar plantations, slavery, intense social/physical domination of white gentry over others (poor whites and blacks/enslaved)-Southern gentry: small portion of southerners who profited off outright domination/exploration of slaves and poor white southern• Most of the capital generated in this period was from the exploitation of labor• Civil war erupted as a means to maintain the system of exploitation and profitability -Perpetuated Antebellum South: • Profitability: material explanation for slavery• Ideological explanation of slavery: 1. Denial of humanity—treat enslaved as if they were draft animalsa. Chattel Slavery=forced labor, use of whips as if they were livestock2. Treat slaves as children—mentally incapable of taking care of themselves• These fed directly into notion of White Supremacy: Gentry and poor whites vs enslaved (not even though poor whites were being exploited). -1865 defeat of the South in Civil war -Amendments: 13 th abolished slavery , 14 th granted citizenship , 15 th granted right to vote • Dramatic shift in relationships between whites and formerly enslaved by removing barriers • Threatened: profitability of gentry, notions of white supremacy, labor market, idea that blacks are only good for agriculture/manual labor -Direct shifts1. Freedom of movement: slavery prevented enslaved from removing them from the labor market but now are able to travel, not work, change residency/career choice. **Challenged WS: forced to see blacks as something other than an animal or a child 2. Freedom of consumption: ability to earn money, save it, and spend it on goods/services. Able to buy such goods in the same stores as white folks. **Challenged WS: upset existing social order, people seen as equals, we identify with our purchases/consumptions (social distinctions)3. Establishment of franchise: ability to vote and sway interest of gov’t funds through allocation of resources and polices in their favor **Challenged WS: threatened social order, diversion of gov’t funding elsewhere Period of reconstruction: Northern troops occupied south from 1865-1877 to keep the peace -Friedman’s Bureau: program to help manage integration of slaves into normal life-White supremacy: caused poor white folks to partner with gentry against enslaved, even though they were exploited/oppressed indirectly through competition of enslaved labor. • Challenged notion of equality/freedom because people still saw them as animals/children• This concept was built around slavery in South and used as a means to justify horrific treatment of enslaved 2/19 Reconstruction Era-Northern confederate troops occupied south 1865-1877-Integration was still challengedpoor whites were unwilling to be seen as below or equal to formerly enslaved -Development of wage-slavery, construction of consumption rights, institutions to intimidate• All to maintain social order—through WS1. Labor contracts: to facilitate wage-slavery btwn formerly enslaved and planters (post-Bellum gentry)• Black laborers were mostly illiterate/un-educated thus they couldn’t understand the contracts• Balance of power entirely in the hands of tenant farmers [famer lends modes of production—tools, animals, land—to laborer, who often fell to debt or received no wage due to contracts• Also referred to as debt-peonage 2. Denial of land reform: after emancipation