Keywords in Ethnic Studies

We are encountering some important key concepts and foundation in our study of race and ethnicity in the USA.  We'll keep track of many of them here, along with our discussions:

•      intersectionality: race, class, gender/sexuality
• how does the article demonstrate how race, class, and gender are interrelated concepts in American history and society?
• differences are constructed through hierarchies (differences between races and sexes used to rationalize racism and sexism)
• race: America uses race in order to "use" people (for example, when Americans need cheap labor)
• all these ideas are parallel and conform to each other: they reinforce prevailing social, economic, political concepts 
• how they define power relations: being a man, white, high class = you have power
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•  what does it mean to say that something is a “social construction”
• the  meaning of categories changes from culture to culture (who has privilege)
• in Britain, "black" means "non-white"
• the  meanings of these terms are not inherent, but learned from our societies and cultures (socialization)
• women are believed to be "weak," but women of color are expected to perform hard, manual labor 
• male and female may have differences, but those differences gather meaning through culture and society
• a kind of single story that societies agree to take as a general truth; opens the door to stereotypes 

•  what is racial formation, according to Omi and Winant?
• "the process by which social, economic, and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories..." P16
• similar to the idea of a social construct 
• Phipps example: hypo-descent as an example of policy created to justify injustices when biology was no longer acceptable as an excuse for maintaining/perpetuating inequality
• black-white binary
• what does it mean to "act black?" or "act Latino/a/" or "act Turkish?"
•   what does “racialization” mean, according to the authors, and what significance does the term have for America’s racial history?
• PROCESS 
• means to an end: groups in power put people in groups to deal with them socially, economically, etc. A tool
• "to signify the extension of racial meanings to a previously unclassified relationship, social practice, or group.
• its an ideological process, and historically specific 
• whiteness

• why does Dyer argue that it’s important to study whiteness?
• race is not only about non-white people
• P12: whiteness is power so equalize opportunities whiteness must be seen
• whiteness is normalized and we need to make it VISIBLE 
• the way we use labels to designate identity: we don't say or talk about what we are familiar with. We only mention difference 
• whiteness is "invisible as a racial position" in American society.
• This invisibility gives white people POWER

• What is colorblindness/colorblind ideology?
• not seeing color or race 
• the idea of treating everyone equally 
• the opposite of colorblindness is positive racism/quotas/affirmative action
• how to maintain the balance between color blindness and color awareness?
• color blindness ignores the problems and ignores the solutions
• color awareness has a more positive meaning
• people should be informed about differences between people
• colorblindness isn't realistic: we ALL see color
• we need to recognize people as humans
• we have to be careful with labels because they can be homogenizing, incomplete, unspecific
• IDENTIFICATION: how we identify ourselves and how others identify us?

What are the three problems of colorblindness, according to Gunier and Torres?

1. It makes racial inequality a problem of individuals, not society
2. It conceals larger racial inequality
3. Prevents grassroots protests and social movements