1. Identity: Race, Culture, Gender, & Sexuality Review
Ch. 5

3. Identity Big Ideas Identity Ethnicity Race Gender Sexuality
Distribution
Ethnic Islands, Ethnic neighborhoods, Ethnic Conflict, & Enclaves
Race
Segregation
Gender
Gendered Space
Power Relationships
Sexuality

4. Identity How we make sense of ourselves
We construct our own identities
Vary across scales, & affect others across scales.
Are fluid, constantly changing, shifting, & becoming
We work towards an identity that meshes with who and where we are at any given point in time.
We also define others
Identifying against – we define the “other” and define ourselves as “not the other”

5. What is Ethnicity? Often confused with culture
Includes culture, but also encompasses many other ideas
Based on how people choose to identify themselves
A social group that defines itself based on factors such as common culture traits or a common history, race, or geographic region.

6. Ethnicity Groups define what constitutes membership
Several theories exist why humans organize themselves into ethnic groups.
Some believe people are born with an instinctive sense of ethnic identity.
Pervasiveness of ethnocentrism – attitude of cultural superiority
Ethnicity is socially constructed. Ethnic identity is a result of the interaction among different groups of people.

7. Ethnic Neighborhoods
At the smallest geographic scale, we can identify ethnic neighborhoods in many towns and cities.
Areas with concentrated populations of a particular ethnic group
Can change their ethnic identity over time
Ethnic groups can be locked into a distinct geographic area
Historically, European Jews were restricted to certain areas – ghettos
Reflected the mistrust & ethnic hatred, but can provide a degree of protection
Spatial reasons for segregation
New laws can be passed
Segregated groups can choose to live together rather than assimilating or moving

8. Ethnic distribution - US
US – every 10 years, Census conducts an enumeration of the population
Survey identifies three main ethnicities
Asian Americans – from countries in Asia
African Americans – identify as a group with cultural origins in Africa
Hispanic – from Spanish-speaking countries
Ethnic groups may live in different regions and particular communities
Hispanics – clustered in Southwest
African-Americans – clustered in Southeast
Asian Americans – clustered in the West

10. Ethnic Neighborhoods
African American & Hispanic are highly clustered in urban areas
I.E. Chicago – neighborhoods in the south and west side have extensive African American clusters
I.E. Los Angeles – African Americans in south-central; Hispanics in east; Asian Americans in south and west.

11. Ethnic Islands Larger than ethnic neighborhoods or ethnoburbs
Ares of ethnic concentration in rural, or non-urban areas
Settled after the mid-19th century (US & Canada)
Cluster migration – the settlement of a whole area en masse by a particular ethnic group
Chain migration also assisted in creation of ethnic islands.

12. Ethnic conflict - competition
Ethnicity and nationality are similar concepts in that membership is defined through shared cultural values
Nationality differs from ethnicity in terms of legal standing.
Defined specifically through shared experiences derived from voting, obtaining a passport, and performing civic duties.
Confusion between the two can lead to violent conflicts
Lebanon – 60% Muslim & 40% Christian. Christians consider themselves ethnically descended from the Ancient Phoenicians. When government system was created Christians controlled a majority.
Sri Lanka – 3 principal ethnicities (Sinhalese, Tamil, and Moors) dispute between Sinhalese and Tamil date back more than years. Tamil feel discriminated against by Sinhalese.

13. Ethnic conflict - division
South Asia
Pakistan & India – basis of separation was ethnicity
India majority Hindu
Pakistan majority Muslim
Kurds
Live in the Caucasus Mountains
After WWI, created an independent state of Kurdistan
1923 – became part of Turkey
Today, the Kurds are split among several countries
Turkey has tried repeatedly to suppress the Kurdish culture, including outlawing their language.

14. Ethnic Conflict – Cleansing & Genocide
Ethnic cleansing – process where a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one to create ethnically homogeneous region
Removal of all members of less powerful ethnicity – men & women, young & old.
In recent years , carried out primarily in Europe and Africa
Nazi Europe – deportation of Jews, Gypsies, & other undesirable groups
Bosnia (1993) – ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Muslims
Serb & Croats fought to reunite the portions that they inhabited with Serbia and Croatia, respectively.
Kosovo (late 1990s)
Part of Serbia, with ethnic Albanians compromised 90% of the population
Serbs launched a 4 part campaign of ethnic cleansing
By 1999, had forced 750,000 pf the 2million Albanians from their homes.

15. Ethnic Conflict – Cleansing & Genocide (continued)
Widespread in Africa because of the colonial boundaries.
Northeastern Africa – Sudan
Arab nomads (Janjaweed) crushed Darfur’s black population
480,000 killed; 2.8 million forced to live in refugee camps
Somalia
Several different ethnic groups vying for control
Rwanda (1994) – Hutus vs. Tutsi
Congo (late 1990s) – Hutus & Mayi Mayi vs. Tutsi

16. Race
A categorization of humans based on skin color & other physical characteristics
Categories are social & political constructions because they are based on ideas that some biological differences are more important than others
An identity that is often assigned.

17. Segregation Residential segregation
Historically states, cities, & towns passed laws outlining residential segregation
Disallowing the migration of certain racial groups into neighborhoods.
Douglas Massey & Nancy Denton – defined as a degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban environment.
Most residentially segregated large metropolitan area for African Americans is Milwaukee Wisconsin
Second, Detroit Michigan
Least segregated area is Orange County, California; followed by San Jose, California.

18. Gender
Refers to the societal norms and behaviors that are expected of males or females.
Geographers have increasingly looked at gender as a source of identity.
Believe that society shapes spaces based on socially defined gender roles & that gender affects the way we interact with the world.
Gendered – places designed for women or for men.
Gender roles are not the same in all countries.

19. Power Relationships
Assumptions and structures about who is in control, who has power over others.
Affect identities directly and cultural landscapes
Can also subjugate entire groups of people.
Society enforces ideas about the ways people should behave
Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Populate much of the rural areas.
Society and governments work in conjunction to subjugate women
Have heavy responsibilities and few rights.
Produce estimate 70% of the regions food

20. India – Dowry Deaths
Murders of brides (often by burning) when a dispute arises over dowry
Difficult to “legislate away” the power relationships that lead to dowry deaths
Women still remain disempowered in much of Indian societies
Female infanticide is also tied to the disempowerment of women.
Rescaling issues to the global scale has the potential to draw attention to the social ills.

21. Sexuality Cultures decide what is “normal” sexually
Glen Elder, Lawrence Knopp, Heidi Nast – argue that most social science is written in a heteronormative way
The default subject in the minds of the academics who write studies is heterosexual, white, & male.
Initial forays focused largely on where people with shared “identity” cluster.
Today, focusing not only on the distribution but also on the theories behind the experiences, that explain and inform our understanding of sexuality and space.
Employ queer theory
Theory that “highlights the contextual nature of opposition to the heteronormative and focuses on the political engagement of “queers” with the heteronormative”