The Matrix of Race -Chapter 2: The Social Construction of Race in America
1.
Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the centrality of
immigrants in U.S., they were essential workers stocking our sheles, caring for
those in hospice centers, picking our fruits and vegitable,s and working in our
factories.
2.
Immigrants make our economy vital
3.
Yet this crisis also served to target some
immigrants for hate and discrimination, they were also less likely to get
economic stimulus
4.
We are a nation of immigrants -give us your
poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free.
5.
Non-European groups categorized according to
race historically greater difficulties entering, remaining in, and succeeding
in the U/S.
6.
The history of these difficulties highlight the
shaping of our nation.
II. Race Today: Adapting and Evolving
1.
Anti-Asian racism escalated with the outbreak of
the coronavirus pandemic
2.
Highlighted by social media and others public
officials calling Covid the Chinese virus
a.
Thus making Asian and Pacific islanders scapegoat
b.
Also adding anti-semitism as Jews and Chinese
were supposedly in a conspiracy to where they created, spread, and were
attempting to profit from the virus.
III. Changing Demographics and Social Forces
1.
U.S. as a nation of immigrants has been defined
by our racial and ethnic diversity historically.
2.
While we have a high level of immigrants, 44
million (13%) of population in 2017 we still fall below 25 other nations and
territories with a higher percentage of immigrants.
3.
In 2017 the top three countries were Australia
29%, New Zealand 23% and Canada 21 percent.
4.
40% of world migrants live either in U.S. or
Europe
5.
Most of Us immigrants come from Europe, greatest
number from Germany or Italy.
6.
Between 1890 to 1919 almost 90% of migrants to
U.S. came from Europe
7.
Today only 9 % come from Europe.
8.
Mexico, followed by China, India, Philippines
and El Salvador now rank the highest number of immigrants. (see figure 2.1.
IV. Increasing Diversity
1.
In 2018, census reports that American diversity
has increased last few years, both in terms of racial and ethnic groups have
grown faster than their white counterparts.
a.
Asians and mixed race persons are the two
fastest growing segments of U.S. population -both growin 3% in 2000-2010
period.
b.
2nd largest group are Hispanic or
Latinx -now with over 18% followed by blacks at 13.5, then Asians close to 6%
and Native Americans at 1.3%.
c.
Multi-racial -citing two or more races
constitute 2.7% of population
2.
While the country has grown more diverse, some
are more diverse than others.
a.
California had largest Latinx total population
in 2916, but Texas had the largest increase in Latinx population, largest
concentration of Latinx was in New Mexico (48.5%)
b.
California had the largest White population, and
texis had the largest numeric increase in whites. The largest concentration of white lived in
Maine (95.5%)
c.
New youk had larger Black population than any
other state (3.8 million), the largest increase in this population occurred in Texas. The highest concentration of Blacks (49.4%)
resided in the District of Columbia.
d.
California has the largest Asian population and
the largest American Indian or Alaska Native population of any state (152,400
and 1.1 million respectively). Alaska has largest concentration of American
Indians or Alaska Natives, while Hawaii had largest concentration of Asians.
3.
Diversity only one dimension of the changing
social forces. While change has occurred,
on sixth remained completely White through 2000, but some areas Particularly Northern
New England, much of the Midwest have seen a lot of population shifts.
a.
Majority of Americans live in urban areas which
are also most diverse
b.
Growing latanx population seen in Southwest in
places like Georgia and the Carolinas.
c.
Most diverse cities in U.S., such as Boston,
Seattle, and Orlando have almost 60 million people, much of it due to
immigration. .
4.
Understanding immigration-why do people
immigrate:
a.
Seeking economic opportunities (52%)
b.
Fleeing violence and insecurity (18%)
c.
Reuniting with family (2%)
d.
But these are too simple, 28% cite multiple
reasons.
e.
Pull factors (such as economic and educational
opportunities and desire to reunify families
f.
Push factors, stress people relocate because of
what is happening in the host countries – rising levels of crime, chronic
unemployment and poverty, illicit drugs..all lead to increases in insecurity
and lack of confidence in governmental institutions
5.
Immigrants =make choices to relocate, refugees
are forced to flee to av oid war, persecution or natural disaster.
a.
Sometimes they are targeted because of their
race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a specific
group…they fear for their lives if they stay.
i.
On average during the mid-1990s average of
116,000 refugees -many from former societ union, entered U.S. each year from
2008-2017-average dropped to 67,00 with over half coming from Asia, many from Iraq
and Burma.
ii.
Since 1880 55% of all refugees from Asia.
b.
Worldwide by end of 2018 -70.8 million refugees
relocated worldwide due to persecution, conflict, violence or human right
violation.
c.
2019 U.S. capped refugees at 20,000, and for
2020 maximum of 18,000 refugees were admitted. This was the lowest level of
refugees.
d.
In early 1900, U.S. became one of first nations
to grant refugee status to LGBTQ+ individuals.
i.
Many came from such countries as El Salvadore, Honduras
and Guatemala in Central America where sexual and gender-based violence is
highest.
6.
Revising the Experience of Work, Gender, and
Race
a.
Women driving force in U.S. labor trends where
most new hires between ages of 25 and 54 are minorities.
b.
Women of color, comprise bulk of new hires
c.
Hispanic women 25-54 leading surge -increased by
2.2%.
d.
Black women, Black men and White women were also
winners.
e.
Still in spite of these increases, whites and
males were the highest earners and the richest 1%.
f.
The racial wage gap continued, with White
households median income more than 150,000 than that of non-Hispanic Black or
Hispanic.
g.
Wage disparities are present among all women,
but highest for Hispanic, African American, American Indian, Native Hawaiian,
and other Native American women see figure 2.3 on page 4. Hispanic women, followed
by Black women, experience the largest
earning gap when compared to White men ..and
7.
The Evolving Narrative of Popular Culture:
a.
Many of our stories and books, such as Harry
Potter -preserve race, power, oppression, and liberation as part of their
narrative.
i.
Think of the pure-bloods vrs, the half-bloods
and those which are non-wizards and muggles Or non-magical humans).
b.
Considering children’s books black, Asian, and
Latinx have the highest number of books written by or feature them as central
characters.
8.
Impact of Social Media and Technology:
9.
Digital age tends to reproduce racial slurs,
assaults, bigotry, prejudice across gender, class, and other social groups that
cross geographical boundaries.
a.
Most people between ages 18-29 spend a
considerable amount of their time in social media. Which reproduces many
racist, sexist, homophobic and other forms of bigotry.
b.
TOXIC IMMAGERY CONTINUE TO PLAGE SOCIAL MEDIA -SEVERAL
PLATFORMS TRIED TO COMBAT THESE, SUCH AS Facebook but they have not been
successful.
10. Concealed
Stories: Indigenous Peoples in Americas before columbus
a.
Europeans benefited from guns, germs, and steal,
they vastly outnumbered the Native Americans.
i.
Most were decimated by germs not guns.
b.
Earliest Americans -Native Americans inhabited
the Americas from the abenakis of Main to the Aunis of New Mexico.
c.
Native Americans descended from group of Asian
immigrants that migrated over 29,000 years ago. They probably came by two routs
i.
On foot -crossing the glacial land bridge between
Siberia and Alask, mostly hunters and gathers following the mastodon and
long-horned bison.
ii.
Fishers and hunters utilizing boats from Pacific
Islands following the currents to these shores.
iii.
Many lived in urban areas with populations
reacing the tens of thousands.
iv.
Several towns with temples have been discovered,
with a hiearrch consisting of priests, nobles, merchants, artisans, hunters,
farmers, and those in the military.
v.
Rich history: hundreds of years before Columbus,
millions of Native Americans and hundreds of population groups, tribes, with as many linguistic and cultural systems.
vi.
We see their names in our states such as Connecticut,
Illinois, Dakotas, Ohio, or Missouri.
vii.
They were civilized, sophisticated, and complex
with democratic governing and constitutional bodies, federations and
confederations, supporting families and communities. ?They had philosophies,
complex mathematical and astrological knowledge, as well as building and
scientific skills.
11. Colonialism:
thj Shaping of our Storied Past
a.
First group of Europeans to colonize the
Americas began in 10th and 11th centures with Viking
explorers in what is today known as Canada.
They settled in Grenland, and engaged in violent conflicts with several
indigenous populations.
b.
More extensive European colonization began in
1492 with the landing of Columbus in Cuba -and subsequent founding of Nueva
Espanola, Nouvelle-France, and New England -the so-called New world.
i.
Centered in transplanting, cloning, and
recreating European institutions in the Americas.
ii.
Although European created stock stories such as
they were pursuing the Kingdom of God, wanting to establish a heaven on earth
-in was really about Gold, conquest of land, and fame.
c.
Colonialism =set of hierarchical relationships
in which groups are defined culturally, ethnically, and/or racially which
serves to guarantee the political, social and economic interests of the dominant
group.
i.
Settler colonies -colonizing nation’s control of
political, economic, social and cultural mechanisms in the colonies through the
cration of a colonial elite.
12. Spanish
Colonialism -1492 Hispana -Latin name for Spain
a.
Columbus declared the land terra nullius or
empty land -see Papal Decree of 1493 also known as the Doctrine of Discovery
b.
Further, Columbus and his heirs were entitled to
1_% of all removable asset discovered in the new lands to include gold, silver,
precious stones, pearls, and slaves.
c.
The Crown would have a monopoly controlling all
removable assets.
d.
These ultimately led to the absolute
capitulation and genocide of the indigenous populations in the Americas
e.
The Taino’s -the original inhabitants of the
land, were left without any rights as Columbus and the Spanish took over.
f.
He described the Taino’s as docile and easily
controlled, as witnessed by frequent cruelty to the natives.
g.
In lass than 30 years, close to 85% of the
Native population had died as a result of smallpox.
13. The
Slave system -Columbus first to employ slavery in colonies. He forced 50 men into captivity in which he held
captive to return to Castile
14. Second
voyage, dec. 1494, he captured 1500 Taino’s on island of Hispaniola and selected
550 of best males and females to be presented to queen Isabella and sold on
Slave markets in Seville, Spain.
15. Soon,
Columbus began enslaving them to work in his own mines, he also precipated in
sexual slavery with girls as young as 9 and 10..
16. By
1525 -5,271 slaves sold at Seville, and close to 400 wer Blacks or mulattoes.
17. Spanish
colonies relatively lienent with regards to racial classification -for these
reasons:
a.
Colonial alws provided protections for Native
Americans and slav es
b.
Slave rights protected by both judicial and ecclesiastical
authority
c.
Spanish slave laws derived from Roman legal
traditions
d.
Manumission -did not require prior approval from
crown
e.
Slves could purchase freedom
f.
Slve had legal recourse through the Spanish
courts, even when the grievance was against masters.
g.
Supply of Native American labor in Spanish
colonies decimated by continual war, disease, and overwork
i.
King Ferdinand in 1513 authorized licensing system
where an estimated 75,000 to 90,000 African slaves sent to Spanish America by
1600.
ii.
By end of 17th century this was more
than tripled, as 350,000 Africans were enslaved.
iii.
This allowed Spanish colonies to shift to
plantation economies, Bas Blacks outnumbered Whites in Hispaniola and Mexica by
as many as 10-1 by early to mid-1th century. Many miedeval slave protections
stripped away, as Spanish Officials experienced their worst nightmare -slave insurrections
across Hispaniola.
18. French
Colonialism (1534) -first site New France created by 1534 expedition headed by
Jacques Carrier along the Saint Lawrence River in what is now Quebec
a.
Carrier sought gold, but settled for fishing and
fur trading instead.
b.
Quebec established in 1608 as first colony.
c.
French tried to colonize a large track of land
with a small, mostly male colonial force.
The French were vastly outnumbered and unable to establish cultural
dominance and stable communities -which accounts for their failures.
d.
French colonial expansion conceived as business
venture, profits seen as colonial developments
e.
While on paper or the stock story was to
Christianize the Natives, the reality was that it was inspired by the fur trade
and profits.
19. Labor
Crisis and Slavery
a.
French like Spanish -found that Native Americans
could not provide sufficient supply of labor as slaves or as free.
b.
First group of 1,400 White male and female
convicts (thieves) arrived 1717 and 1720 along with about 4,000 Africans
slaves. Both the Whites and Africans
were forcibly brought here.
c.
France created a set of laws -Black Codes or
Code Noir which were significantly different then those in Spain.
i.
Legislated life, death, purchase, marriage, and
religion of the sales
ii.
Governed the treatment of slaves by their
masters
iii.
Required slaves to be baptized and educated in
Catholic faith
iv.
Prohibited masters from forcing slaves to work
on Sundays or religious holidays.
v.
Required masters to provide food, shelter and
clothing to slave
vi.
Provide care for them when sick
vii.
Slaves had no legal recourse, nor could they own
property
viii.
Established when and who slaves could marry,
where they could be buried, and punishment that could be rendered to them, and stipulated
how they could be fried.
ix.
These were attempts to curtail the sexual and
moral problms of living in the frontier.
x.
Whites and free blacks were sexually involved
with slaves.
xi.
Any children might be bron in these unions would
become either wards of the state and held in perpetual slavery.
20. Left
Handed Marriages and Placage.
a.
Frontier situations produced fluid social
relations and social hierarchies.
b.
Strange norms developed where free men developed
alliances with Creole women -left-handed marriages
c.
These marriages temporary in nature, often resulted
in children being born who served as interpreters or mediators.
i.
Equivalent to common-law marriages -the women
were not legally recognized as wives, but they nevertheless had some rights
sucha as Placage
d.
Placage flourished in both French and Spanish
colonies -where the elite males would attend quadroon
balls.
i.
Quadroon – one-quarter Black by descent
ii.
These balls provided a carnival type atmosphere
where elite white males could select a light-skinned free woman of color for
sex and concubinage.
1.
It was a sanctioned form of miscengenation or
mixing of different racial groups -even though the man was legally married to a
white wife.
iii.
The women were economically and socially
dependent on their won sexual objectification, and their ability to satisfy the
fantasies of elite white males-they and their children had access tio education
and wealth which they used to advocate for racial reform and freedom. Today they dominate in former Spanish and French
colonial areas -creoles in New Orleans.
21. British
Colonialism 1587-
a.
first successful colony in New England occurred in
Plymouth in Massachusetts in 1620.
b.
The first group of non-Native Americans to wear
chaines in New England were poor Whites, primarily from Ireland.
c.
First group of slaves actually arrived in early
1600s.
d.
English slave masters looked at Irish as
backward, lazy, unscrupulous, and fit to te enslaved. Close to 50,000 Irish mostly women and
children wer forcibly departed to America
e.
Irish and African frequently engaged in
rebellions.
22. Resistance
Stories: Salve Rebellions
a.
First slave rebellion against English occurred in
Gloucester County, Virginia in 1663 where White indentured servants and black sales
attempted to overthrow the White masters.
Failed because of an informant, led to the execution of several plotters
and passage of a series of laws aimed ad keeping the slaves in line.
b.
Bacon’s Rebellion 1676 -significant challenge to
class structure
i.
Response as the creation of new identities of
color and race categories
ii.
Here White laborers -consisting of Irish,m
Scottish, and English bond srvants joined Blacks to attack a small elite planter
class.
1.
White laborers, such as Nathaniel Bacon found
themselves displaced by cheaper African bonded labor. All the while as the planter class was
gaining more land with each new arrival of workers, but the displaced Whites
got nothing, and were increasingly disgruntled.
2.
Crop failures in 1676 only added fuel to the
fire, and violence ensued.
3.
The revolt became a mass rebellion as bonded
servants -over 6,000 European Americans and 2,000 African Americans -took up
arms and attempted to supplant the small Anglo-slave owning planter class.
4.
Marching on West point, they overtook the
military garrison and its arsenal. The
military governor was forced to flee, and tobacco production was halted for 14
months.
5.
The British system was challenged line no other,
as the planter class, with superior weapons overcame the rebellion and created
the myth of white privilege and the system of slavery where the African was
enslaved.
23. Borderlands
and Fontiers
24. Tuner
Thesis -one of the first Stock stories which described the contested spaces
between Spanish French and English colonies.
America was forged by a group of idealist wanting to crate a
democratic society, where rugged individualism, innovative thinking and
egalitarian ideas were forged into what was perceived as American frontier
experience. Accordingly, the American
frontier allowed the space for the free spirited European to thrive and make
the French and English revolutions a possibility. What it did was to
a.
It created the illusion of Native American
national sovereignty
b.
Suggestd that they were outliers or a kind of
safety valve for excess and displaced colonial labor and capital accumulation
c.
Served as spaces where European powers could
wage imperialist wars against each other, where Natie American were often
manipulated in what would become proxy wars.
d.
Frontiers or borderlands were contested spaces
where Native Americans continually fought for their sovereignty, and their way
of life. On paper, there was an illusion that these were protected lands, lands
covered by treaties. But hundreds of
these treaties were voided and violated as European colonial expansion
challenged the rights of indigenous people.
e.
Consider the story of Daniel Boone, Davy Crocket
and James Bowie -are often projected as being frontiersmen, our heroes. But in reality, the hidden story is that they
were often displaced by Whites forced into the Frontier. There they were pitted
against what was often projected as the weak, and violent savage that had to be
controlled less they kill the innocent White settlers.
f.
What happened
was for example that the French and the Spanish created settler colonies which
wer devoid of a large number of European women.
This meant that there was an increased likelihood that there would be marriages
between various European males and indigenous and African women. These created a much more fluid and diverse
racial structure such as creolization reflecting multiracial family structures. We also see the development of
pigmentocracies where different social status, opportunities and perceived privileges
are assigned based on skin tone, with lighter skin tones typically favored. White purity, and the primacy of White males
were at the top of the hierarchy, while women regardless of color were in
secondary status.
g.
The English produced a more rigid cluster. White
women were deemed more attractive and desirable than lower-status women of
color. A more exact racial caste system,
where intermarriage was prohibited developed.
h.
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