Defining the Wires: 19 Racial and Cultural Terms You May Not Be As Familiar With As You Think

Next up in Social Justice 101, we'll be reviewing race, culture, and nationality.

Let's start with 

Culture: 

• Or, external, acquired traditions of thought and behavior
  

 In contrast,

Ethnicity:

• Refers to clusters of people who share common cultural traits such as common language, geographic locale, religion, etc.
  

Culture and ethnicity may or may not be accompanied by physically observable traits. In contrast, 

Race: 

• Is an invented system of classifying humans based upon varying characteristics--most frequently, phenotypical differences such as skin tone. 
• Despite the original socially constructed nature of race, historical and contemporary racist attitudes and racial macroaggressions and microaggressions create and maintain very real racial disparities and inequalities
  

Beliefs about unfounded differences between human races led to
Racism:

• A system wherein one race maintains supremacy over another race through a set of attitudes, behaviors, social structures, and institutional power.
• In the current political climate of most of the developed world,
• individuals who are phenotypically white are at the top of this system,
• individuals who are phenotypically black are at the bottom of this system
• and other people of color fall somewhere in between based upon sociopolitical climate, history, etc.
• Racism is a “system of structured dis-equality where the goods, services, rewards, privileges, and benefits of the society are available to individuals according to their presumed membership in” particular racial groups (Barbara Love, 1994. Understanding Internalized Oppression). 
• A person of any race can have prejudices about people of other races, but only members of the dominant social group can be racist because racism requires racial prejudice plus the institutional power to enforce it.
• Like any form of oppression, racism can be both individual and systemic

Racism can be individual or personal (as in, what we often envision when we think of someone saying or doing something racist), and it can also be systemic or institutional. While blatant individual/personal manifestations of racism are becoming fewer and fewer, systemic/institutional racism is still alive and well.

Systemic/institutional racism: 

• Is racially-based inequality that occurs in large group settings, such as universities, government bodies, media outlets, law enforcement, etc.
• As the current political climate in most of the developed world favors phenotypically white people over phenotypical people of color, systemic racism privileges white people, and disadvantages people of color.
  

Feeding some of these systems of oppression is

Ethnocentrism: 

• Or the belief that one's own ethnicity is better than or superior to others' ethnicity
• Like many beliefs, ethnocentrism can be conscious and/or unconscious. 

A subdivision of racism is colorism, which can be observed throughout much of the world.

Colorism:

• Is a form of discrimination in which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. 
• It is a variation of racism, in that phenotypical race is viewed on a spectrum, and the "whiter" someone is, the more privileged (s)he is, whereas the "darker" someone is, the more disadvantaged (s)he is.
• Colorism is perpetuated by racist attitudes, and observed in interactions 
• between white people and people of color, 
• within groups of people of color,
• and occasionally within groups of white people.
• In the African-American community, colorism traditionally played out via the paper bag test. Those whose skin tone was lighter than the standard paper lunch bag were awarded entry into realms of black upper class life, while those whose skin tone was darker than a paper bag were excluded. 
• Throughout much of the world, racism and colorism have fueled an epidemic of skin bleaching, or the use of harmful chemicals such as hydroquinone to lighten the appearance of one's skin

Baseball player Sammy Sosa, pre- and post-skin bleaching

In response to confrontation with racial injustice, however, some individuals claim (racial)
"Colorblindness:"  

• Or disregard for/hypothetical inability to perceive racial differences
• "Colorblindness," most often claimed by white people, indicates a conscious choice to ignore the unearned privileges that they and other white individuals receive due to their race. It also indicates a choice, conscious or otherwise, to ignore the unearned disadvantages experienced by people of color in a racist, colorist society
• Finally, "colorblindness" is also accompanied by a disowning of the cultural heritage and full lived experience of an individual's racial identity
  

"But I'm not racist!" I hate to break it to you, but yeah, you probably are. Not only do we all have explicit bias, or bias that we are/can easily become aware of, we also have

Implicit bias: 

• Or prejudice that we are unaware of.
• More often than not, this prejudice is directed towards members of societally stigmatized groups
• Don't believe me? Check your implicit attitudes at Harvard-run Project Implicit.

Anti-black prejudice, implicit or explicit in the United States, has a unique, painful history that is informed by some of the beliefs and policies used to legitimize and perpetuate slavery. Some of these policies are the
One-drop rule: 

• Or the informal policy and eventual law in the United States wherein any individual with "one drop" of African blood was considered socially and legally black
• The social echoes of this policy are still apparent in US culture, and many individuals with a small amount of African ancestry who would be considered white or bi/multiracial in other cultures are considered black in US culture.

Jim Crow:

• A term that usually refers to Jim Crow laws, which were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. 
• These racially discriminatory laws called for "separate but equal" facilities for whites and blacks--however, the facilities provided for black Americans were generally quite sub-par and anything but equal.  
• Commonly segregated facilities included:

• Public restrooms
• Public water fountains
• Restaurants
• Schools
• Military units
• Public transportation
• And more

the
Mason-Dixon line: 

• Or the geographic boundary that separates Pennsylvania from Maryland. Though states north of the line (such as Delaware and New Jersey) still practiced slavery until 1865, the Mason-Dixon line symbolically represented the dividing line between the US North and South; freedom and slavery. 
• For many years following the end of the Civil War, the Mason-Dixon line continues to inform racial realities--in that north of the line is relatively safer for people of color, whereas south of the line is accompanied by varying degrees of threat of racially motivated violence and oppression.

and

White supremacy:

• The idea that white, Judeo-Christian culture is better than all other culture
• White supremacy is a historically-based, institutionally-perpetuated system through which white people exploit and oppress people of color and establish and maintain a system of power, privilege, and wealth. 
• White supremacy can be conscious and/or unconscious among white people

An off-shoot of white supremacy is
White privilege:

• Or the many societal advantages that white individuals receive due to being born white, such as: 
• a greater likelihood of being born into a middle to upper-middle class family
• a greater likelihood of attending a good, well-funded public school district
• a greater likelihood of being accepted into a prestigious university
• a greater likelihood of securing affordable housing in an area they might want to live
• a greater likelihood of being hired for a job
• a much lower likelihood of being perceived as "an affirmative action hire" if hired by an employer who practices affirmative action
• the ability to enter a store, be waited upon, and not be followed due to the assumption that they are going to steal something
• the ability to pick up a magazine, open a newspaper, or turn on the television, ANYWHERE in the US, and see people who look like them
• a significantly lower chance of being arrested, even when actually committing a crime
• and much, much more.
• Another aspect of white privilege is the assumption of the universality of one's own experiences, as well as the ability to live without awareness of other cultures' existence, history, and impact.

Individual/personal racism, systemic/institutional racism, and white supremacy combine to form the practice of
Racial profiling:

• A macroaggression wherein law enforcement or other powerful institutions are much more likely to suspect individuals of color of breaking the law than they are to suspect white individuals

• Because black people are more often pulled over by police officers than white people, the term "driving while black" refers to this specific form of racial profiling.  

• After the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, individuals with Middle Eastern/North African heritage, or who (to law enforcement/other powerful institutions) resemble someone with Middle Eastern/North African heritage also became racially profiled, or more likely to be suspected of breaking the law than white individuals. 

• Though Middle Eastern/North African heritage is an ethnicity, and Islam is a religion, many uninformed Americans have conflated: 
• Middle Eastern/North African heritage with being Muslim
• being Muslim with Middle Eastern/North African heritage
• and all of the above with violent, anti-American sentiment--when nothing could be further from the truth. 

• Due to rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, individuals with Latino heritage are also subjected to racial profiling in conservative and southern border states, as seen in Arizona's SB 1070, or "papers please" law.

Dr. Alison's note: No human being is illegal. Undocumented, sure. Illegal, no.

The sentiments that feed racial profiling are also manifest in anti-immigration sentiment.
Anti-immigration: 

• Is the opposition to the movement of people from one country to another
• It most frequently refers, however, to the opposition of white or lighter-skinned people in wealthy, white supremacist countries to the immigration of darker-skinned people from less wealthy countries
• In the United States, anti-immigrant sentiment is often fueled by racism, colorism, and tenacious belief in misconceptions, such as:
• Legal immigration to the US is as easy now as it was when many white Americans' ancestors arrived
• Documented and undocumented immigrants take good, desired jobs from native-born Americans
• Documented and undocumented immigrants don't pay taxes, but still receive services like food stamps, welfare, Social Security retirement, etc.
• A simple fact check reveals that these misconceptions are untrue.
  

Selective attention, confirmation bias, and colorist attitudes also inform a racist phenomenon known as the
Model minority:  

• Or a minority group whose members are perceived as higher-achieving than other minority groups
• In the US, East Asians and Asian Americans are often perceived as model minorities

 

• However, racism, colorism, and creative statistics often contribute to the perception of one minority group as a model minority, and another minority group as a problem minority
• For example, the 2000 US Census reflected that African immigrants were the most educated immigrant group in the US--yet, negative stereotypes about Africans and African-Americans and positive stereotypes about Asians and Asian Americans persist in US culture
  

And then, there's everyone's (least) favorite race term:
"Race card:"

• A popular US culture idiom that involves referencing someone's race as a way to gain leverage in an argument or debate
•  Additionally, this idiom reflects a basic ignorance of how racial politics actually work, as
• In the current sociopolitical structure, white people have significant, unearned systemic power. People of color do not have this same privilege.
• Therefore, if a person of color directs conscious attention to the racial differences that already existed and were already (consciously or unconsciously) perceived within the context of the argument, that person is not "playing a card" like a trump card.
• Rather, that person is accurately, verbally reflecting reality.
• Moreover, "having" a race card--as the usage of this term suggests that only people of color have this card, though everyone has a race--is no great privilege. It's accompanied by a statistically shorter lifespan, less access to healthcare and adequate education, fewer economic and upward mobility opportunities, and innumerable daily micro and macroaggressions, just to name a few. 

• Dr. Alison's note:
• Dear fellow white people: Please stop using this term. It is ignorant, hurtful, and offensive, and reflects the fact that you need to do your homework before you engage in a racial dialogue again. If you didn't already know this, that doesn't make you a bad person. Now that you do know this--knock it off.

Feeling activated by some/all of the above? Consider becoming

Anti-racist:

• A person who makes a conscious choice to challenge some aspect of the white supremacy system
• Many anti-racists aspire to co-create a society where all can participate fully, prosper, and reach their full potential. 
• The realization of this society involves confronting the very real systems of oppression, such as racism, that prevent many from participating fully in societal life, prospering, or reaching their full potential.