1.3

• Ethnicity


  The shared social, cultural, and historical experiences, stemming from common national, ancestral, or regional backgrounds, that make subgroups of a population different from one another
• Ethnic group


  A subgroup of a population with a set of shared social, cultural, and historical experiences; with relatively distinctive beliefs, values, and behaviors; and with some sense of identity of belonging to the subgroup
• Ethnic groups


  • Irish
  • Italian
  • Russian
  • Jewish
  • Serbian
• Ethnic groups under the racial-ethnic umbrella group of Latinx Americans

  • Puerto Ricans
  • Cubans
  • Guatemalans
  • Salvadorans
  • Argentineans
• Native American or American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) nations or ethnicities

  • Navajo/Dine
  • Cherokee
  • Lakota/Dakota/Nakota Sioux
• Ethnic groups under the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) umbrella group

  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Cambodian
  • Filipino
  • Vietnamese
  • Asian Indian
• Ethnicity, like race, continues to be an identification method that individuals and institutions use today—whether through the census, affirmative action initiatives, non-discrimination laws, or simply in personal day-to-day relations
• Ethnic pride


  The sense of self-worth that many people derive from their ethnic backgrounds
• Ethnic conflict continues to rear its ugly head around the world today
• Ethnic enclaves


  • Live in close proximity
  • Support the traditional values customs and ways of life of that ethnic group
  • Maintain social services such as employment networks, political clubs, civic organizations and houses of worship
  • Establish retail stores where traditional foods clothing household goods and utensils are sold
  • Develop and sustain native language newspapers and sometimes radio and TV stations
  • Provide employment and social and sometimes financial support for new immigrants
  • Permit new immigrants to adapt to a new country without experiencing serious levels of culture shock and homesickness
• Ethnic enclaves offer economic opportunities to immigrants and mechanisms for maintenance of immigrant cultures, but also the potential exploitation of immigrant labor, often based on gender
• Ethnic enclaves can potentially serve as agents for social mobility of immigrant populations, but may also hinder assimilation into mainstream U.S. culture
• Ethnocentrism


  The tendency to judge and evaluate others using our own cultural standards
• Cultural relativism


  The principle of regarding the practices and beliefs of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself
• Ethnic enclaves can be characterized by a host of benefits and challenges
• Ethnic enclaves


  • Require early immigrants to arrive with business skills and funds or access to funds
  • Survive over more than two generations only when there is a constant migration stream from the country of origin that lasts over more than two generations
  • Tend to disappear as later generations follow the traditional assimilation pattern and move further and further out into the wider society
• Ethnocentrism


  The practice of judging or evaluating others through our own cultural lens
• Ethnocentrism is a cultural universal - people everywhere think their culture is true, moral, proper, and right
• Ethnocentrism creates division and conflict between social groups whereby mediating differences is challenging when everyone believes they are culturally superior and their culture should be the standard for living
• The ethnocentrism of Europeans and Euro-Americans led to an ideology that the Native Americans were inferior, "savages," and sub-human
• This ideology eventually led to "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" philosophy which began with such events as the Trail of Tears in the 1830's and culminated in the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890
• The term "Redskin" comes from a bounty set aside by the United States government for any Indian found outside a reservation without papers, with the policy being for Indians "dead or alive"
• An extension of this ethnocentrism is the ideology of "kill the Indian, save the man" which was operationalized in the treatment of Native American children during the boarding school era
• Cultural relativism


  Understanding a culture on its own terms, rather than judging it by the standards of another culture
• Developing knowledge about cultures and cultural groups different from our own allows us to view and consider others from their cultural lens
• Overcoming negative attitudes about people who are culturally different from us is challenging when we believe our culture and thinking are justified
• Religion is malleable and adaptive, changing and adapting within cultural and social contexts
• Religion has historically driven both social union and division
• Religion may be formal (membership in an organized religious group) or informal (experiencing a communal spirit, solidarity, and togetherness with others through shared experiences)
• Religion is a vehicle for guiding values, beliefs, norms, and practices, and can be an important measure of an ethnic group
• Seeking religious freedom, Puritans migrated to the U.S. to practice their religious devotion, an act which was persecuted or denied in their homeland
• American Indians/Alaska Natives have not always experienced religious freedom in the U.S., as Christianity sometimes replaced traditional beliefs
• The U.S. has become less Christian over time, though Christianity is still the dominant religious group
• Immigration from Asia and Latin America has impacted Christian and non-Christian faiths in the U.S.
• Hinduism


  • The oldest religion in the world, originating in the Indus River Valley about 4,500 years ago
  • Believes in a divine power that can manifest as different entities (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva)
  • Has multiple sacred texts called the Vedas
  • Believes in dharma (one's duty in the world that corresponds with "right" actions) and karma (the notion that spiritual ramifications of one's actions are balanced cyclically in this life or a future life)
• Buddhism


  • Founded by Siddhartha Gautama around 500 B.C.E.
  • Encourages Buddhists to lead a moral life by accepting the four Noble Truths
  • Emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and the "middle way" of living in the present and practicing acceptance of others
• Judaism


  • The religion, philosophy, and way of life of the Jewish people
  • American Jews are predominantly Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and converts
  • Many Jewish people identify as secular rather than religious, and American Jews are more likely to be atheist or agnostic than most Americans
• Islam


  • The followers of Islam are called Muslims
  • American Muslims come from various backgrounds, with immigrant communities of Arab and South Asian descent making up the majority, and native-born American Muslims being mainly African-Americans
  • Conversion to Islam in prison and in large urban areas has contributed to its growth in the U.S.
• Christianity


  • The largest religion in the U.S., though the percentage of individuals identifying as Christian has declined in recent years
• The followers of Islam, whose U.S. population is projected to double in the next twenty years, are called Muslims