Ethnicity and Nonverbal Communication
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Concepts that have been developed in earlier chapters are applied in this chapter. They bear upon ethnic identity and behavior. A considerable body of research about ethnicity has been compiled, only selected aspects of which can be presented here. The reference section includes a number of important works related to ethnicity.
Like gender identity, ethnic identity is created over time, arising from the way that people construe life based on their experiences. Some scholars suggest that, in America, people live in a post-negritude culture (Reid, 1997) meaning that the social conditions in which ethnicity is expressed have changed. Others have asserted that a form of a color-based caste system still exists (Ogbu, 1978). Still others focus on competition that exists between ethnic groups (Olzak, 1986). Members of the ethnic groups share a similar socio-historical background that influences their beliefs, habits, customs and ways of thinking. Social identity involves cultural and social practices that distinguish members of one ethnic group from the practices of other groups. In this sense, identity is a metaphorical folk category, representing people in everyday life in ongoing ways (Fitzgerald,1993;Lamont & Fournier, 1993).
Identity is expressed at both the individual and the group or collective level. In this chapter the focus is primarily upon collective ethnic identities. The reader should be reminded that there is a great deal of variation to be found among members of the same general ethnic grouping. Socialization influences everyone, but it is not a uniform process. People interpret the "givens" of their life in individualized ways.
The concept of co-cultures is introduced to indicate that ethnic groups deserve equal respect, as do all groups. The word ethnic, of course, is used in many ways; in a sense, all people are members of ethnic groups. Five groups will be discussed in this chapter including Native Americans, specifically Navajo members, Black Americans, Chinese Americans, Cuban Americans and White Americans. Racism was common to the historical experiences of Black Americans, (or Negroes as they were called then), the Navajo, Chinese immigrants and Whites. White Americans, of course, were the dominant power that encroached upon members of the other groups. The Cuban experience was different. Cubans fled a hostile Cuba, coming to the United States in exile. They have been treated as beleaguered friends, while the others were treated as ignoble strangers.
Ethnic groups around the world have been mistreated by those in power. For example, the early vanquishment of the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs by the conquering Spaniards serve as testimony. (Sowell, 1998). Human history in many ways is the history of struggle, as ethnic groups around the globe will attest. In this chapter, there is no attempt to moralize about what happened in early America; nor is there an attempt to malign members of any group. Rather, the attempt is to describe the harsh conditions in which members of ethnic groups struggled as they construed the meaning of life, their own identities. In present-day American society, much of the ethnic turmoil is couched in that history.
New generations of the ethnic groups discussed here confront a different social milieau. There is occasional outright hostility but there seems to be progress in human relations. Yet, stereotypes and other demeaning characterizations appear, often in subtle forms, indicating that the color barrier has not been completely crossed or erased. Barriers to interaction are not caused by one party or the other; they are caused by both or all parties. It is hoped that this chapter can contribute to a balanced understanding of ethnic differences. Whites, in a sense are de-ethnified by self definition (Pujol, Spring, 2000); nevertheless, in the grand scheme of things they, too, are ethnicized.
It would seem that the egalitarian ethos can be realized only when members of each group are inter-ethnically adaptable. The colors red, black, brown, yellow and white are mere surface features in the identification process. By appreciating these human colors rather than derogating them, people can do productive ethnic borderwork.
The historiographic approach used in this chapter is compatible with SI. By using historiography it is possible to understand how the ethnic identity of the five groups was formed.
School children, born and raised in the United States, have been taught that the United States is the land of freedom, that others from countries around the world are welcome to these shores, whether they were immigrants from war-torn countries or others who came here to make a better living, to live the good life. The Statue of Liberty, was placed in the New York harbor, commemorating the 100th anniversary of American Independence. It became the symbol of freedom, welcoming immigrants from abroad.
Framing the Great Invitation
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Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. (Emma Lazarus 1849-1887)
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The egalitarian ethos is a powerful theme, appreciated first by the religious Whites who came to these shores to gain religious freedom. Although it serves as a reminder of opportunity in America, many people have not benefited.
As mentioned, in early Western thought the theory of the Great Chain of Being held sway among many philosophers, theologians and anthropologists. All creatures, including humans, were located on a hierarchy. White European males were placed on the highest level in this hierarchy; women were placed below men and people of color; animals occupied the lowest levels. The separation of the races was promoted; distorted versions of Darwinism, scientific racism and eugenics were sometimes linked together in support of racism (Kohn, Dec 1997) This theory, along with other beliefs, of course, had dire consequences for people of color in early America.
A monogenetic or a polygenetic approach to the classification of human beings was used in early analysis. Under the monogenetic concept, all humans were thought to be the same, following various Biblical injunctions; under the polygenetic concept, races were thought to be distinct, separate from one another. Polygenism was popular in America and it had implications for the status of African slaves. Since, the theory "proved" that whites were different from blacks, qualitatively, it seemed as well that there was a legitimate scientific justification for slavery(Wolpoff & Caspari, 1997). Early American thought seemed to be along the following lines.
Framing Racial Attitudes
"The more or less standard set of caucasion stereotypes went like this: The indomitable, courageous, proud Indian---in how very different a light he stands by the side of the submissive, obsequious, imitative Negro, or by the side of the tricky, cunning, and cowardly Mongolian! Are not these facts indications that the different races do not rank upon one level in nature"(Agassiz, 1859). Agassiz thought that one must fit education to the innate qualities of the race involved. For example, he thought that blacks should do manual work and whites should do mind work.
Agassiz may have given words to that which was commonly believed, at least by an undiscerning public.
The concept of race, discussed here, implies a superiority-inferiority relationship; color was associated with race and white people were thought to be superior to people of color. The result was extreme separation and segregation. It is easy to point the finger at Whites but, in fact, for racism to exist both sides must maintain it. The term race is European in origin. Referring to gene pools,it was popular during the Inquisition. In modern America when people refer to racism they think of how race is lived, interpersonally and institutionally (Finerty, July 16, 2000). Today, as they did then, negative racial attitudes result in segregation distinctively marked by color. People are essentially strangers to one another when color barriers are erected.
In early anthropology it was suggested that racial stocks were mainly of three kinds: negroid, mongoloid, and caucasoid. Each type had distinguishable features, such as skin color, facial structure, body structure and hair appearance. Under this system, Chinese, for example, were marked by straight black hair, a yellow-brown skin, dark eyes and rounded faces and Negroes had dark brown or dark skin, large lips, slanted foreheads and long arms and legs. Their hair was tightly wound in swirls. Caucasoids had light skin, a range of eye colors and hair that could be varied in color and wavy.
Enlightened anthropologists have shown that these categories are unrealistic, too rigid and too amenable to stereotypes. For example, the tallest people in the world are black people while the shortest people in the world are also black people, both in Africa, separated by a few thousand miles. Some white people have darker skin than some blacks. Evolution leads to diversification and complexity, not to sameness, unless humans live in very strict isolation (Wilson, 1992). Thus the tripartite categorization of races is hardly a scientific classification. When blood types and DNA are brought into the equations, racial categorization is even less scientifically useful. The color of the skin becomes a mere surface feature.
The complexity of intermixed features found among humans throughout the world is now obvious; racial categorization is fraught with difficulty. However, this fact did not historically prevent some scientists from attempting to classify races by intelligence. Indeed, one of the motives for classification was to show the racial superiority of the white person. Phrenology, unacceptable today as a scientific tool, was used to show how races differed from one another according to brain size. Brain size, however, is not a good indicator of intelligence, once again showing how some scientists were misguided.(Gould, 1981).
The concept of ethnicity is probably more modern than is the concept of race. For example, the early British appeared to be more involved with ideas about loyalty, honor, connection, station and conformity that it was with ethnicity (Kidd, 1999). Race refers mostly to physical characteristics while ethnicity refers to socially learned behaviors, passed on from one generation to another, often modified in the process.
In early American history, the word ethnic was used to label minorities as "heathens", as perceived by white people. Today, ethnicity refers to a wide range of characteristics that are associated with groups, such as social customs and foodways. To describe oneself in ethnic terms can be a positive way for humans to identify themselves. (Fitzgerald, 1993). One can enact her or his identity at the personal level or at the public level in collective ways. For example, contemporary Blacks may adopt a nonverbal style associated with their ethnicity as shown in the following frame.
Framing Black Nonverbal Styles
Rather than just walking, Blacks seem to move rhythmically. When young Blacks bop down the street, it is a statement of identity, of self-power. Wearing clothes is a way to make a statement about self-identity; it is a way of giving force, or Nommo, to one's life. Shades, or dark glasses, may be worn to provide some magic. Sometimes showboating, or verbal boasting, as Muhammed Ali did, is performed to make a statement. An individual style is highly preferred and respected among blacks, so commonly found in their musical expressions. Black performers want to use distinctive skill and style, not machine-like performances. (Kochman,1988).
Of course, the reader should understand that this description is suited to some blacks but not to others. Blacks like anybody else do not wish to be stereotyped.
Ethnic identity is a social construction, created by humans to give meaning to one's life. Skin color may be a part of the identification process but it is not the key part. It is through the taking of roles that one construes who she or he is and those roles are influenced by early upbringing, by association with others who hold similar beliefs and attitudes. Shared world views, shared social practices and commonality of experience are part of ethnic construction. (Ashmore & Jussim, 1997).
Interethnic problems result when people define themselves too rigidly(1). In other words, ethnicity is Janus-faced; it builds a sense of community, but at the same time, it can separate one from the wider society. Ethnocentrism and xenophobia are indicators that members of a rigidly constructed ethnic group may feel threatened, even paranoic about the wider culture. Whether these groups are White supremacists, Black Muslims, or members of Chinese gangs, their rigid positions thwart their acceptance into mainline culture. Numerous factors, such as power, gender, sexual orientation and social class influence the construal of the lives of members of ethnic group members (Chow, Wilkinson, & Zinn,1996).
It is not possible to frame the histories of each of the groups except briefly. For a thorough treatment one needs to read the histories of each.
The Navajo, or dine, as they call themselves (O'Bryan, 1956), were in what is now America before the White man, including the Spanish, arrived. Today, young Navaho tribal members may or may not live on the "Rez", which is located near the New Mexico-Arizona border. Many of them have entered the job market, attended Universities or married outside of the tribe. Nevertheless, many young Navajo people are searching out what it means to be Navajo in the modern world. The so-called Red Power Movement in the 1960's and 1970's focused on the renewal of Native American awareness and identity (Nagel, 1996).
Framing the Navajo Rez
The reservation, or Rez, as the Navajo refer to it, is truly in remote America. Most of them are poor, perhaps Catholic, who have experience in going to an Indian boarding school. Poverty and alcoholism associated with joblessness is common in the four corner region where four states join. Time seems to stand still, the Navajo doing things at their own pace, in their own way. Navajo spirituality is evident in their symbols. In the hogan serving as a church, for example, cedar is burned instead of incense; creeds and chants along with the gospel are recorded in the Navajo language. The Navajo redeemer on the wall of the church is a sheepherder and the Navajo yeis, who are protectors or holy persons who lived lives of peace and harmony, were symbolically carved into the glass panels on the church doors. Thus, the Catholic service is a mix of Navajo custom and Christian ways. Ceremonies deal with healing and protection; even a medicine man will conduct healing ceremonies if a Navajo member is having bad dreams or has been away from the Rez for a time, needing cleansing. There is a deep spiritual bond between the Navajo people and Mother Earth.
There are a few pick-up trucks, some people make a living sheepherding, others weave rugs and carve objects and make jewels; the fortunate ones have jobs in schools and hospitals. Often when men are hired outside the Rez, they are hired without benefits, almost like pawns. Many are on welfare. But many families do not have electicity or drinking water. They may buy soft drinks, but these are too sweet for people who often have diabetes (Jones, Jan 21, 2000).
Today, the Navajo, along with the Hopi and the Havasupi Native American tribes, are having difficulty with the owners of the White Vulcan Pumice Mine, an extraction operation that has U.S. permission to mine. Stone-washed jeans, so popular in America, are washed with the pumice extracted here. The problem is that the area is a sacred area called Diichiti, or Mountain of Strength. The mine operators hope to expand their mining, clearing trees and then bulldozing the land. These operations have been dealt with by holding prayer vigils and protests by the tribes. They have met with little success, the mining operation being performed under an 1872 federal mining law, now clearly outdated. Several groups are trying to stop mining altogether (Ghioto, Jan, 2000).
The Chinese society contained two major groups, the upper classes, who were well educated and controlled society, and the lower classes, who were uneducated and were peasants to a large degree (Coye & Livingston, 1975). Chinese sailors apparently had visited these shores in the 1700's but it was the peasant groups who emigrated from China to the West coast of America in the mid-1800's. They had come from economically and politically troubled areas of China. Nearly all males, they came to America in the mid-1800s to make their fortunes in the gold mines, hoping to return to China with their earned wealth. Chinese women came to the United States at a later period to the San Francisco area (Yung, 1995).
In a change of fate, Chinese men became the backbone of labor for the building of railroads. Indeed, it was commonly believed in America that the Chinese had a higher tolerance for pain because they had a less developed nervous system, a specious idea (Coye, 1975). Because they were discriminated against by members of white society, Chinese began to live in enclaves, now called Chinatowns, of which there are several (Takaki, 1993).
They created small businesses devoted to doing what whites would not do, such as laundering, small stores and restaurants. The focus in this book is upon one such Chinatown in the Bowery region of New York City, one of several. Of the four groups discussed, young Chinese, born and raised in this country, have been the most successful, entering colleges and universities, becoming medical and engineering professionals and businessmen. However, modern Asian-Americans, born in the United States, are not entirely free from ethnic bias and stereotype. Females especially have "racialized bodies" in the view of many whites (Lee, 1997).
On the other hand, the family values of achievement have led to educational success for Asian American children, who, unlike other ethnic groups, continue to increase their numbers in colleges and universities (Braxton, 1999). Chinese parents, perhaps more than members of other ethnic groups, tend to talk to their children about the values of hard work, high standards, and saving "face". Family honor is at stake when a child fails.
Not all is entirely well in Chinatown, however, where Chinese have had to fight for their version of the American Dream. Unfair labor practices, sweatshops, and other built-in practices discriminate against the recent immigrants who may lack the English language skill, or be in Chinatown illegally; they must work in low paying jobs controlled by tightly controlled by well established, wealthy Americans, a modern form of slave-trade. A Chinese Staff and Workers Association exists to fight perceived wrongs, having some success (Asian Economic News, August 24, 1998).
Blacks, formerly referred to as Negroes, represent approximately 13 percent of the American population. They were brought to America against their will in the early 1600's. Captured from the west coast of Africa, often separated from their families, they became slaves in America and elsewhere. Unlike Indians who did not make good slaves, they survived in desperate circumstances. Despite the fact that many public figures wanted to abolish slavery or wanted to send the slaves back to Africa, slavery survived for economic reasons, mostly on plantations in the South. (Filler,1960).
They were distributed throughout the colonies, including the North, prior to gaining their freedoms, a slow, agonizing process. Today, of course, their offspring live throughout the United States, mostly in cities. Their struggle to "be somebody" is noted in the volumes of books, talk shows and programs that discuss their struggle in modern society. The New York Times, for example, recently produced a series devoted to how race is lived in America', which focused on the dimensions of their experience. Modern issues of racial profiling, hate crimes and reparation are often found in the media. The egalitarian ethos has not spread to the black community very fast. For example, in 1990, 7.7 percent of the Captains, or senior officers, in the New York Police Department were black; at present there are 5.7 percent. In the elite helicopter group, only one black person is found among 59 whites (New York Times, April 2, 2001). Whatever the explanation, the meaning of the data is negative in the minds of those who would improve relations. Many highly educated black people in major universities are spokespeople for them, as are ministers who have traditionally empowered their congregations. Blacks occupy high political positions, including judgeships; they own businesses. Serious interethnic relational issues remain however.
Cubans had come back and forth freely between Cuba and the United States prior to the takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro in the late 1960's. He imposed autocratic, Communistic practices upon Cuban society. Following his takeover, Cubans came to the United States as escapees, perhaps as former Batista supporters, or they were forced from Cuba by Fidel Castro's government because they did not support him. Castro sent many formerly imprisoned people to the United States as well. Boat people came here under the cover of darkness in whatever vessels they could find. Today, the largest concentration of Cubans is in Little Havana in Miami; however, there are large concentrations in New Jersey, New York City and other major cities in the United States. Cuban culture is expressed in its salza and danza, in popular television shows, such as the former I Love Lucy Show and in the music of Gloria Estefan and others. Cuban artists, exported from Cuba, have made their mark as have businessmen who occupy highly visible positions in the United States.
The Elian Gonzales affair, so long the attention of the major news networks in the United States, reflected the ongoing hostility that older exiled Cubans still have toward Fidel Castro. Nearly half of the Cubans who fled Cuba did so between 1960 and 1969; their memory is strong (Ray, Mar 20, 2000).
Framing Bicultural Cubans
Young Cubans, born in America of Cuban parents who wish to return to a post-Castro Cuba, have been called the 1.5 generation, or the one-and-a-half-generation, referring to the fact that they are bicultural; were they to return to Cuba, they would return with no Cuban experience. It is they who are creating new bicultural identities. It was their parents who lived-on-the-hyphen, so to speak (Firmat, 1994).
Cubans have had a very different historical experience from the other groups being discussed. They have been protected by mainstream Americans while the others were harmed by mainstream Americans. They arrived in a country where interethnic conflicts still exist but which have been mitigated over a period of years as groups achieved power and identity. The ethnic identities of the Navajo, Cubans, Blacks and Chinese in America is complex, not monolithic. The reader needs to be aware that there are as many differences among the members of any group as there are between those members and other groups, including Whites. Nevertheless, there are bonds of mutuality and attraction that members share one with another, that permit them to be ethnically identified.
Language is a marker of identity, a fact that made members of these groups stand out from the early white Americans; often, it made it easier to make strangers of them. Older members of these four groups tend to maintain their language faithfully; very young ones may speak English outside the home while speaking the traditional language at home. Many Navajo children have lost the Navajo language; it is not always passed down from elders to children.
Framing Navajo Code Talking
Interestingly the Navajo language, oral and pictographic, and not written down until recently, was used in modified form to create a secret code during World War II when code talkers of Navajo background were used as message bearers. The Navajo language, scarcely known to most Americans, was completely unknown to the Japanese, who could find no way to decipher the code. Trained as message bearers, the Navajo code talkers successfully transmitted commands from military headquarters to troops on the front lines. All languages are codes, of course, but the distinctive linguistic characteristics of the Navajo language were extraordinarily useful as a unique code in wartime.
Blacks brought to America for slave purposes as part of the slave trade, came from a rich, diverse panoply of local and regional dialects and languages. Thus, often they were not able to communicate among themselves due to these differences. Shipmasters mixed together blacks who spoke different dialects to help prevent them from banding together in an uprising. Even today, Blacks may speak in very distinctive ways, as the Ebonics movement revealed.
Black slave history meant that the slaves would receive little or no education or training. It also meant that they would develop distinctive features in their spoken English, many of which survive in modified form to this day. The Black church, often outlawed, became the focal point for gatherings of black folk. They learned very expressive ways to sing and dance using their own stylized languages.
The immigrating Chinese, arriving over a period of time from different parts of China, were multi-lingual, a factor contributing to their complex history. The Chinese language is monosyllabic, unlike English which is polysyllabic. To provide variety and complexity to the language, Chinese people use tonal levels to differentiate one word from the next, resulting in a sing-song quality, as many Americans perceive it. Major linguistic groups, such as Cantonese and Mandarin, existed, mostly centered in various geographic regions of China. Even within these major linguistic groups, one region would vary from another in the way that words were spoken. Thus, the Chinese who came to America in the mid-1800's brought different dialects with them, depending on the area of China from which they came. Today, young Chinese Americans born in the United States learn English, although they may speak it with some phonetic difficulty because the Chinese spoken at home is radically different from spoken English.
Hispanics from Cuba spoke a modified version of traditional Spanish imported from Spain; however, it was admixed with the linguistic varieties of Indian and Black dialects. Thus, it was distinctive. English is spoken in Cuba as well, the U.S. having taken Cuba from Spain during the late 1800's and the flow of commercial traffic that existed before Castro encouraged the use of English. Cuba, centered in the Caribbean, became a crossroads, a place of conquest, as the Spanish-American war demonstrated. Young Cuban Americans, born in the United States, frequently speak fluent English, although their parents and grandparents may speak only broken English.
Fortunately perhaps for them, Spanish is more compatible with English tha is either Chinese or Navajo; it is no accident that Spanish is the language of choice for white students in colleges and universities, where a second language is usually required.
Although linguistic distinctiveness is often cited as the main factor in ethnic identity, it is not the sole factor. Ethnicity is expressed as a dynamic flow of verbal and nonverbal clusters of behaviors, including individual and public displays (Ashmore & Jussim, 1997). Having a background of similar values, customs, habits, beliefs and so on, members of ethnic groups tend to express themselves in recognizable ways, individually and collectively. American Standard English is taught in schools which brings up an issue of conformity. The issue seems to be whether linguistic diversity is desirable in American society.
Although they differ in customs and practices, the Chinese, Blacks and the Navajo backgrounds were infused with various forms of communalism. The emphasis was upon the family, the tribe or the nation, not upon the individual as it was with Whites. Collective ceremonies, such as the Navajo Blessingway or the celebration of the Chinese New Year reinforced their communal and tribal ways as did various rites of passage among tribal Blacks.
Tribal practice of tribal kinship prevailed in most subSaharan African areas (Turnbull, 1962). The Cuban society was admixed, Africans playing a strong role in the cultural development. The Spanish influence meant that Cubans would become Catholic, at least in appearance. The spirit of individualism was stronger in Cuba than it was among the other groups, although it was muted by ethnic factors.The mestizos in Cuba as well as the Blacks, whose roots were in Africa, gave the society a distinctive social flavor; they remained somewhat out of touch with the urbanized areas of Cuba, many living in the more isolated regions of the eastern mountains.
It was by and large the White person who lived under the individualistic ethic, the ethic stemming from Protestant reaction to Catholicism and from Calvinistic theology. It is the individual who must stand before God; it is God who blesses the individual who performs her or his work satisfactorily (Weber, 1958). Early America was heavily influenced by people who came from Western and Northern Europe, largely those who were influenced by the Church of England and other groups, often dissidents, fleeing their own countries.
The white migration from East to West in the early 1800's brought with it the values of individualism; white settlers and the military confronted the Navajo and the Chinese who were culturally very different from themselves. Fortunately, the differences between white Americans and Cubans were less pronounced.
All cultural groups contain cosmological elements. When groups are isolated over a long period of time, they tend to create distinctive cosmologies.
The White Man's Faith
White Europeans who emigrated from Europe to the United States brought with them their beliefs about a Christian God who created and controlled the universe, who was omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He was involved in the affairs of humans. The Christian God of the Old and New Testaments was to be worshipped and praised; people were to live their lives sacramentally. People, as sinners, reprobate before God, must be saved and the son of God, Jesus the Christ, was the Savior. The mercy of God was shown to humans, who had sinned, as noted in the Adam and Eve story of disobedience.
The Christian life was expressed in practices reflecting the faith. Observing the Sabbath, attending Church, dressing with humility and acting righteously toward others were obligatory. People who failed to live by the religious strictures,or who failed to obey the law which was rooted in the ten commandments of the Old Testament, were condemned, often treated as backsliders or heathens, even publicly flogged if the sin was serious enough. In short, the early Americans brought with them a vivid sense of what it meant to be a Christian and a powerful sense of moral rectitude and justice.
Interestingly, as mentioned, many of them had been persecuted for their beliefs prior to their arrival in the New World. But Christians in the new world believed that they had the truth and that it was their duty to share the truth with others, who were often thought of as ethnics or heathens. The concept of manifest destiny and the white man's burden grew out of the belief that white people had an obligation, as God's chosen people, to serve mankind, to enlighten the world and to spread themselves, in this case, across the continent (Weingarten, 1963). Thus, the White man's military and their missionaries were often found in the same areas as they moved West.
Whatever the virtues of faith in a just, moral and forgiving God were, there was a hidden downside when those virtues devolved into social practices that excluded, even harmed others. Ethnocentrism and strangerhood were the unintended results. As an extreme present-day example, White Supremacists use the Bible to justify their ideologies which are essentially racist and separatist (Bushart, Craig & Barnes, 1998).
Surely there were Christian practitioners who disagreed among themselves about the superiority of Whites over people of color, but it was apparent that early white Americans were influenced largely by a belief system which in practice was compatible with ethnocentrism.
The Chinese who came to America to work in the gold mines, who worked on the railroads and eventually settled in enclaves in urban areas, brought with them an outlook on life that was influenced by Confucianism, ancestor worship, beliefs in dragons and other animals who acted in god-like fashion. The Chinese culture had long, historic roots; their cosmological approach to life was complicated, but it worked for them. Like the Navajo, they invoked the spirit gods when bad things happened and engaged in mysterious rituals that white Americans did not understand.
Framing Chinese Dragons
In ancient China, the Celestial Chinese Dragon was a symbol of the Chinese people, who considered themselves descendants of the Dragon. Dragons are often conceived of as divine, mythical creatures who bring abundance, prosperity and good fortune. Tooday, The Year of the Dragon, taking place every 12 years, is a lucky year. Children born during dragon years, such as 1964 and 1976, were blessed, as were those who were born in 1988 and 2000. Different kinds of elements are associated with Dragon years. Wood, fire, earth, metal, water are associations. Thus, the Dragon is infused in all life.
In Chinese mythology, dragons could stop rain from falling or cause floods or even make rice stick together. Traditionally, people hold parades and other ceremonies to please dragons;The Dragon is the supreme being amongst all creatures. It can live in the seas, fly up to the heavens and act as a mountain. The nine major types of Chinese dragons have distinct personality traits and they are represented differently by the Chinese (Coye and Livingston, 1975; Crystalinks, 1-22/01).
The Navajo had distinctive beliefs as well. When settlers moved westward, just as they had confronted Native Americans in the Northeastern part of the continent, they came upon Navaho and other tribal groups whose beliefs were very different from their own. Believing in a panoply of gods, who took the form of animals, trees or even the sky and other landforms, the Navajo, like other tribal people, conducted ceremonies and dances to appease the gods, to be in tune with nature. Very elaborate accounts of creation focusing on male and female gods were part of the Navajo cosmology. Ceremonies and rituals served to bind tribal members together. Coyote the Trickster was responsible for many problems that assailed the people (Kluckhohn,1944).
The Blessingway, a ceremony of healing, was a basic part of the Navajo religion; healing was meant to restore sick people to a place of healthy balance, sickness being seen as an expression of misalignment with nature and the gods. These cosmological symbols and practices were very different from those of the Christians who arrived as settlers and as military personnel.
Blacks, brought from Africa, largely from subSaharan and West Coast Africa, were tribal. Their tribal religions included a belief in spirits, in animism or the idea that spirits were in trees and other objects. They practiced medicine, using shamans and medicine men to ward off evil spirits. Their religions were complicated and highly varied; religious versions flourished in different ways in widely scattered tribes. There was no massive geographic nation knitting together the many tribal communities (Turnbull, 1962; Turner, 1967).
The Cuban religious history was an admixture of ethnic folk beliefs and Roman Catholicism, brought to Cuba by Spanish conquerors. Blacks from Africa brought their religions to Cuba, too. Thus, Cuban cosmologies were unlike the others above. Catholic beliefs are essentially incompatible with Communism; Cubans sought freedom to the North and in other countries.
Foodways, geography, the concept of place, beliefs, attitudes, rites of passage, level of technology and a variety of other cultural elements, such as the role of power and kinship, highlight the differences between these five groups.
Unfortunately, except for the Cubans, who came later to a more open United States, the differences came to be markers that triggerered racialism in a predominately White society in early America. The westward expansion brought Whites in contact with the Navajo and the Chinese. Blacks came to this continent via a different route. To those with little understanding of the importance of cultural differences, skin color became overly important; black, red, yellow and brown stereotypically characterized these ethnic groups. The dominant group was white.
The contact hypothesis suggests that when relative equal groups of people come together, they can work together, sharing goals, not competing with one another. Under these conditions, prejudice and racial bias decrease.
Human inter-ethnic relationships may be illustrated by using circles for each group. When groups share much, their circles overlap; if they share little, their circles overlap minimally; if they share nothing their circles are independent. (Sarbaugh, 1979). Shared interpersonal relationships promote affiliation and friendship. When there is little to be shared, groups may become hostile with one another, even warlike. Victimology and marginalization are often the result when a powerful group vanquishes a less powerful group.
When Columbus arrived in the Western world, there were an estimated two million Indians, named so because Columbus thought he had discovered a new route to the Eastern world; the Indians did not call themselves Indians. The Navajo, for example, referred to themselves as Dine. They had come apparently from the Canadian North; they lived in a natural relationships with the earth, the moon, the sun and the stars. Over the years, they had been hunters and gatherers, agriculturalists and pastoralists. The Spanish brought the horse to their civilization.
Their religious way of life was distinctive, rich and full. Man was to live in tune with nature and with his fellow man. Singers and chanters told stories about their past and conducted healing ceremonies. Great ceremonies included masquerades, dance, prayer and song. There was little distinction between the sacred and the profane (Levy, 1998). Witchcraft was practiced, too. The early Navajo believed that it was possible to influence the course of events by means involving the supernatural (Kluckhohn, 1944). Prayers were silent and mental prayers or monologically expressed with short devotional repetitions.
The Navajo did not distinguish strictly between maleness and femaleness; tied into some of their myths were stories about hermaphrodites which symbolically united males and females. Weavers, often women, wove symbols and stories into the patterns. In short, the Navajo had a meaningful and established cultural identity; they lived in a place between the mountains and hills, an earthly but spiritual home, a sacred place.
It was highly unfortunate that for the white man, the general image of the Navajo was as an uncultured savage, whose cosmologies were mysterious, whose practices were foreign to the mind of the white man, perhaps even threatening. White Americans had very different goals and ways compared to the the Navajo. The white man at least had a pretense of science, but the Indians lacked that sense. Indians tended to see forces in nature that could help or hurt them. They considered it necessary to appease and get along with the spirits that existed. By using prayers and ritual forms, the Indian could get the spirits to work with him, rather than against him. The Christian white man did not share these approaches to nature. The Christian God was his benefactor as he took charge of the lands through which he moved.
In military clashes, the dominant white man prevailed over time. A popular slogan says that it is the powerful, the winners, who write the history of peoples and they write those histories from their own perspectives. It was the White man who imposed his will and hoped to impose his culture upon the Navajo using a variety of methods, perhaps believing that he was doing the "right" thing. Surely, he was doing the expedient thing because, as the White man moved west, he wanted more and more land.
Framing Early White Contact
After the United States annexed the Southwest, white contacts with the Navajo increased. Considered intruders by the Navajo, Whites nevertheless destroyed their orchards and their sheep herds, in a raid by Kit Carson, to whom they surrendered in 1863. The Navajo tribal members were rounded up, except for those who fled to the hills, and marched to Bosque Redondo, a very distant desert site the government had selected to force them into farming, into irrigating the land. This farming experiment failed and they were forced onto reservations in a new policy designed to civilize them. The Navajo tribe resisted this effort, although it eventually succeeded. The Whites believed they had to civilize the savages (Takaki,1993). The Navajo spirit was shattered.
Deep, great changes were wrought in Indian tribal affairs by the arrival of whites and their contact with them, often to their own detriment and denigration (Smith & Kvasnicka, 1976). Too often, the Indians had become a problem for the whites and, eventually, even the use of Reservations to solve these problems were failures, by and large.
Not only were wars fought to contain the Navajo, but diseases, such as smallpox and influenza for which the Indians had no remedy-- for these were diseases of the White man--destroyed many. It also tended to destroy or render inoperative the Indians control over the supernatural and to trigger changes in their 'ecosystem', as it did among most Indian tribes (Martin, 1978). The Bureau of Indian Affairs, formed in 1890, was designed to change the Indian culture, to "civilize" them. In so doing, they destroyed the will of the Navajo, leaving them little or no political power.
The Federal Government has apologized formally for the role it played in the misery of the Navajo. Today, the Navajo is but one tribe of about 500 tribes with 300 Indian Reservations. The Federal Government recognizes 282 tribes, the Navajo being the largest among them. Much of the Navajo Reservation, or Rez as the Navajo refer to it, is controlled by outsiders and many of the tribal members live outside the reservation. Today, the Navajo live in two cultures. Wealth is often generated by casinos on the reservation; youth are schooled; tribes have empowered polities; and some intercommerce is conducted between white society and Navajo. The Navajo have access to computers; the digital divide has been crossed.
There are indications that many youth are returning to their cultural roots. Despite 100 years of missionizing by Christian Whites, many young Navajo people are turning back to their traditional religion, trying to identify with the past. They are curious about ceremonies, including sand paintings and about BlessingWay. Young Navajos attend public schools, or perhaps an Indian School; they learn English and they plan to work in the mainstream workforce. Every family owns a vehicle and they are dependent on a cash economy (Worth & Adair, 1997), but, as mentioned previously, they are poor.
There has been a breakdown in the traditional Navajo family; the kinship system is no longer powerful. For example, the tradition of the mother's brother, who would teach her children the moral codes of the Navajo, has been forgotten by this new generation. Alcoholism is a major problem for the youth as mentioned above; peyote is often used by young people as a sacrament in the Navajo church, which is often fused with Christian elements. The young Navajo faces the consequences of living marginally on the edge of white culture and of trying to make contact with their tradition (Petersen, 1997). Although present day Navajo engage in the wider white culture, as original Americans they do not honor Columbus Day, as a symbol of resistance to the arrival of the white man.
Early contacts with Negroes were forceful. Although slavery existed in Africa before the White man arrived--as it does even today-- when the economic system of slavery was created, there was a resounding cultural clash, the White man benefiting.
Framing African Tribalism
African societies were built around tribal structures; the Western concept of nation was unknown to them. Perhaps their concept of nation applied to the tribe, which was the center of all cultural activities, completely different from what they would find in America (Turnbull, 1962). Today, there are modern cities located where there had been tribal centers, on the West Coast of Africa essentially, which developed because of trade with European countries. Today, Africans may speak English or other languages, but in the 1600's, tribal members spoke their own dialects, having little contact with the white man. Although slavery existed in Africa at the time, the American and European slave trade forced Blacks to sever their ties to their tribes and they were forced into countries with cultures which were completely new to them. This wrenching experience was a blow to their identity, their sense of place.
The power to intrude on the lives of weaker people and to exact from them their sense of identity and place is exhibited in slavery (Brown, 1969). Early settlers in Colonial America needed cheap labor on their labor intensive plantations, mostly in the South. In New England and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where there were no plantations, the settlers engaged in slave trading almost from the start. The bartering of rum for slaves from the African coastal regions, and then the exchange of those slaves for molasses, something that could be distilled into more rum, meant that there was an ongoing cycle of slave trading. The profits of slave dealing went to the building of great mansions near Boston and Salem. When slaves were put to use on the large holdings of wealthy New Englanders, it was a sign of ownership, power, prestige and wealth (Gross, 1976).
Although slaves were treated differently in New England--for example they could buy their freedom--than they were in the South, it was the demand for black slaves as economic commodities by the more powerful White people that continued the practice of stealing black people from their homelands.
Slaves were first taken from the coasts of Africa in 1619. It was clear to the White man that Indian labor did not work. Perhaps the perception of Africa as a monolithic, undeveloped and uncivilized dark continent where heathens lived made it easier to steal away men, women and children--to separate family members one from the other. To prevent uprisings among the stolen black slaves, their linguistic backgrounds were identified and the blacks were deliberately mixed aboard ship. Uprisings occurred despite these precautions. When they arrived on plantations, the fear of uprisings on the plantations was pervasive as well.
Even marriage between them was denied; men and women were separated, although marriages occurred sub rosa. Slaves attempted to rise up, to run away and to join Indian tribal communities, but the institution of slavery persisted for decades.
The Meaning of The Black Church
Although they were usually discouraged from congregating, Blacks on plantations used the church as a form of communal strength and identity, where they could worship and grow together. Today, the power of the pulpit is still evident, Black ministers having moral and political authority. Black ministers challenge their black congregation to take part in political activities such as marches, sit-ins and other methods of political influence. The spirit of the Black people, victims of slavery, was nourished in the Black church. If ever there was a case in history for psychological victimology to set in, for ethnic groups to feel great loss of self and community, it was during enslavement and all that it entailed. Being Black meant being less than human.
Black people were not thought to be fully human which was was a way to justify their enslavement. Achieving the right to vote was a long way down the road of history in America. Even after the 1875 Civil Rights Act permitting them to vote, which came about as a result of the Civil War, southerners used fraud, violence and terror to take away voting rights. Jim Crow laws kept Blacks segregated from whites and separate but equal facilities were instituted, upheld in the Supreme Court in 1896 in Plessy Versus Ferguson (Persell, 1987). The 1964 Civil Rights Act opened American society to black Americans but they still found difficulties because institutional racism, segregated living patterns and work employment opportunities were still denied based on race and skin color.
Today as then, Black Americans are not a monolithic ethnic group. People who identify themselves as Blacks, and prior to that Negroes, speak with many voices, embrace many religions, work in diverse professions, and lead complex social lives, just as do Whites. However, it is clear that Blacks have had to contend with social and historical difficulties that others, who voluntarily came from white Europe, did not. Black American identity has been shaped in the cruel crucible of slavery. Modern young blacks, of course, have no direct memory of slavery; nevertheless, they carry the problems of identity forward in a society that is variously friendly or hostile to people of color. Blacks must make sense of the social world that is dominated by white power (Harris, Blue, & Griffith, 1995).
Chinese sailors came to the American shores in the 1700's but they came for reasons that were different from those who came in the mid-1800's. The latter group came to make a fortune in the gold mines; they were sometimes welcomed, sometimes ostracized as a yellow peril.
Framing Chinese Immigration
Ships from the Orient with a load of freight and coolies would tie up in San Francisco, where the Chinese workers were sorted into groups when they went ashore, to be taken to the waiting wagons and flatcars and then sent to railroad work sites. They had been told by American agents who went to China that they would receive high wages, that the work was plentiful and that the U.S. Consul would assist their passage. Their invitation, however, was based on the need for labor, white labor being in short supply.
They were celebrated at first, taking part in parades, showing their special pageants, working alongside Native Americans and Europeans. When the economy worsened, they lost favor, and were asked to leave America (Coye & Livingston, 1975).
The Chinese, mostly males, came to work in the gold mines of California, to make their bundle and to move back home where their wives lived. They had come mostly from mainland China when economic times were depressed and politically unstable. They brought with them their language, customs and beliefs. Only later did Chinese and other Asians come to America from other countries. Perhaps 322,000 came during the 1840's mostly to the west coast (Takaki, 1993).
Chinese society was earmarked by strong familial and kinship relationships. Like the White man, they hoped for happiness, good fortune, moneymaking and longevity. The Chinese culture rested on a sense of social interconnectedness, a sense of place and belonging, following Confucian ideals. There was little meaning outside of social networks. They were not persons in anonymity as they later became in America. Being born male in China was important; the idea of the male as a "little Emperor" was significant. The aged in traditional Chinese society enjoyed a special status, of wisdom and perseverance, as part of the cross-generational lineage of the Chinese family.
Framing Chinese Symbols
Symbols of Chinese culture had particular meaning, whether it was the Dragon symbol or the symbol of the peach which meant longevity. Red symbolized happiness and good luck and gold symbolized riches. Spring Festivals, particularly in Beijing, became moveable feasts. The Chinese had a sense of place, of belonging in the natural world and their social customs and habits noted this sense. Dead ancestors were accorded a place in their homes and in their worship. Life was conceived of as an unbreakable continuity, one generation to the next. Centuries of dynastic control of China gave the country a collective identity.
The Chinese culture emphasized communalism. Their ways of life were vastly different from those of the more individualistic frontier people found in America; and, of course, they were people of color, who spoke a peculiar language, who seemed clannish to Whites and they were willing to work hard over long hours for their income. At first, in good economic times, the Chinese immigrants fared fairly well, both in the gold mines and later on the railroad construction crews. However, when hard economic times hit California and the West, it was the Chinese, isolated from the White mainstream, who became victimized as a yellow peril. White men feared they would lose their jobs to the yellow man.
Chinese were discriminated against, even lynched and killed in many cases. The xenophobia of the White man resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, an act that was extended in 1902 (Takaki, 1993). As a result, Chinese were no longer permitted to enter this country. As a way of protection, the Chinese formed enclaves, such as early Chinatowns, which exist even today. There the Chinese could at least know other Chinese and find common identity, less threatened by theWhite man. They could start their own businesses, such as laundries and small food markets for which they are known even today in Chinatown in the New York City area. Gangs were powerful in mainland China, often disturbing the political status quo. Gangs, or Fongs, found their way to the United States, too, where they still wield economic power in Chinatown.
The plan to create wealth and then return to their wives in China did not always work. Today, Chinatown is a complex enclave of Chinese, Asian and other peoples who have found their way to America, whether legitimately or illegitimately. Modern Chinatown is no longer confined to the narrow, original boundaries near the Bowery.
Members of Chinatown may be Confucianists, they may be Methodists, Buddhists or Catholics. They may even be all at the same time in different places (Takaki, 1993). They are lawyers, doctors and dentists; they are businessmen. They may follow traditional Chinese ways but often they have altered their social practices to fit into the American way. For example, young skilled Chinese have created the Chinese new Year on the internet. The Ten Thousand-Dimensional Web of Heaven and Net on Earth is an illustration of how young people blend modernity with tradition (Kozar, April 17, 2000). In short, the new generations of Chinese, perhaps bred from traditional families in Chinatown, have moved into the mainstream of American life, principally into universities and visible professional levels of American society. Young Chinese Americans may speak English in colleges and Chinese at home. Perhaps they, more than the Navajo and Blacks have succeeded in entering the mainstream of American economic life. Nevertheless, they must contend with social issues that confront people of color, especially when there has been a tradition of resentment toward them, as expressed in the yellow peril phrase.
Cubans are included in this chapter because their experience in this society has been welcomed rather than forced, a sign that Americans may be maturing in their attitudes about human differences.
Framing the Cuban Story
The Cubans highlighted in this book share one thing in common: they are exiles from Cuba living in America and many of them want to return to a Castro-free Cuba. In short, the exiles came against their wishes and intended to maintain their way of being, their culture. Thus Cubans have been treated quite differently from the Blacks, the Navajo or the Chinese; they are in the United States as guests of the United States. They are Hispanic whites with Cuban roots who wish to maintain their Cuban identity. Indeed, Cafe Nostalgia, a restaurant, but one of many, in the center of Miami's Little Havana, sustains the Cuban soul. A house band plays cha-cha-cha and people dance and sing Cuban dances and songs. They are nostalgic people (Paxman, June 8, 1998). This general statement applies to the older generation of exiled Cubans, not necessarily to the young generation born in the United States in these families, who tend to be more focused on their sense of place in North American society (Padilla,1980).
As mentioned, most Cubans came to the United States following the takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro, who forced many Cubans out of the country. During the late 1960's Castro sent airloads of children to the United States. Labeled Pedro Pan evacuees, they numbered about 14,000 in total and they were unaccompanied by their parents. Now the children are adults and they remain adamantly opposed to the Castro government. Their children, perhaps born in the United States and acking their experiences, do not always share their views. Perhaps the young have become discriminated against by the older Cubans(CNN Online, April 5, 2000). One merely has to read about the Elian Gonzales case to see how the political attitudes of the older exiled Cubans plays out. Many other Cubans came to the United States willingly, but Fidel Castro was eager to empty his jails of dissidents and criminals whom he sent out of the country, many of them coming to the United States. Thus, the exiled Cubans had many faces.
The Cubans were not unfamiliar with the United States before coming here. Yankee radio, the Voice of America and the presence of U.S. citizens in Cuba meant that many Cubans were bilingual, had visited the United States during the Batista years in power or had relatives living here. In short, the modern influences on identity of Cubans was very unlike that of Navajo, Chinese or Blacks in America. Yet, they were caught in a social and political vise. The older Cubans, forced out of Cuba, wanted desperately to return to a post-Castro Cuba; at the same time, they could not leave and they were welcome to stay. Uncertainty became their problem; they are people in exile.
To some extent, however, Cubans are marginalized in the United States. Perhaps color is less a problem than exists among the other groups; their music, art, dance and foodways have caught on in the United States. Young people know about the Miami Sound Machine; older people remember Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball on television. As mentioned, the salsa, danza, mambo and other musical expressions have become part of North American popular culture. Cuban baseball players escape to the United States, join the major leagues and become well known. Thus, to some extent, Cubans, like other Hispanics whose total numbers are about 13 percent of the U.S. population have become part of the cultural fabric of America. Yet, they must fight to gain acceptance into mainstream America.
Unfortunately, to some extent mainstream America remains best suited to people with white skin, raised in white communities. Fortunately, American society is under repair; Interethnic understanding is replacing ignorance to some degree. There are serious problems that remain.
People live and do their ethnicity. Ethnicity is a powerful master theme that is constructed and maintained by members who identity themselves in specific ways. The historical pattern of relationships found between Whites and people of other colors tends to influence modern perceptions, as shown in this section. An adaptable inter-ethnic model of relationship is proposed. Due to the shortage of space, this section focuses only upon a discussion of the contemporary Black American experience in the United States.
Young black children, when asked which color of doll, brown or white, they would prefer mostly to play with, pointed to white dolls, rejecting the brown dolls (Waller, 1998). Do young children react similarly to real people? People may disagree about the implications of studies like this one; nevertheless, in the view of many scholars, the social context furnishes the need for such studies. The theme of victimology is frequently discussed on the news and talk shows, as is the theme of Black opportunity in a white society.
All persons, perhaps, are familiar with the problems caused by a lack of self-esteem. People need not be colored to know about such issues. Unfortunately, low self esteem tends to promote negative projections and the blaming of others, a form of projection. Whites and Blacks must deal with issues of self esteem that often characterize their relationships.(Fein & Spencer, 1997). Blacks have had to deal with the issue in ways that are very different from the experience of most Whites.
American society is economically stratified rfesulting in the marginalization of many people, often people of color (Blau & Duncan, 1967; Kerbo, 1983). Despite the progress that has been made in ethnic relations, a recent poll suggests that blacks feel more discriminated against than any other racial or ethnic group. Eighty three percent of the people questioned said that blacks were more discriminated against than were Hispanics, at 76 percent. Women and American Indians were next with 67 percent of those questioned. Further, while whites were quite satisfied with their earnings and where they live, only 49 percent of Blacks reported satisfaction with their household income (Jet, June 12, 2000).
Framing Employment Patterns
Black and Hispanic employees during 1997 in Northern California technology companies numbered as follows:
Figures are not specifically shown for Cubans or for Chinese. There are no Navajo members represented. Cubans make up approximately 4.3 percent of the Hispanic population in the United States according to the Census Bureau and Blacks make up approximately 13 percent of the total US. population. Median incomes are rising for ethnic groups discussed in this book, but they are well below the averages for the white population. Family incomes vary from Asians on top to Hispanics, Blacks and Native Americans in that order in the United States.
Opinion polls and surveys vary considerably and the findings can be highly variable depending on the approach taken and the methods used. Nevertheless The New York Times revealing how race is lived in everyday life in America suggests that there is considerable Black discomfort in White environments. The modern face of prejudice is more subtle than the early forms. Color and ethnicity still matter to whites but not as directly as in early America. Although the focus of this book is on the development of interethnic adaptability and the establishment of better social understandings, the frame below illustrates how some scholars and writers feel.
Framing Contemporary Racism
"The so-called American melting pot has become a tinderbox that seems ready to explode", according to a statement on the cover jacket (Rowan, 1996). A well-known reporter, his book focuses on the abandonment of affirmative action, on crime and drugs, and on hate-mongering.
"We are left with the crushing effect of what we have done to ourselves by using race as our defining tool and lying most of the time about what we are doing. . . ", as it says on the cover jacket (Hacker, 1992). Hacker's book is a careful delineation, often statistical, of issues that divide the American society.
The views of the writers of these two books are extreme. Although there may be many Blacks who share these views, many others wish to approach modern ethnic problems from a middle way, referred to here as inter-ethnic adaptability.
Clearly, there is a relationship between culture and economy, between ethnicity and place, between education and opportunity. When one is born in the mainstream, one usually has access to good schools, to good jobs, to fair treatment in the courts, to relatively stable family situations, to good health care, and to appropriate representation in the media. When one is born in poor colored neighborhoods, she must contend with factors that most white people have not known.
Many Black Americans are found in the lower classes in society, in neighborhoods where they experience violence when growing up. They may be confronted with drugs and joblessness; their entrance to college is not assured; their access to health care is unassured. To many Black people there "Ain't no Makin' it" (MacLeod, 1987). There is social immobility, instead of mobility; there is continued social reproduction of the down and out environment; there are leveled aspirations. Analyzing two very different groupings of black youth in difficult neighborhoods, the author in the frame below shows how down-and-out group members think about making it in life.
Framing Life in Difficult Neighborhoods
The familiar refrain of "behave yourself, study hard, get good grades and graduate and then go to college and get a good job and make some money" tends to work backwards on students who live daily lives of failure. It tends to confirm their failure. Parroting the achievement motive does not motivate these students. Schools, instead, need to acknowledge the racial barriers that exist and to build on the esteem that exists in the minds of these low-income urban youth middle-class statements for motivation (MacLeod, 1987).
One must be careful not to paint the picture too simplistically; poor whites are found throughout the country and wealthy people of color are found as well. Nevertheless, one can understand why many people of color see may themselves as victims of society.
Symbolic racism persists in modern American society but many, perhaps most people, learn to live with it, as a fact of life. But, many people simply ignore racism, averting the issues, acting cool. They choose to avoid issues. Some White Americans believe that affirmative action and other social measures designed to rectify problems from the past have given unfair advantages to minorities. The same people may oppose bilingual education, declaring that only English should be spoken by all Americans and they may make it hard for immigrants to get access to all rights enjoyed by mainstream Whites. (Waller, 1998).
Subtle forms of discrimination continue exist. Black officers, for example,still find color lines in the ranks (Chivers, Apr 2, 2000). Racism is not always blatant; there is a sense of politically correctness. Fortunately, the voices of Black American scholars are now being heard and read; the political arena includes many Black American professors; universities are including Black studies in their curricula; and, Black American participation in the economy generally seems to be improving.
Film, television and the print media have, in the past, profiled Indians as war-whooping savages or pictured blacks as foot-shuffling, servile people. For example, issues about whether Native Americans images should be displayed on Red Man tobacco, on the Cleveland Indians' advertising, or the use of Redskins on an NFL football franchise, may be demeaning to Native Americans; at the least, it is stereotyped. Depicting the Navajo as drunks is stereotypical as well. Perhaps old stereotypes have been replaced by new ones (Layng, July, 2000).
Framing Black Television Characters
Black TV sitcoms and characters amuse most of us, but are they really serving white interests? From "Amos 'n' Andy" to "The Jeffersons" and "Booty Call", such programs seem to be a black joke told by a white-dominated media, with the help of career Black professional actors and actresses. Viewers get the same mouth-flapping Black brothers and sarcastic Black sisters and troubled black cops in show after show, justified by marketing surveys. Plenty of jokes are told about Blacks, but are there similar jokes told about mainstream Whites? (Jacobs,1999). These thoughts express the sentiments of a black writer.
Fortunately, recently the media are representing minorities more realistically. Film companies, owned by Cubans, by Blacks, by Navajos and by Chinese are now portraying sensitive images about their identities. Ethnically based newspapers discuss the issues associated with ethnicity in the United States.
Broadly speaking, all people profile others; that is, they try to establish the identity of people whom they meet. When prejudice and power are combined, profiling can be a serious problem. Racial profiling by law enforcement agencies, by police and others, has meant that Blacks were unfairly searched, unfairly targeted in matters of crime.
There is an expectancy bias that lies behind racial profiling, meaning that differential attention is paid to black crimes, highlighting them, while crimes of Whites are played down, given less attention. In urban ghettos, putting people in jail without good legal representation is not uncommon. Modern racism is institutionalized, found in the patterns of the everyday operation of public legal, health and educational institutions.
The Census 2000 revealed that major ethnic changes are occurring in the United States. As mentioned, the number of Hispanics, which includes Cubans, now rivals the number of Blacks each at roughly 13 percent of the total population. The Navajo tribal members number less than 300,000 at best count.
Heretofore the largest ethnic group in the United States, Non-Hispanic Whites are a shrinking group, now at 69 percent of the total population, down from 76 percent a decade ago. They are now a minority in California and Texas, as they are in many large cities. The United States is becoming colored, a process that will continue into the future. 2.4 percent of all people contacted, reported that they were multiracial; interacial marriages have increased in states where various ethnic groups have commingled, such as Hawaii. Yet, overall, there has been little change in the fact that White Americans, Black Americans, Chinese Americans, Cuban Americans and Native Americans tend to live in separate neighborhoods, to maintain separate places (Schmitt, April, 2001).
Conflict is the result of the mutual failure of ethnic groups to find ways to work together on problems that affect them. Ethnocentric and stereotypical perceptions foment conflict, making resolution of problems impossible. Each side in social disputes must be flexible and adaptable if social problems are to be solved. Fortunately, Americans have made progress in interethnic relations, spotty as it may be.
Framing Integration
"In a racially integrated America, blacks and whites would choose to live side by side, socialize with ease, see each other as peers, recommend each other for jobs, harbor little mutual distrust, repect each other's outlook, and appreciate each other's contributions to American culture. . . . Skin color would become incidental rather than fundamental," (Steinhorn & Diggs-Brown, 1999, p. 6).
Ethnicity is a nonverbal entity; that is, it is a lived identity, expressed in everyday life, a master theme. It is a complex notion, contrary to the stereotypes often associated with it. There are many symbolically ethnicized voices in America; they are on the increase. The future mosaic of culture in the United States will be complex, full of many different voices, each seeking access to mainstream America. Not only are there symbolic voices but there are lingual voices. Increasingly, people who speak a non-English language are entering the United States. The United States is now multilingual. Perhaps every nation on earth is represented in the population of the United States. Just how the egalitarian ethos will play out among these groups is not clear. If citizens are to achieve true egalitarianism, wherein any person has access to achievement and privilege, new ways of viewing ethnicity need to occur. Ethnic markers need to be appreciated, not derogated.
Racism is a cognitive trap (Waller, 1998) that needs to be dismantled if the egalitarian ethic is to work. One need not moralize to realize that Americans have created ethnic traps. But, of course, being different does not have to result in stereotypes or social traps. It is not easy, of course, to recognize cognitive biases or to accept the fact of their existence. It is far easier to continue perceiving the social world in familiar ways. Blacks and whites may be separated physically but they are also separated symbolically.
The cognitive trap is symbolic, found in the ways that people think about themselves and others. In this book, cognitive traps may be found in the ways that people think of gender or age. Closing the cognitive trap may mean resocializing the mind, reconfiguring perceptions, not being blind to self and others.
Human behavior is complex and varied; although it appears to be somewhat stable, human behavior may be modified slowly, sometimes with speed. Indeed, to be educated is to be open to change. Change occurs best when a person becomes aware of himself, when optional ways of viewing the world are noted and acted upon. Formal education can help people understand the complex dynamics of ethnic relationships.
Not realizing that words are mere representations, humans may think in relatively fixed terms. But inter-ethnic adaptability requires polysemous skill; cross-ethnic friendships are promoted when people can get past judgements that block understanding. Stereotypes are signs that people have closed their minds to important information.
It is not uncommon for one person to socially categorize another person, using fixed perceptual lenses. This would be a harmless process if it did not result in negative consequences for the other party. By labeling people who are different from themselves, calling them stupid or dumb, or niggers or some other stigmatic term, it is unlikely that the name-callers will identify with those people in the future. People become socially ostracized when fixed labels are applied to them. Others use the stigmatic label in copycat ways. Although many of the ways that people relate to one another nonverbally arise from an awareness of self in relation to others, many behaviors are habituated and unconsciously enacted; people often do things while not realizing that they are doing them. Hidden scripts get played out.
Unfortunately, bad habits may be unconsciously performed. For example, white and black people may have fears about one another without realizing it. Fear about an object, a person or an event, can lead to self-protective behaviors. The presence of fear in interethnic relationships can present serious problems. It is not uncommon for white people to fear black people or vice versa. These attitudes are formed from a long history of oppressive conditions, carried forward to modern generations. Race relations in today's America are defined by daily experiences, in schools and sports, in worship and in the workplace. Race and ethnicity are lived in everyday places in everyday life. When fear exists between people they become strangers. Each group becomes an out-group, not an in-group (Wallers, 1998).
The study of listening is stressed in recent research. It is commonly thought that listening is the absence of speech or talk, but listening is a nonverbal activity that is profoundly proactive(Hargie, 1986). That is, listening is a deliberate process in which humans focus upon the symbolic behaviors of themselves and others. Real listening is not merely an aural activity, it is a symbolic activity, it is a meaning- making activity. For example, observing and listening are powerful tools in the repertoire of professionals in clinical therapy; this is because so much of the meaning of what people say and do is found "between the lines", not always in what people say but in what they do.
The art of listening is a skilled behavior that is learned. It is very different from hearing, which is a physical activity, tied into sound and vocality. Effective listening includes interpretive theories that get at what a person is really saying or doing. An empathic listener focuses on the pains that a person feels as she describes a loss of a friend, responding with empathy. The non-sympathetic listener hears the words, but misses the hidden meanings. It is no accident that marriage counselors focus on the failure of men to really listen to their wives, or vice versa, to note what is really going on between them that is causing problems (Tannen, 1990). Listening is a form of presentation of self to another, saying, in effect, "I am here to take part in your entire presentation of self, to reinforce it, to become an empathic participant in interaction."
Good listeners can be good problem solvers because they focus on what is really happening. They can reconcile differences between themselves and others because they know where the important aspects of the relationship lie. They build bridges, not walls (Stewart,1982). Good listening skills do not mean that there is a one way street in nonverbal communication. It is an interactive process. Good listening practices allow people to agree or disagree but to still take part in the interaction in meaningful, important ways. Effective disagreement can be healthy and it can help promote quality relationships. Quality listening is a powerful tool for ethnic borderwork.
By and large people choose to live where they do, although economic and other factors influence their choices. People create their sense of place. Ethnic Americans live in very separate places.
Framing White and Black Life Styles
Sixty one percent of Whites live in suburbs; 55 percent of Blacks live in cities. The median income for Whites is $35, 570; for Blacks, it is $20,000. Seventy three percent of Whites own their homes; 45 percent of Blacks own theirs. Thirty three percent of Whites live in the South; 53 percent of all Blacks live there (Schmitt, 2001).
People choose to affiliate with people with whom they share common values, thoughtways or beliefs. Even when people share much in common, of course, they may not affiliate with one another, due to distance, lack of opportunity or to other interfering social behaviors. Even when people of the same color live together and work near one another, they may not associate with one another socially. It is not common, for example, for privileged people, people of status, to affiliate with their hired help even though they may both be white. Their sense of place is different, one from the other. Yet, these boundaries are not fixed, unless people want them to be.
People of color, varied ethnic groups, have arrived in modern day America from a different place, following different scripts, forming different stories about their lifeworlds compared to mainstream White Americans. In short, it is not easy for white people to put themselves in the shoes of black people, or vice versa. Nor is it required. The problem is, of course, that separation can mask highly negative social attitudes, which under nonsegregated contact conditions may not exist. Contact, of course, does not assure the development of positive attitudes.
Unless they are brought together through the workplace or through the college scene, it is unlikely that Chinese, Blacks, Navajo, Cubans or Whites will intermix vountarily. Each is likely to see the other as an outsider, a stranger. In the past, of course, this failure to mix gave rise to school bussing programs designed to cross ethnic borders so that minorities could benefit from the same things that whites did.
It has taken centuries for minorities and subculture groups, as they are perceived in some countries, to gain entrance to the mainstream of their respective societies. Often such groups are repressed. Lacking power and access to public services, education and other social necessities that are prerequisite to social achievement, many ethnic groups continue to suffer. In the United States, where abyssmal attitudes and social behaviors existed for centuries, some light seems to be appearing, some sense of a new order.
Framing New Manners
It has been proposed that new manners are needed in American ethnic life. Whites need to alter their perceptions of Blacks. Blacks do not wish to be seen as victims, nor do they wish to cling to attitudes associated with early slavery, nor are they born dancers, athletes or lovers! They have talents and they are intelligent.
Blacks, on the other hand, need to realize that Whites do not want to be racist or that white people have it easy and that they have a permanent monopoly on the American Dream (Jacobs,1999). Perceptions across the ethnic divide are almost always distorted.
The egalitarian ethos furnishes the impetus and the rationale for positive change. Cubans Americans, Black Americans, Chinese Americans, Native Americans and White Americans know about the American promotion of equality. Yet, it is an unrealized dream for many people of color, due not to their abilities, but to surface features, prevailing negative stereotypes and the imbalanced use of power. Equality is more likely to be realized when people communicate openly with one another, both verbally and nonverbally, making acquaintances, perhaps even friendships, with one another so that positive joint interactions can occur. Humans create their identities; they can create healthy social relationships.
This chapter has been devoted to the ways in which humans achieve ethnic identity, both collectively and individually. Native Americans, Black Americans, Cuban Americans and Chinese Americans have had very different life experiences than have White Americans, the historically dominant group in America. A sketch of the historical treatment of these ethnic groups reveals that even today, serious social issues stemming from the earlier period of Western expansion, persist. It has been proposed that these ethnic groups learn to do semantic borderwork, that they learn how to be inter-ethnically adaptable, not rigid, in their relationships, one with the other.
The egalitarian ethos is an essential feature of the American democracy; it furnishes a context and purpose for all Americans to work together. Modern forms of racism still appear, but ways of closing and softening the hardened ethnic boundaries were discussed.
The next chapter focuses upon another social phenomenon in the United States, the problems of Ageism and the possibilities for successful aging in a youth-oriented society.
Questions for Thought and Discussion
Filler, L. (1969). The Crusade Against Slavery: 1830-1860. New York: Harper and Row.
Gould, S. J. (1981). The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Lamont, M., & Fournier, M. (Eds.) (1993). Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Smith, J. F. Smith, & Kvasnicka, R. M. (Eds.) (1976). Indian-White Relations: A Persistent Paradox. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.
Rowan, C. T. (1991). Breaking Barriers. Boston, MA: Little Brown and Company.
Takaki, R. (1993). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Waller, J. (1998). Face to Face: The Changing State of Racism Across the United States. New York: Plenum Press.
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