The Study of Racialism

ImBack · Suspended Joined: 28 Jun 2006 {Posts: 630 }

I will attempt to answer the long-standing question, "what is an ethnic group". I will try to do so because I have not found an adequate one yet. None is adequate because each involves a citerion which some group lacks, but nevertheless that group claims to be an "ethnic group", and behaves in the same manner as other groups which do fit the criterion. The exception to this pattern is "labeling". White Americans do not label themselves as an ethnic group, however, they exhibit the same behaviors as groups who do - for instance, "Black Americans".

For example, consider this terrible definition:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethnic

Main Entry: 1eth·nic
Pronunciation: \ˈeth-nik\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin ethnicus, from Greek ethnikos national, gentile, from ethnos nation, people; akin to Greek ēthos custom — more at sib
Date: 15th century
1: heathen
2 a: of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background

Problems:

- Does not define how ethnic groups behave
- Ignores that ethnic groups can exist even in minute numbers
- Implies that ethnic groups reflect biological, cultural, or linguistic reality,
and they do not. Some ethnic groups are not related to a common
ancestor. Others do not share the same culture or language. Etc.

My solution:

An "ethnic group" is a collection of two or more individuals having the following properties:

> They perceive themselves to have a common origin.
> They perceive themselves to posses a unique "innate essence"
> They practice endogamy.
> They prefer one another over out-members.
> They establish criteria for membership.

This is an open invitation to everyone to uphold or reject this definition.
If my definition is inadequate, then you should either find a direct flaw in it, or else provide evidence of an existing group of people like an ethnic-group which does not meet the definition.

Having failed to reject it, we can conclude that it works very well. For now.

gemini072 · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2942 }

you can discuss but the group has already defined Ethnicity for this forum

3.3.3 ethnicity — “A group of people with a common tradition and a sense of identity that functions as a subgroup within the larger society; membership is a matter of self-identification.” [Robert F. McNergney and Joanne M. Herbert, Foundations of Education: The Challenge of Professional Practice, 3rd ed. (Boston, 2001), 549.] Synonym: ethnic self-identity. The two essential elements of ethnicity are its positioning within a hegemony and its voluntary nature. First, ethnicity denotes a group’s self-identity within a larger mainstream culture. It does not refer to mainstream national cultures themselves. For example, the customs, traditions, language, and folklore of Spaniards living in Spain are not an ethnicity; they are a national culture. But the rhetoric of unity expressed by Spanish-Americans and their descendants in the United States is an ethnicity. Second, membership in an ethnic community is voluntary and not genetically predetermined. For example, about five percent of the members of the African-American ethnic community have no detectable sub-Saharan DNA admixture, while about thirty percent of the members of the U.S. White endogamous group do have detectable sub-Saharan DNA admixture.

Powell · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2462 }

ImBack · Suspended Joined: 28 Jun 2006 {Posts: 630 }

Absolutely A.D.

Ethnic groups have a strong tendency to corrall people into involuntary membership. Especially the blacks, along with the assistance of the rest of the United States.

Well, untill recently that is.

Now the one drop rule is half-dead, literally.

gemini072 · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2942 }