WAKE UP !!!!

• Define Ethnicity
• Is being American a type of Ethnicity?
• What are the Major Asian groups in the
US and where are they concentrated?
• Name the 3 historic migration patterns
of African-Americans.
• What Ethnic group has the largest %
the US population?
 Chapter 7: Ethnicity

The Cultural Landscape:

An Introduction to Human Geography
 Ethnicity
• Ethnicity = from the Greek ethnikos,
meaning “national”
– Ethnicities share a cultural identity with
people from the same homeland
– Ethnicities have distinctive cultural traits
• Race = people who share a biological
ancestor
Where Are Ethnicities Distributed?
• Distribution of ethnicities in the United
States
– Hispanics (Latinos) = 15 percent of the
U.S. population
– African Americans = 13 percent of the U.S.
population
– Asian Americans = 4 percent of the U.S.
population
– American Indians = 1 percent of the U.S.
population
Distribution of Hispanics
in the United States

Figure 7-1
Distribution of African Americans
in the United States

Figure 7-2
Distribution of Asian Americans
in the United States

Figure 7-3
 Chinese laborers:
• Fed government granted tracks of western land
to build railroads to connect East and West.
• These Asian immigrants accepted lower pay
than other laborers demanded.
• The work was dangerous. Many Chinese died
in the explosive blasts they ignited to clear the
path across the railroad companies’ land.
• Many others died under rock slides and heavy
snowfalls before the first transcontinental
railroad was completed in 1869.
 Construction of the Union Pacific
Railroad

• Chinese laborers
Distribution of American Indians
in the United States

Figure 7-4
 Change in Immigration:
• Whether Asian (settled out west) or European,
these new immigrants tended to settle in areas
populated by people from the same countries
who spoke the same languages and worshipped
in the same ways.
• The new immigrants were likely to be poor.
They worked as unskilled laborers and lived
mostly in cities.
• Created communities to imitate the cultures of
their home countries, including foreign-language
newspapers, ethnic stores and restaurants, and
houses of worship. The new immigrants did not
blend into American society the way earlier
immigrants had.
Where Are Ethnicities Distributed?
• Concentration of ethnicities in U.S.
cities
– 90 percent of African Americans and
Hispanics live in cities
– Remnants of twentieth-century European
migration = still evident on the landscape
• Example: clustering of restaurants in Little Italy,
Greektown
“New Immigration” & Urbanization

• Northern cities grew larger (urbanization)

as more factories, companies, & stores
were created
– “New immigrants” from southern & eastern
Europe came to NY through Ellis Island to get
jobs
– Steel skyscrapers, subways, & trolley cars
transformed cities
– Many upper class families moved into suburbs
Distribution of Ethnicities in Chicago
and Los Angeles

Figure 7-5 Figure 7-6

Where Are Ethnicities Distributed?
• African American migration patterns
– Three major migration patterns
• Forced migration from Africa (eighteenth
century)
– The triangular slave trade
• Immigration from the South to northern cities
(first half of the twentieth century)
– Identifiable paths of migration
• Immigration out of inner cities to other urban
areas (second half of the twentieth century to
present)
– The ghetto
Triangular trade
 The Middle Passage
• “At last, when the ship we were in had
• Known as the got in all her cargo,…we were all put
under deck…The closeness of the
journey enslaved place, and heat of the climate, added
to the number in the ship, which was
so crowded that each had scarcely
Africans took across room to turn himself, almost suffocated
us…[This] brought on a sickness
the Atlantic among the slaves, of which many
died…The shrieks of the women, and
• 10-12 million were the groans of the dying, rendered the
whole a scene of horror almost
inconceivable…”
transported
• Olauda Equiano
• Approx. 2 million
died on voyage
Middle Passage
 African Americans

• 8-10 million reached America

• 3.5m to Brazil
• 1.5m to Spanish colonies
• 4m to Carribean islands
• 500k to N America
Triangular Slave Pattern

Figure 7-8
African American Migration in the United
States (Twentieth Century)

Figure 7-10
Where Are Ethnicities Distributed?
• Differentiating ethnicity and race
– Often confusing
– Race = traits that are shared genetically
• Biological features within one racial group are
highly variable
– Biological classification of people into distinct racial
groups is meaningless
• Spatial effects of racism
– “Separate but equal”
– “White flight”
» Blockbusting
– Apartheid in South Africa
Apartheid

Figure 7-13
 Why Have Ethnicities Been
Transformed into Nationalities?
• Rise of nationalities
– Nationality = identity with a group of people
who share a common allegiance to a
particular country
– Nation-state
– Examples
• Denmark
• Nation-states in Europe
– Nationalism = loyalty and devotion to a
nationality
Nation-states in Europe

Figure 7-15
 Why Have Ethnicities Been
Transformed into Nationalities?
• Multinational states
– Multiethnic state
• A state with multiple ethnic groups, all of whom
might contribute to a larger national identity
– Example: the United States
– Multinational state
• A state with multiple ethnic groups who retain
their own distinctive national identity
– Example: the United Kingdom
– Example: Russia (the largest multinational state)

• Revival of ethnic identity

Ethnicities in Russia

Figure 7-18
 Why Do Ethnicities Clash?
• Ethnic competition to dominate
nationality
– Ethnic competition in the Horn of Africa
• Ethiopia and Eritrea
• Sudan
• Somalia
– Ethnic competition in Lebanon
• Religious and ethnic differences
Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Africa

Figure 7-21
Ethnicities in Lebanon

Figure 7-23
 Why Do Ethnicities Clash?
• Dividing ethnicities among more than
one state
– Dividing ethnicities in South Asia
• India and Pakistan
– Kashmir
• Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka
Ethnic Division in South Asia

Figure 7-24
 What Is Ethnic Cleansing?
• Ethnic cleansing = process in which a
more powerful ethnic group forcibly
removes a less powerful group from
their territory
– The purpose is not to subjugate, but to
remove
– Today, most ethnic cleansing happens in
Europe and Africa
 What Is Ethnic Cleansing?
• Ethnic cleansing in Europe
– Largest forced migration = 1939–1945
• Jews, gypsies, and others forcibly removed by
Nazis
– The former Yugoslavia
• Creation of multiethnic Yugoslavia
• The breakup of Yugoslavia
– Ethnic cleansing in Bosnia
– Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo
– Balkanization
The Balkans in 1914

Figure 7-29
 What Is Ethnic Cleansing?
• Ethnic cleansing in central Africa
– Most boundaries in Africa do not
correspond to ethnic groups
– Conflict between Hutu and Tutsi
destabilizes the region
• Ethnic cleansing and genocide in Rwanda
• Refugees spill into neighboring countries
• Democratic Republic of Congo falls into civil
war
Ethnicities in Africa

Figure 7-33