Ethnicity

Historical Background

Enslaved Africans who were forcibly brought to the United States and other parts of the Americas were not initially called Blacks, Negroes, Coloreds, or African Americans. Instead, they were from various regions and ethnic groups on the continent of Africa. Thus, out of many ethnic groups, they became one as a result of a shared history of enslavement, oppression, discrimination, and prejudice. The institution of enslavement and the various plantations and towns of the U.S. South is where the majority of enslaved African peoples' culture and language patterns—originating from Africa—became forged into what is now known as African American culture.

It is important to understand that this new culture and sense of community among African American people evolved in response to White [Page 253]racism and their oppression as enslaved people. Thus, the ethnic identity of African Americans—just as anthropologist Frederick Barth noted in relation to the formation of ethnic group membership in Europe—also arose under oppressive conditions and the need for enslaved Africans and their descendants to form a collective identity for survival and success.

The term ethnicity may encapsulate one's language, political allegiances, and cultural basis. For example, the term African American implies that an individual shares common social, political, historical, and cultural experiences with other descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States, whereas the term Black is a more inclusive term that may include people from varied experiences (Caribbean countries or the African continent). Members of these groups may or may not ethnically identify as African Americans. Instead, Black is more of a racial category that may refer to people whose ancestors originate from Africa, whether recently as immigrants or earlier via enslavement in the Americas and Europe.

Describing Differences

Although sometimes used synonymously to refer to individuals who may have a shared genealogy, the terms ethnicity and race carry different meanings. Neither term is a static concept and therefore is not easily defined. In the United States and Europe, ethnicity is commonly associated with membership in a nondominant group (not of predominant European ancestry) and is perceived as constituting a different culture—in terms of language, style of dress, political consciousness and worldview, foods, music, and so on—than that of the dominant European American descended groups.

Membership status within ethnic groups can sometimes be negotiated, situational, or optional. For example, European Americans, depending on the context, sometimes exercise what Mary Waters refers to as ethnic options when it comes to group membership (e.g., Irish American, Polish American, etc). For the most part, many just accept the broad racial category of White.

It is difficult to analyze ethnicity apart from a simultaneous analysis of race. The concept of race, contrary to its usage to physically describe humans, is not a biological category, but a social construction predicated on supposed phenotypic characteristics; as a concept, it was used by Europeans to legitimate prejudice and discrimination on the basis of these supposed differences. As noted by Michael Omi and Howard Winant in their influential 1994 book, Racial Formation in the United States, the formation of race is social and historical in nature. Throughout the history of the United States, phenotypic characteristics were used to mark racial differences to legitimate racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Such classifications created a hierarchical arrangement of so-called races with White people at the top and enslaved Africans at the bottom; this oppressive system continued past emancipation onto future African Americans.

...