Chapter 7 Key Issue 2

Why Do Ethnicities Have Distinctive Distributions?

o Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian American demonstrate all
migration types (found in Chapter 3)
International Migration of Ethnicities
o Most African Americans are descended from Africans who were forced over to the
Western Hemisphere as slaves in the 18th century
o Most Asian Americans and Hispanics voluntarily moved to the US during the late
20th century and early 21st century
o Forced Migration From Africa:
o Slavery is a system whereby one person owns another person as a piece of
property and can force that slave to work for the owners benefit
o The Spanish and Portuguese started slave trading in the early 16th century
o When the slave demand heightened, many European countries adopted the
triangular slave trade
The triangular slave trade: A practice, primarily during the 18th
century, in which European ships transported slaves from Africa to
Caribbean islands, molasses from the Caribbean to Europe, and
trade goods from Europe to Africa.
o Most of the slaves from Africa were brought to the southeast of the US
o The Civil War (1861-1865) prevented 11 pro-slavery Southern states from
leaving the Union
o During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln enacted the Emancipation
Proclamation which freed the slaves in the 11 Confederate states
The 13th amendment eventually outlawed slavery
o Voluntary Migration from Latin America and Asia:
o Quotas limited the number of immigrants allowed into the US from Latin
America and Asia until the late 20th century (also in chapter three)
o Chinese made up the majority of Asian Americans, followed by Indians,
Filipinos, Koreans, and Vietnamese
Internal Migration of African Americans (AA)
o AA have shown two internal patterns within the US during the 20th century:
o Interregional migration from the South to northern cities
o Intraregional migration from inner-city ghettos to outer city and inner
suburban neighborhoods
o Interregional Migration:
o AA worked as sharecroppers after being freed in the late 19th century
Sharecropper: a person who works fields rented from a landowner
and pays the rent by turning over to the landowner a share of the
crops
As farming machines were created, there were less and less
sharecroppers
o AA then migrated out of the South
o Intraregional Migration:
o Definition: migration within cities and metropolitan areas

o Densities in ghettos were very high

AA continued to expand the ghettos to make room
o White Flight
o Definition: the emigration of whites from an area in anticipation of blacks
immigrating into the area
Whites did not want to integrate with blacks
o Blockbusting: a process by which real estate agents convince white
property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that
persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood
This encouraged white flight
Segregation by Ethnicity and Race
o US: Separate but Equal
o Segregation laws:
Blacks and whites could technically be treated equal while not
interacting
Everything was separated based on color, which the south argued
to be equal treatment
Blacks got worse stuff though
Schools and other facilities eventually had to be desecrated
o South Africa: Apartheid
o Discrimination by race was very prevalent in South Africa during the late
20th century
o Apartheid: Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically
separated different races into different geographic areas
o Under apartheid, each race had different legal statuses in South Africa
Four races were Black, white, colored, and Asian
o Now, South Africa is governed by its black population