American Culture and Civilization

Race and Identity in the United States Today

Racial identity is a critical part of the overall framework of individual and collective identity.
According to information from the US Census Bureau, American citizens can identify with one of the
following categories based on race: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native,
Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
 “White – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
 Black or African American – A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
 American Indian or Alaska Native – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South
America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
 Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian
subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine
Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii,
Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.” (https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html)
Some meanings of racial identity are derived from its biological dimension and others from its social
dimension. From a biological perspective, race refers to distinctions drawn from physical appearance (skin
color, eye shape, physiognomy). However, “today, theoretical manifestations of racial identity are discussed
not in biological terms (which may imply a racist perspective) but as a social construction, which ‘refers to a
sense of group or collective identity based on one’s perception that he or she shares a common heritage with
a particular racial group.’ Racial identity seems most often, however, to be a frame in which individuals
categorize others, often based on skin color. Racial identity is a surface-level manifestation based on what
people look like yet has deep implications in how they are treated” (Chavez and Guido-DiBrito).

The Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by Black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain
equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s. Although tumultuous at
times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws to protect every American’s constitutional
rights, regardless of color, race, sex or national origin. In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit
ended racial segregation in public schools; in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on
a Montgomery, Alabama, bus (her defiant stance prompted a year-long Montgomery bus boycott which led
to the desegregation of bus transportation); in 1957, sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from several
southern states—including Martin Luther King, Jr.—met in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent
protests against racial discrimination and segregation. On August 28, 1963, approximately 250,000 people
took part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I
Have A Dream” speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, stating, “I have a dream
that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national
origin. In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests
as a voting requirement. In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel
room in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Also in 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights
Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race,
religion or national origin.

Racial Identity Today

According to recent surveys by the Pew Research Center, “No matter where they are from, who they are,
their economic circumstances or educational backgrounds, significant majorities of Black Americans say
being Black is extremely or very important to how they think about themselves. Beyond the personal
importance of Blackness – that is, the importance of being Black to personal identity – many Black
Americans feel connected to each other. About 52% say everything or most things that happen to Black
people in the United States affect what happens in their own lives, with another 30% saying some things that
happen nationally to Black people have a personal impact. The majority of Black adults who live in the
United States were born there, but an increasing portion of the population is comprised of immigrants. Of
those immigrants, nearly 90% were born in the Caribbean or Africa. Regardless of their region of birth, 58%
of Black adults say the country they were born in is very or extremely important to how they think about
themselves. Black adults also feel strongly about their current communities. About half of Black adults
(52%) say that where they currently live is very or extremely important to how they think about themselves”
(from “Race Is Central to Identity for Black Americans and Affects How They Connect With Each Other” –
Kiana Cox and Christine Tamir (https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/04/14/race-is-central-to-
identity-for-black-americans-and-affects-how-they-connect-with-each-other/)

“Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international social movement, formed in the United States in 2013,
dedicated to fighting racism and anti-Black violence, especially in the form of police brutality. The
name Black Lives Matter signals condemnation of the unjust killings of Black people by police (Black people
are far more likely to be killed by police in the United States than white people) and the demand that society
value the lives and humanity of Black people as much as it values the lives and humanity of white people.
The Black Lives Matter movement has many goals. BLM activists seek to draw attention to the many ways
in which Black people are treated unfairly in society and the ways in which institutions, laws, and policies
help to perpetuate that unfairness. The movement has fought racism through such means as political action,
letter-writing campaigns, and nonviolent protests. BLM seeks to combat police brutality, the over-policing of
minority neighbourhoods, and the abuses committed by for-profit jails. Its efforts have included calls for
better training for police and greater accountability for police misconduct” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
The mission of the BLM movement is expressed on the official website as: “#BlackLivesMatter was
founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global
Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate
white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state
and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and
innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives. We are
expansive. We are a collective of liberators who believe in an inclusive and spacious movement. We also
believe that in order to win and bring as many people with us along the way, we must move beyond the
narrow nationalism that is all too prevalent in Black communities. We must ensure we are building a
movement that brings all of us to the front. We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled
folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our
network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements. We are working for
a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise. We affirm our humanity, our
contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. The call for Black lives to
matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation” (https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/).
 

Bibliography:

Black Lives Matter. https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/. Web. 16 Dec. 2022.

“Black Lives Matter.” Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Lives-Matter.
Web. 16 Dec. 2022.
Chavez, Alicia Fedelina, and Florence Guido-DiBrito. “Racial and Ethnic Identity and Development.” An
Update on Adult Development Theory: New Ways of Thinking about the Life Course. Ed. M. Carolyn
Clarke and Rosemary S. Caffarella. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
U.S. Census Bureau. “About Race.” Web. 23 Mar. 2021.
 https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html.

Additional Online Sources:

History of the Civil Rights Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URxwe6LPvkM
Redefining Race and Ethnicity in the US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA7La5JgOUk
Race Conversations for Black and White Families
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWxhxJTZ28U
A Conversation with Black Women on Race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-xz4qiUBsw
Being Multiracial in America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21H9lA6MLHM