LANGUAGE AND RACIALIZATION

Reporter: Vinella M. Gobres

BSE English
 Race and Ethnicity
 “Race” refers to physical differences that groups
and cultures consider socially significant, while
“ethnicity” refers to shared culture, such as
language, ancestry, practices, and beliefs.
In everyday usage “racial” and “ethnic” labels
are often hard to distinguish
• “Blacks and Mexicans get along”
• “I’m Korean and white”
• “I have nice Jewish hair”
 Race vs. Ethnicity
• What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
RACE ETHNICITY
informal Formal
General Specific
Place Language
Biology Culture
Unacceptable American Acceptable American

A distinction of formality
• Ethnic terms may convey greater institutional formality than race terms
-(Informal vs. formal)
- I’m black vs. African American population
- I’m Asian vs. my Asian American professor
- I’m white vs. the Irish American Heritage Center (of Chicago)
 A destinction of Specificity
• Ethnic terms may be more specific designations than racial ones
Racial hypernym

Ethnic hyponym Ethnic hyponym Ethnic hyponym

• Race terms may be felt to engage in racial “lumping”
- My Asian/Oriental professor (Hey, I’m Korean American!”)
• YET Race terms may be felt to “strategically essentialize” (Gayatri
Spivak) as a form of “panethnic” empowerment
- Black Student Organization
 A destinction of place-based vs. language-
based origin
“People of any race may be of any ethnic origin”
Separation of race and ethnicity (Hispanic origin) on the 2010 US Census
- (Ethnic) “Hispanic or Latino”
Racial Definitions
• 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.
• Non-Hispanic White alone persons – are individuals who responded "No, not
Spanish/Hispanic/Latino" and who reported "White" as their only entry in the race
question.
 A destinction of biology vs. culture
• Which of the following are racial vs. ethnic characteristics?
- Eye size, lactose intolerance, food, language, height, voice quality, music,
hair, texture, hair length, tooth culture, dating rituals
• As noted by Smedley and Smedley (2005)
Race Ethnicity
Discrete Non-discrete
Hierarchical types Equal types
Fixed Flexible
Genetic/internal Learned/external
Legally defined/imposed Self-defined
Salient DIFFERENCE from other racial Salient COMMONALITIES (place of
groups origin, religion, sense of history,
traditions, values, beliefs, food habit)
with those within one’s ethnic group
 Is biology distinct from culture?

• Racialization of ethnicities: “culturally defined” groups have sometimes

become “physiologically” identified
• Biological “racial” features have sometimes been used to make “ethnic”
distinctions that imply moral difference
- Jews were identified as non-Aryan suring the Holocaust
- Japanese were identified in terms of features (distinct from Chinese) in
World War II
 The cultural construction of biology
• Cultural discourses pick out the biological markers used to classify (and
evaluate) racial difference
- Which ones do we use to measure someone’s race? Which ones do we ignore?
What counts as “different”?
- Genes, head size, hair texture, hair color, skin color, nose, width, lip thickness,
tooth shape, earwax texture, etc.
• Cultural practices shape our physiological characteristics
- Diet, makeup, tanning, hair dyeing, bleaching, plastic surgery
 A distinction of morality
• Race as “unacceptable” citizenship; ethnicity as “acceptable” citizenship (Urciuoli 1994)
• Race terms can take on ethnic meaning
- Irish, Polish, and Italian---once race terms but now ethnic terms(Urciuoli 1994)
• Ethnic terms can be used to describe racial groups more positively
- “Face it, the Haitians and Jamaicans and the other islanders down in Flatbush don’t consider
themselves black. These island people are producing people, they’re up early sweeping their
stoops and taking care of their homes. They’re producing people like we are! But the black
lower element don’t contribute to society, they just take. In my view, you should get what
you put into. You have to contribute” (Reider 1985:105 cited in Urciuoli 1994).
- “hardworking African American or underclass black” (Urciuoli 1994)
 Linking race, class, and morality

• Pre 1870
American Not-American
white black

• Post 1870 (15th amendment-all citizens regardless of race could vote)

American citizen
Naturalized or birth citizens could become legal Americans
Acceptable Unacceptable
Productive, moral Unproductive, immoral
Ethnic Racial
White middle-class Non-white lower-class
Irish, Italian,etc. Black-brown
Model minority Asian Americans Problem Asians who don’t assimilate
“Race is a social construct”

What does it mean???

 Race is a social construct
• Race is not a biological reality
• Greater genetic variation within groups that between them
-AAA Statement on “race” (1998): In the United States both scholars and the general public
have been conditioned to viewing human races as natural and separate divisions within the
human species based on visible physical differences. With the vast expansion of scientific
knowledge in this century, however, it has become clear that human populations are not
unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups. Evidence from the analysis of
genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called
racial groups. Conventional geographic "racial" groupings differ from one another only in
about 6% of their genes. This means that there is greater variation within "racial" groups than
between them…. Throughout history whenever different groups have come into contact, they
have interbred. The continued sharing of genetic materials has maintained all of humankind as
a single species.
 Race is a social construct
• Racial categories vary across space
- South Africa (black, coloured, white) vs. Census 2011
Black African 79.20%
Coloured 8.92%
White 8.86%
Indian or Asian 2.49%
Others 0.54%
- US (black vs. white) vs. US Census 2010
White persons, percent 78.10%
Black persons, percent 13.10%
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent 1.20%
Asian persons, percent 5.00%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander persons, percent 0.20%
Persons reporting two or more races, percent 2.30%
Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin, percent 16.70%
White persons not Hispanic, percent 63.40%
• Racial categories vary across time
- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/25/the-changing-categories-the-u-s-has-used-to-
measure-race/

Census considers new approach to asking about

race – by not using the term at all
• The Census Bureau is experimenting with new
ways to ask Americans about their race or
origin in the 2020 census – including not
using the words “race” or “origin” at all.
Instead, the questionnaire may tell people to
check the “categories” that describe them.
• Census officials say they want the questions
they ask to be clear and easy, in order to
encourage Americans to answer them, so the
officials can better collect race and Hispanic
data as required by law. But many people are
confused by the current wording, or find it Possible 2020 census race/Hispanic question for online respondents,
misleading or  who would click to the next screen to choose more detailed sub-
categories such as “Cuban” or “Chinese.” Credit: U.S. Census Bureau
insufficient to describe their identity.
 Race is a social contruct
• Individuals would be (or can be) variably classified
• Classification of whiteness in U.S citizenship cases
- Unsuccessful cases of being counted as legally “white”
• 1917: Bhagat Singh Thind (argued he was “Aryan”)
• 1922: Takao Ozawa (argued his skin was “white” and his heart American)
• Challenges to the fixedness of racial identity
- Rachel Dolezal’s claim as a “transracial” person
 Objective reality or ideological construct?

• Race is not “objective” an objective reality

- Non-discreteness: Racial boundaries are not clearcut
- Fludity: Racial categories can shift over time and across contexts
- Multiplicity: Identification vs. ascription: Self-classifications may
diverge/resist from dominant ones
- There is no objective biological feature that can necessarily determine a
person’s race (there are always exceptions)
• Is race then a mere ideological construct?
 Objective reality or ideological construct?

• The risk of claiming that race is an ideological construct

• Race is not a figment of one’s imagination
- Color-blind discourses
- Racism will disappear if we pretend it doesn’t exist
- I don’t care if you’re brown, red or purple…
• Ignoring real effects of this ideology can be harmful
- Race is real (it has real effects) because people treat is AS real
- “race continues to play an important role in determining how individuals are treated,
where they live, their employment opportunities, the quality of their health care, and
whether individuals can fully participate in the social, political, and economic
mainstream of American life” (Smedley and Smedley 2005)
 Race is not a mere ideological contruct
• Race DOES have a material reality
- Material conditions (health and economic disparities, racial segregation) that result from
race and racism are real
• Race is a fundamental principle of social organization(e.g., legal discourses, housing
segregation) AND a part of the everyday experiences of many (Omi and Winant 1993)
- “ The longevity of the race concept, and the enormous number of effects race-thinking
(and race-acting) have produced, guarantee that race will remain a feature of social
reality across the globe, and a fortiori in our own country, despite its lack of intrinsic or
scientific merit (in the biological sense)” (5)
- “race is an almost indissoluble part of our identities. Our society is so thoroughly
racialized that to be without racial identity is to be in danger of having no identity. To be
raceless is skin to being genderless”(7)
 Race is a social construct with real consequences
• Historical, cultural discourses shape the classification/evaluation of material
objects
- Which biological features we use to classify racial type (hair vs. DNA)
- How we parse up these features (curly vs. straight)
- How we give value to racialized features (pretty vs. ugly)
• Historical, cultural discourses that construct race have shaped economic,
health, physical conditions that are very real.
 RACIALIZATION Click icon to add picture

• Racialization: is a social process where people

are judged differently based on intellect, morality,
values, and innate worth from physical
appearance or cultural heritage.
• Cf. Racial formation (Omi & Winant 1986)
(sociohistorical perspective): “the process by
which social, economic,and political forces
determine the content and importance of racial
categories, and by which they are in turn shaped
by racial meanings”
• How do we use LANGUAGE to racialize?

• Examples of racialization via language

- Creating and circulating categories on the US Census

- Locating oneself and others within census categories
- Presupposing a person’s identity: “Ni Hao!”
- Identifiying someone’s race based on speech or looks
- Speaking in a way that is hearable as “racial” to others
- Stating, “I’m Asian”
 Historical racialization in the U.S
• 16th and 17th century colonial encounters in the US
- Ibo, Yoruba, Fulani, etc. black
- Various American Indian/Native American tribes red
• 18th century European science
- Race ideologies shaped by Enlightenment philosophers to classify things and nature
- E.g., Swedish scientist Carl Lineaus published a human classification system based on place
and skin color: “Europaeus albus” (white European), “Americanus rubescens” (red American),
“Asiaticus fuscus” (brown Asian) and “Africanus niger” (black African)
• 19th century
- Scientific discourses entered mainstream sphere; used to justify political, economic, social
inequalities (slavery, exclusion)
• Early 20th century
- Eugenics movement (white=best genes)
- 20th 21st centuries
- Latinos, Asians, Arabs constructed as political and economic threats
 The limits of constructing race: Can individuals construct race?
• Consider public figures such as Sammy Sosa and Michael Jackson, who have
been “accused” of lightening their skin color. Do they belong to a different race
after doing so? What kinds of feelings does it evoke in public discourse? Are
these feelings justified?
References
• https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/18/census-considers-new-approach-to-asking-
about-race-by-not-using-the-term-at-all/#:~:text=The%20Census%20Bureau%20is%20expe
rimenting,%
E2%80%9Ccategories%E2%80%9D%20that%20describe%20them.
• https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcourses.lumenlearning.com%2Fatd-pima-
ant112%2Fchapter%2Fchapter-5-race-and-ethnicity%2F%3Ffbclid
%3DIwAR1qws0dH1pTbINUuH1wfCzYVL7LOZODUf4XAWEPzf5Z9A9cNxvcfYLcj7E&h=AT
3jN27cOej9djwM9E7mUL1vPE7kEdGKPaiAchyPF5oUDS3IcnMj1z0cEaOs2NF5m6zQXBygD-
zCNAABj8VhxIXD4H4cMkq-TAAhgzW1WAzMJmWG7MAYDR5Yl5SfB1mg_oX5Ww
•
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/25/the-changing-categories-the-u-s-has-used-t
o-measure-race
/
• https://www.google.com/search?q=1922:+
Takao+Ozawa&rlz=1C1BNSD_enPH969PH969&sxsrf=AOaemvKg9M3rBKMsLbCwqAFY6
3DCSyjcQA:1634105512060&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjagsm03cbzAh
VUeXAKHRLzBiYQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1366&bih=657&dpr=1#imgrc=L6rqacnZp
AupEM
• https://www.en.culture.aau.dk/research/conferences/racialization
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racialization
• https://
www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/sammy-sosa-skin-color-now/1aruhh5dunsn11l
ps943qzwlqk
• https://thegrio.com/2020/05/07/michael-jackson-tweet-black-white/
LANGUAGE AND
SOCIETY
 Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of
any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms,
expectations, and context, on the way language is used,
and society's effect on language.
 Language and Society
• The connection between language and society is tightly anchored. The
relationship of the two is deeply rooted. Language performs various
functions in the society and the society does the same way. If one will not
exist, the other one will be affected.
• Language is the primary tool for communication purposes, for
establishing peace and order in our society, for showing authority and
power, and for attaining goals and objectives. But, it can also destruct the
society if it will use inappropriately. It must follow the conformity
governing the society to avoid conflict s and to meet the boundary of
individual differences.
References:
• https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSociolinguistics
%3Ffbclid
%3DIwAR1aTV63z2vmcNiZKn7Urh8hBSAy9uNwNfZ7lyrr9IJyjfiioFOND9ubD7g&h=AT1y4rD
8HCzJHDOXo9EixfPvInFNHdrBlFJE1W6li-F0N3exd4QzgqEyTQ-
fTnagrBx8Lca1YlETvjhOkd1b1nmAPWsoC0RWPI0N7iGjuI9F33P4V6I8NW58_G4zlEdIhbYq1g

• https://www.slideshare.net/hnubai/file-801
• https://slideplayer.com/slide/4480891/
• https://merlitomarciano.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/relationship-between-l
anguage-and-society
/
• https://merlitomarciano.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/relationship-between-l
anguage-and-society/?fbclid=IwAR0ioDApSsP4dPmratsZlYvh9b8ZyStDl
oByVQg1OOjBxNG1P9ict1z0TB8