Lecture Outline: Ethnicity, Race, and

Violence
• I. Race and Ethnicity
• II. Ethnic Violence and Its Causes
• III. Emotions and Ethnic Violence
Course Evaluations
• If you haven’t done so already, I’d appreciate it if you evaluate the
course on Minerva
• Like to see what students think so can try to improve the course in
subsequent years
 Race and Ethnicity
• Previous lectures went over stratification and inequality
• We noted that many places—including Canada—are stratified
by race and ethnicity
• Another focus of work on Race/ethnicity is identification
• The ways in which and extent to which we identify with
ethnicity/race and are categorized by others according to
ethnicity/race
• Today, we’re focusing on ethnic violence, which is commonly
influenced by both stratification and identification
• Before this, however, we’ll review what race and ethnicity are
 Ethnicity
• Definition: Social group or community based on perceptions of shared
culture and background
• Commonly described as cultural communities
• Based on a number of things
• Language: Arguably the most important defining elements of one’s
ethnicity
• Main defining element of Quebecois community
• Religion: Commonly informs ethnicity
• Most important part of French Canadian community until after WWII
• Heritage/Origins: history of exploitation, hardship, common origins
often help define cultural community
• Acadians and exile, African Americans and slavery
 Ethnicity as Cognition
• Many disagree with the “groupness” of this definition, suggesting that
many ethnicities are not coherent groups
• Cognition: Common claim that ethnicity is fundamentally a way of
seeing the world
• You perceive ethnicity, categorize people into ethnic categories
(including yourself)
• Similar to Anderson’s Imagined Communities and nationalism
• Groupness: Commonly these ethnic cognitions shape social relations
in ways that promote ethnic groups
• But not necessarily, and cognition comes first and is the basis of
ethnicity
 Race
• Race is commonly a defining element of ethnicity, and there are racialized ethnic
communities
• Most common in post-slavery societies and settler colonies
• That being said, most sociologists do not believe race and ethnicity are the same
thing
• Contested term due to mismatch between its origins and present use
• Past: Linked to eugenics, seen as biological differences, subtypes of humans
• Present: A social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more
physical traits
• Popular understandings of race today still heavily biological, but sociology
unanimously accepts race as a social construct
• Humans define race, not our genes (although people commonly define race based on
phenotypic traits influenced by genes)
 Sociological Construction of Race
• Social Construction of Race: Many have a difficult time seeing race as
a social construct
• A few examples highlight this constructed character
• Mixed race individuals: Societies categorize them differently,
categorization depends on which races are mixed
• African? If comparing the genes of two Africans and a European, it is
just as likely that the Africans will have more genetic similarities with
the European than with each other
• Past Races: Irish, Italian, and English were considered different
“races,” with “experts” studying their different physical traits
• French Canadian: foi, langue, race
 Is Race Still Relevant?
• A lot of European (especially French) sociologists claim we should stop
using the term “race” because of its racist roots (and the Nazis use of it)
• Also, using it potentially reinforces racialization
• In Canada, most sociologists believe race is a valuable concept
• Race is real when people view the world through racial goggles
• Race structures social relations in important ways:
• Residential patterns, incarceration, economic inequality, political
power, friendship network, party support, etc.
• Brazil: Ignored race and proclaimed a racial democracy, but racial
inequalities were extreme
• Very difficult to address because race is ignored, at least formally
 (Un)Naturalness of Community
• Almost everyone has a communal identity extending beyond family
• Many argue it’s in our genes, linked to survival
• Humans are sociable animals, and humans that cooperate were more
likely to survive
• Limits of Groupness: At the same time, sharing resources with people who
don’t reciprocate hinders survival
• Recognizing outgroups limits this
• Henri Tajfel: Famous psychologist who found that it’s natural for humans to
create ingroups and outgroups
• New Abstract Ingroups and outgroups: Over past few centuries, new types
of community have emerged—nation and ethnicity
• Nothing natural about these types of community according to Anderson
 Situationalism
• Humans wear many communal hats
• Situational school of anthropology suggests that we have several
social identities and that the salience of each varies depending
on the social context
• My Anglophone identity is strengthened when I’m interacting
with a Francophone and we’re negotiating language use
• My Quebecois identity is strengthened when I meet a
Francophone Quebecois overseas
• Ethnicity and race are two common types of communal identity
• Many find that their salience depends on the
situation/context
Race, Ethnicity, and Violence
• Racial/ethnic inequalities and ID commonly contribute to violence
• Inequalities are a powerful grievance, strong identities promote competition and
discrimination
• Ethnic Violence: Collective violence targeting people from other
ethnicities that is motivated, at least in part, by ethnic difference
• Non-collective violence considered hate crime, not ethnic violence
• Focus is on physical violence against people, especially murder, not psychological
violence or violence to property
• Literature on ethnic violence focuses on a variety of causes
• Rational action
• Grievances
• Openings and mobilizational resources
 (1) Rational Actor Explanations
• Although it can be hard to think of ethnic violence as rational, this is
a common view in the literature (especially in political science)
• Examples:
• Advantage of Acting First: If you think another community might attack
your, rational to attack them first to prevent their attacks
• Politicians: Mobilize ethnic violence in order to gain support
• All evidence Modi did this when a politician in Gujarat
• Economic Interests: Participate in ethnic violence to loot and remove
economic competitors
(2) Grievance Explanations
• Many focus on collective grievances as a cause of ethnic violence
• Recognizes that people think other ethnic communities harmed their
ethnic community in some way
• Claim grievances motivate ethnic violence
• Examples:
• Economic: Grievances over economic inequality
• Example: Anti-Tamil violence Sri Lanka
• Exclusion: Grievances over political recognition and exclusion
• Example: Ethnic civil war in Syria
• Historical: Grievances over past atrocities, exploitation, etc.
• Example: “Tutsi menace” in Rwanda
(3) Mobilization Explanations
• Influenced by the social movement literature, many recognize that
ethnic violence are collective acts that need to be organized
• Focus on two things as vital for this organization
• (1) Mobilizational Resources: Need a variety of resources to
mobilize a large number of people to attack others
• Organizations, cars, weapons, addresses, means of communication, etc.
• (2) Political Opening: Ethnic violence is most likely when the
government and law enforcement do not impede it
• Police don’t act on it, law enforcement doesn’t charge, government
actually encourages
• Allows use of mobilizational resources
Emotions and Ethnic Violence
• Common explanations of ethnic violence don’t focus on emotions
• Rational-choice ignores
• Mobilizational theories could see emotion as a resource but very rare
• Grievance are based on emotions, but literature doesn’t focus on this
• Problem: Adequate explanation of ethnic violence requires explicit
consideration of emotions
• This is increasingly recognized by scholars, and I also consider it in my work
• Chapter from a book I wrote entitled Killing Others: A Natural History of
Ethnic Violence
• The book tries to understand broad historical patterns in ethnic violence
• Good final read for this class because it brings together a lot of material we’ve gone
over in the past three months
A Natural History of Ethnic Violence
• Book provides a very broad analysis of long-term patterns of ethnic
violence
• I’ll briefly go over this because it helps to situate the chapter assigned for
today
• Ultimately try to explain two historical patterns
Number of Ethnic Wars per Decade, 1816-
1999
35

30

25

20

15

10

1 0 2 0 30 40 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 9 0 0 0 1 0 20 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 80 9 0
1 8 1 8 18 1 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 18 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 19 19 1 9
 Explanation
• “Modern” social transformations contributed to rapid rise in ethnic violence
in 5 main ways
• (1) Ethnic Consciousness: Similar to Benedict Anderson, abstract identities
like ethnicity must be constructed, and modern communication
technologies make possible
• (2) Emotional Prejudice: Ethnic consciousness necessary for ethnic based
emotional prejudice and affected by nationalism
• (3) Ethnic Obligations: Also depends on ethnic consciousness and promoted
by nationalism
• (4) Rise of nationalism has politicized ethnicity and mobilized people in
pursuit of communal self-rule
• (5) Modernity creates diverse mobilizational resources
Ethnic Civil Wars by Region and Type per Decade
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
Colonial War
50%
Europe and North
40% America
Rest of World
30%
20%
10%
0%
1 0 3 0 50 7 0 9 0 1 0 30 5 0 7 0 9 0
18 1 8 18 1 8 1 8 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 19
Explanation
• States and democracy: Vital for understanding the decline in
ethnic violence in North America and Western Europe
• Prior to WWII, states were among the greatest perpetrators of
ethnic violence in the regions
• Encouraged, facilitated, and perpetrated ethnic violence
• Examples: Nazi Genocide, colonial atrocities
• After WWII, two aspects of states caused decline in West
• Independence: European states granted colonial independence
• Democracy: States in North America and Western Europe did much
more to stop ethnic violence than to promote it
• Robust democracy in places with strong states
The Role of Emotions in Ethnic Violence
• Emotions are a core element of my claims
• Participants are rarely psychopaths who are evil and lacking empathy
• Instead, powerful emotions are usually behind ethnic violence
• (1) Motive: Emotions push people to participate
• Anger, fear, resentment are the major driving forces
• (2) Overcoming the Collective Action Problem: Difficult to get
people to join in collective action targeting ethnic others, as
it’s rational to simply let others do it
• Can be dangerous, and you might be punished
• Emotions push people to disregard these rational calculations and
participate in violence—anger, shame, fear
 Role of Emotions Continued
• (3) Obligations: Emotions commonly play an important role
behind obligations
• People are commonly pressured to participate in ethnic
violence by co-ethnics
• Emotions make these obligations powerful
• Fear: Over sanctions for not joining violence
• Shame: Over failing to fight for community when you feel you
have an obligation to “defend” community
• Love: Strong emotional attachment to community makes
obligations powerful
Collective Violence, Collective Emotions
• EV is collective violence, with many people participating
• Rwandan Genocide: As many as 200,000 participants
• If emotions motivate collective violence, they must be
widespread in the population
• These emotions must also target an “Other”
• Emotional Prejudice: Can target particular communities and
suggest they are all degenerate, evil, dangerous
• Depends on strong ethnic consciousness and means of
spreading emotions to others (media, education, etc.)
• I describe the presence of emotional prejudice and its role in
both the Nazi and Rwandan Genocides
Threat Activation Theory
• Contagion: Already discussed how it can spread emotions
• Threat Activation Theory: Particular theory about spreading and
activating negative emotions in ways that promote violence
• Psychological theory claiming that popular depictions of “Others”
as defective spreads emotional prejudice against them
• Creates/activates/strengthens fear and anger against targeted community
• Example: Quebec secularism, religious minorities, and hate crimes
after 2013
• Preexisting Prejudice: Threat activation is most powerful when
preexisting prejudice exists
Limited but Important Role of Emotions
• Emotions do not determine ethnic violence by themselves
• Many other things also involved—leadership, economic and
political crises, etc.
• People are always emotional, and ethnic violence isn’t
omnipresent
• My argument, however, is that emotions are a vital component
• You remove them, and ethnic violence would be very rare
• Suggests researchers need to study that factors that
intensify and release emotional prejudice
• Like Threat Activation Theory