Culture, Race, Ethnicity, Immigration and the Question of Assimilation

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Culture, Race, Ethnicity, Immigration and the
Question of Assimilation
The Architects of American Freedom Liberty
Fellowship Buena, NJ
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Catch my Campaign

• Dr. Yohuru Williams Anthony Fitzpatrick

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What is Anthropology?

• Physical Anthropology
• Primatology
• The study of primates.
• Paleoanthropology
• The study of human evolution
• Human Variation Studies The study of the
  physical differences in humans.

• Cultural Anthropology
• A.K.A. Ethnology
• Ethnography
• A.K.A. Participant Observation
• Linguistics
• Archaeology

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What is Culture?
The Culture Concept Culture is understood as
the learned body of knowledge, beliefs, and
customs that people use to organize their natural
and social environments.

• Material Traits
• Tools
• Clothing
• Housing
• ETC.

• Non-Material Traits
• Attitudes
• Behaviors
• Beliefs
• ETC.

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Fine Arts Storytelling Subsistence
Pattern Dancing-Games-Cooking-Dress Observable
Material Elements May Include Behavioral
Characteristics, i.e. Religion, Handshakes, etc.

Surface Culture
Deep Culture
Conception of Beauty Ideals of Governing
Patterns of Raising Children Notions of Modesty
Cosmology Relationship to Animals Patterns of
Superior/Subordinate Relations Courtship
Practices Conception of Justice Incentives to
Work Notions of Leadership Tempo of Work
Patterns of Group Decision Making Conception of
Status Mobility (Class, Caste, etc.) Eye
Behavior Roles in Relation to Status by Age, Sex,
Class, Occupation, Kinship, etc. Conversational
Patterns in Various Social Contexts Conception
of Past, Present, and Future Nature of Friendship
Conception of Self Preference for Competition
or Cooperation Patterns of Handling Emotions AND
MUCH, MUCH MORE
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Human Origins
One Explanation
The Fossil Record
The Essential Question Who Are We?
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Two Theories
Homo Habilis 2.2 - 1.6
Australopithecus 4-2 MYA
Homo Sapiens Sapiens 200,000 YA to Present
Homo Erectus 2 - 0.4 MYA
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Scientific Creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that
humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are
the creation of a supernatural being.

• Literalist Interpretation
• Genesis Creation Narrative
• Flood Geology
• Intelligent Design
• Evolution cannot adequately account for the
  history, diversity and complexity of live on
  earth.

• Disputes concern the
• evolution of living organisms
• idea of common descent
• geological history of the Earth
• formation of the solar system
• origin of the universe

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What is a Racial Group?

• There is one race!
• Most physical variation, about 94, lies within
  so-called racial groups
• Racial" groupings differ from one another only
  in about 6 of their genes
• Whenever groups have come into contact, they
  have interbred. The continued sharing of genetic
  materials has maintained all of humankind as a
  single species
• Physical variations in the human species have no
  meaning except the social ones that humans put on
  them
• This concept of "race was spread to other areas
  of the world during the 18th and 19th centuries

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What is Ethnicity?

• A group of humans who identify with one another
• Share a common HERITAGE that is real or
  presumed
• Other groups recognize them as distinct
• Share common cultural traits behavioral,
  values, attitudes, etc.

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Do they represent a racial group
ethnic group?
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American immigration history can be viewed in
five epochs

• American Indians come to America
• The colonial period (Northern Europe)
• The mid-nineteenth century (Northern
  Europe/China)
• The turn of the twentieth (Southern/Eastern
  Europe)
• Post-1965 (Latin America/Asia)

From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million Europeans
migrated to the United States
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American Indians
The First Immigrants to the Americas
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American View of American Indians
Indians were migratory hunters who only followed
the game and had no attachment to any particular
lands.
They were not an economically, politically or
socially viable people and needed to be
socialized/assimilated to improve the quality of
their lives.
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Attempts to Assimilate into American Culture
From 1809-21 Sequoyah single-handedly creates a
Cherokee syllabic alphabet so that his people's
language can be written.

• Alphabet, Newspapers, Towns
• Planters and Farmers
• Some Owned Slaves

Ross, one of the richest men in North Georgia
before 1838 had a number of
ventures including a 200 acre farm and owned a
number of slaves. He was forced to move in the
Trail of Tears. He lost everything.
John Ross
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The American View of Native Americans
Grants Inaugural Address 12-4-1871
"the policy pursued toward the Indians has
resulted favorably...many tribes of Indians have
been induced to settle upon reservations, to
cultivate the soil, to perform productive labor
of various kinds, and to partially accept
civilization. They are being cared for in such a
way, it is hoped, as to induce those still
pursuing their old habits of life to embrace the
only opportunity which is left them to avoid
extermination.
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The Dawes Act and Assimilation Indian children,
seen as the key to assimilation, were forcibly
taken from their homes and sent to school.
In 1887, the government instituted the Dawes Act
to accelerate assimilation by dissolving the
reservations and allotting land to individual
Indians. Most tribes resisted, refusing to give
up their culture and unique ways of life.
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"...the real aim of the Dawes Act is to get at
the Indians land and open it up for
resettlement." - Senator Henry M. Teller, 1881
"A great general has said that the only good
Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with
the sentiment, but only in this that all the
Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill
the Indian in him and save the man"
Congressman Henry Dawes once expressed his faith
in the civilizing power of private property with
the claim that to be civilized was to "wear
civilized clothes... cultivate the ground, live
in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send
children to school, drink whiskey and own
property."
Studebaker Wagon
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• Carlisle School 1900

Making Apples Red outside - White inside
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Native children at the Carlisle Indian school in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This school forced native
children removed from their home to be
acculturated to white culture. Many of the
children died because of bad food and conditions.
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In the 1800s and early 1900s Indians were
forbidden to practice their religion or speak
their language

• Carlisle Indian Industrial School

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American Horse (Oglala)

• American Horse with children and relatives during
  an 1882 visit to the Carlisle Indian School

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Apache children arrive at the Carlisle Indian
School
Apache children four months later
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Critical Thinking Questions for Students
What does it mean to be acculturated?
Why were Indians subjected to a forced process of
assimilation?
What is the difference between the Indian
experience and the newly arrived immigrants?
Is there a standard set of cultural values that
should be held by all people?
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Immigrant Enclave
What are the differences in the attitudes and
experience of these immigrants and immigrants
today?
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Cultural Brokers
Who are other cultural brokers today?
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Intolerance The Closed Society Model
Denmark
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Islamophobia
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The Closed Society

• Ethnic/Race/Class Exploitation
• The aim of a closed society is to ensure the
  supremacy of one class (or race or group) over
  another
• To bridge the gap, an elaborate set of
  explanations and ideas are needed which is, by
  definition, at variance with the facts

SEGREGATION, APARTHIED, ROYALTY, ETC.
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European Social Conditions

• Alienated young Muslims, who became radicalized
  in Europe
• Lack of alternative expression of social protest
• No utopian vision for Justice Fairness
• Demise of Communism and other leftist ideologies

• Failure of European integration policy for
  Muslim populations
• - Rapid immigration growth post WWII
• - Lower socio-economic levels
• Rigid social structure in Europe
• - Lack of bottom up integration
• - Failure of top down policy Europe v.
  countries built on immigration
• - No European Dream but an alienation
  radicalization of the younger generation

Is this the future of US intercultural relations?
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Assimilation The Role of Language
Class, Codes and Control, Basil Bernstein (1971)
The Elaborated Language Code Future Orientation
The Restricted Language Code Present Orientation
In Group
Social Class and Color Differences in Child
Rearing Allison Davis 1945
Out Group
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Final Questions
What impact do these processes have on lifes
chances and the acquisition of the lifes
opportunities?
Does this help in defining or understanding.
The Culture of Poverty?