Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies

Introduction

Race and ethnicity have played an important role in U . S . History . Both ethnicity and race are socially construed but racial differences are more easily identifiable and race has therefore had a major impact on peoples ' lives . It has been used to discriminate against racial minority for the past hundreds of years . Issues related to race , racial identity property rights and ownership have been an important factor in public discourse in United States

[Harris , 1993] argues that racial identity and property are interrelated concepts and whiteness , initially

constructed as a form of racial identity has developed into a form of property . Harris rightly traces the origin of this whiteness as a 'valuable property ' to the domination of Native Americans and Blacks . The conquests of Native American lands as well as parts of Mexico and period of slavery turned whiteness into the basis of racial privilege . The society in control of whites ensured that societal benefits , both private and public were allocated on the basis of racial identity . The allocation of these benefits was ratified and legitimized in law as a type of status property . Racial minorities were provided fewer resources and given different protections under law

Overturning of the legal segregation and incorporation of equality laws has been unable to remove the barriers to effective change , as whiteness as property continues to protect entrenched power . The racial classification system continues to propagate the value of whiteness as property [Harris , 1993]

The role the whiteness has played in establishing the social power and its impact on racial and ethnic minorities is the subject of this essay

Setting the Structure for Social Power

Arrival of European in American continent created an upheaval for people of other races who either were living here , or arrived here in search of better living or were imported as slave labor . Primitive Native Americans were no match for the better-armed and 'civilized ' Europeans and were easily subjugated . The superiority of Europeans to over the primitive Indians pushed them aside . The Indians were either killed or consigned to more remote reservations . As the promised to Indian became valuable due to the discovery of natural resources or just became necessary for the development of European expansion , the treaties were discarded and Indians were told to move to another land . Eventually the original inhabitant had no land of their own while the powerful new settlers enjoyed control over the whole territories and over the Natives

The vast expanses of land required labor to make the land productive and forcibly caught blacks from Africa were imported as slaves to do the hard work . Both Blacks and Natives were in a subjugated role and that strengthened the supremacy of white race

Whites as a Superior Race

This racial superiority phenomenon was not exclusively American , our northern neighbors in Canada and friend down-under ' attitude towards the primitive Natives was no better . Darwin 's 'Origin of Species ' published in 1859 began to be extended to Social Darwinism or 'survival of the...