Ethnicities & Geography

Ethnicity is especially important to geographers because in the face of globalization trends in culture and economy, ethnicity stands as the strongest bulwark for the preservation of local diversity. Despite efforts to preserve local languages, it is not far-fetched to envision a world in which virtually all educated people speak English. And universalizing religions continue to gain adherents around the world. But no ethnicity is attempting or even aspiring to achieve global dominance, although ethnic groups are fighting with each other to control specific places. Even if globalization engulfs language, religion, and other cultural elements, regions of distinct ethnic identity will remain.

The meaning of ethnicity, the subject of this chapter, is frequently confused with definitions of race and nationality:

• Ethnicity is identity with a group of people who share the cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth. An ethnicity could refer to a group occupying a very small area, such as the Tutsis of Central Africa, or it could refer to a large heterogeneous group, such as Asian Americans.

• Race is identity with a group of people who are perceived to share a physiological trait, such as skin color.

• Nationality is identity with a group of people who share legal attachment to a particular country.

The title of this chapter is “Ethnicities,” because it is the cultural feature that is place-based. “Nationality,” which is also place-based, is introduced in this chapter and is discussed in more detail in Chapter 8. Though not place-based, “race” is an important concept because it is often misused as a synonym for “ethnicity.”

The Duchess of Sussex (Meghan Markle) illustrates the complexity of designating ethnicity, race, and nationality. She was born with U.S. nationality, but became a citizen of the United Kingdom after her marriage to the Duke of Sussex (Prince Harry) and passing a citizenship test. She describes her ethnicity as “Caucasian and African American,” and her race as “half black and half white.” Her father was white, descended from European ethnicities, and living in Mexico. Her mother was African American, descended from Africans enslaved in Georgia.

The significance of ethnic diversity is controversial in the United States:

• To what extent does discrimination persist against minority ethnicities, especially African Americans and Hispanics?

• Should preferences be given to minority ethnicities to correct past patterns of discrimination?

• To what extent should the distinct cultural identity of ethnicities be encouraged or protected?

Ethnicity & Race

In principle, ethnicity, nationality, and race are distinct concepts. Nationality refers to a person’s country of citizenship, race to a person’s biological composition, and ethnicity to a person’s place of cultural heritage. In actuality, differences among the three concepts are not always clear-cut. Some individuals are not in a position to identify one or more of their personal traits. For example, an individual’s two parents may identify with different ethnicities, races, and nationalities. Furthermore, many societies muddle the three concepts, either through unclear language or deliberate decisions.

Features of race, such as skin color, hair type and color, blood traits, and shape of body, head, and facial features, were once thought to be scientifically classifiable. Contemporary geographers, along with other scientists, reject the discredited biological basis of classifying humans into a handful of races because these features are not rooted in specific places.

One feature of race is especially important for geographers: the color of skin. The distribution of persons by skin color is studied by geographers because it is the fundamental basis by which people in many societies sort out where they reside, attend school, spend their leisure time, and perform many other activities of daily life.

At best, biological features are so highly variable among members of a race that any prejudged classification is meaningless. Perhaps many tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago, early “humans” (however they emerged as a distinct species) lived in such isolation from other early “humans” that they were truly distinct genetically. But the degree of isolation needed to keep biological features distinct genetically vanished when the first human crossed a river or climbed a hill. The attempt to classify people according to race is regarded by geographers as a social construction, which was defined in Chapter 1 as an idea or a meaning that is widely accepted as natural by a society but may not represent a reality shared by those outside the society.

At worst, biological classification by race is the basis for racism, which is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. A racist is a person who displays discrimination or feels prejudice against people of particular races.

Trevor Noah, long-time host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, illustrates the complexities of race, ethnicity, and racism (Figure 7-2). Noah’s mother Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah was of South African nationality, black race, and Xhosa ethnicity. His father Robert Noah was of Swiss nationality, white race, and Swiss German ethnicity.

Trevor Noah

When his parents met in the 1980s, it was illegal in South Africa for different races to date, marry, or have children. So Trevor Noah describes his mere existence “as a crime” under South Africa’s laws then in effect. After his mother was jailed and fined, and his father moved back to Switzerland, he was raised by African relatives. Noah lives in the United States, though his nationality remains South African.

Pause & Reflect 7.1.1

How might children born to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex be considered in terms of race, ethnicity, and nationality?