Quote: "Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society."
A group of people who are perceived to share distinct physical characteristics such as skin color, eye shape or hair texture.
Definitions and Concepts of Race: Understanding what race is and how it is different from ethnicity, nationality, and culture is essential to building a foundation for the study of race and cultural geography.
Historical Context: The historical roots of racism and the various types of discrimination experienced by different racial groups must be understood to comprehend the contemporary race issues.
Intersectionality: The overlap of different aspects of identity (race, gender, sexuality, etc.) and their combined impact on discrimination and privilege is crucial in understanding the experiences of marginalized groups.
Racial Formation: Analyzing the social constructs of race and their evolution over time is critical to understanding the complexity of racial and ethnic identity and its effects on society.
Power Dynamics: Examining power imbalances and institutionalization of racism is important in understanding how racial inequality is perpetuated in society.
Prejudice and Discrimination: Understanding the differences between prejudice and discrimination, and how they are manifested in different societal institutions, is essential to developing anti-racist strategies.
Cultural Competency: Developing cultural competency helps people understand and work effectively across cultural and racial lines.
Multiculturalism and Diversity: Studying and celebrating diversity and multiculturalism helps challenge stereotypes and promote inclusion.
Race Relations: Engaging in dialogues about race relations and developing cross-cultural communication skills is essential to building bridges and mending divides.
Bias and Stereotypes: Recognizing and challenging our own biases and stereotypes is essential to creating a more equitable and just society.
White Privilege and Allyship: Recognizing white privilege and exploring how to act as an ally to marginalized communities is crucial to combating racism and oppression.
Globalization and Racial Migrations: The movement of people across borders has implications for racial identity and cultural geography, and understanding of these issues is essential for navigating multicultural environments.
Anti-racism and Social Justice: Building a more just society begins with examining the root causes of racism and taking action to eliminate it.
White: A person of European descent.
Black or African American: A person of African descent, including individuals from the Caribbean and Africa.
Asian: People of Asian descent, including those from Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Korea.
Native American or Alaskan Native: People who are indigenous to North America.
Pacific Islander: People from the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, Samoa, and Guam.
Hispanic or Latino: People of Spanish origin, including individuals from Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Quote: "The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of various kinds, including those characterized by close kinship relations."
Quote: "By the 17th century, the term began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits, and then later to national affiliations."
Quote: "Modern science regards race as a social construct, an identity which is assigned based on rules made by society."
Quote: "While partly based on physical similarities within groups, race does not have an inherent physical or biological meaning."
Quote: "The concept of race is foundational to racism, the belief that humans can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another."
Quote: "Social conceptions and groupings of races have varied over time, often involving folk taxonomies that define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits."
Quote: "Modern scientists consider such biological essentialism obsolete, and generally discourage racial explanations for collective differentiation in both physical and behavioral traits."
Quote: "Scientists around the world continue to conceptualize race in widely differing ways."
Quote: "Others in the scientific community suggest that the idea of race is inherently naive or simplistic."
Quote: "All living humans belong to the same subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens."
Quote: "Since the second half of the 20th century, race has been associated with discredited theories of scientific racism."
Quote: "Race has become increasingly seen as a largely pseudoscientific system of classification."
Quote: "Race has often been replaced by less ambiguous and/or loaded terms: populations, people(s), ethnic groups, or communities, depending on context."
Quote: "Its use in genetics was formally renounced by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2023."
Quote: "Folk taxonomies define essential types of individuals based on perceived traits."
Quote: "While some researchers continue to use the concept of race to make distinctions among fuzzy sets of traits or observable differences in behavior..."
Quote: "Still others argue that, among humans, race has no taxonomic significance because all living humans belong to the same subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens."
Quote: "Race has become increasingly seen as a largely pseudoscientific system of classification."
Quote: "The use in genetics was formally renounced by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2023."