Race, Ethnicity, and Coloniality Quiz

Race, Ethnicity, and Racism

• Minority Group: Defined by characteristics that disadvantage them compared to the dominant group. Historical examples include African Americans under Jim Crow, Indigenous groups during colonization, and ethnic minorities in caste systems.
• Race vs. Ethnicity:
  • Race: Rooted in perceived ancestral differences (e.g., Black, White, Asian), and is a social construct with no biological basis.
  • Ethnicity: Cultural identity based on values, norms, language, history, and religion (e.g., Mayan, Hutu). Terms like Hispanic/Latino highlight cultural differences.

Coloniality vs. Decoloniality

• Coloniality: Goes beyond physical colonization, impacting knowledge, economics, and politics, maintaining global hierarchies where European systems dominate. It affects labor, education, and social structures.
• Residual Hierarchies: Post-colonial nations often face dependency on former colonial powers through economics, trade, and politics. Raw material extraction from the Global South for use in the Global North further sustains inequality.
• Decoloniality: A response to coloniality that challenges the power structures and promotes empowerment of marginalized societies. It critiques Eurocentric knowledge systems and seeks inclusive alternatives.

Patriarchy and Gender Inequality

• Patriarchy: Men dominate women across social and economic structures, linked to private property and state formation. Women are often confined to roles related to reproduction.
• Intersectionality: Multiple social identities (race, gender, class) interact to create unique forms of oppression, creating distinct experiences of discrimination for each group.
• Feminist Variations:
  • Liberal Feminism: Focuses on equal rights within existing systems.
  • Radical Feminism: Aims to dismantle patriarchal systems.
  • Ecofeminism: Connects women's rights and environmental concerns, suggesting a holistic approach to liberation.

Global Inequality

• Global Wealth Disparities: High-income countries, representing 16% of the global population, have industrialized economies; Middle-income countries represent 75% exhibiting significant disparities, while low-income countries are primarily agricultural and concentrated in Africa and Asia, facing high poverty rates.
• Economic Zones (World Systems Theory):
  • Core: Dominates global trade and often exploits the periphery (e.g., US, Germany, Japan).
  • Semi-periphery: Acts as a buffer between core and periphery, extracting resources from periphery while benefiting from core nations (e.g., Brazil, South Africa).
  • Periphery: Supplies raw materials/labor to wealthier nations, often remaining underdeveloped (e.g., many African and Southeast Asian nations).
• Dependency Theory: Poverty isn't a lack of development but is caused by exploitation by wealthier nations, even after colonialism.
• Market-Oriented vs. Dependency Perspectives: Market-oriented theories suggest adopting Western economic models promotes development, ignoring cultural differences and systemic barriers. Dependency theory and world-systems critique this reliance on imposed systems, emphasizing power structures perpetuating inequality.

Key Concepts for Discussion

• The Role of Meritocracy: While idealized, meritocracy often ignores systemic inequalities limiting opportunities for marginalized groups (e.g., unequal access to quality education).
• Epistemic Inequality: Unequal access to knowledge production/validation, where coloniality often prioritizes Eurocentric frameworks over Indigenous knowledge systems.
• Racism's Modern Adaptations: Subtler forms of racism persist in systems like policing, healthcare, and housing, masked by post-WWII narratives of equality.