Sociology 255

With Vanderbilt’s annual multicultural student recruitment weekend, MOSAIC upon us, I thought I’d ask the class to consider a question that I have spent a lot of time thinking and talking to people about — should Vanderbilt continue the MOSAIC program?

Admittedly, I am of two minds about this. As a student of color who was recruited to come to Vanderbilt, but not through the MOSAIC program, here’s my perspective.

1) MOSAIC does a lot to attract students from different backgrounds to Vandy, which I fully support. I know a lot of people who credit MOSAIC with their decision to come here. These students often meet friends at MOSAIC and keep in touch with these students for their entire four years at Vandy and beyond. It’s awesome that it draws together so many organizations and showcases the school for a lot of different students from different backgrounds.

2) On the other hand, like I said students often make friends at MOSAIC and continue to hang out with these people when they matriculate at Vandy, but since most of the students they meet at MOSAIC are students of color, it seems to me that it perpetuates existing systems of segregation on campus. Furthermore, it seems to me (again I did not attend MOSAIC, so this is just an impression) that some students may get a biased impression of Vandy from the program. Because MOSAIC is put on by multicultural organizations, and visiting students may see these organizations and get the impression that “multiculture” so to speak has a more significant presence on this campus than it really does. In my N=1 experience, some participants of MOSAIC have expressed surprise to me at the lack of blacks/Latinos/insert racial group here on campus, perhaps indicating that MOSAIC does not do enough to prepare some minority students for the realities of life on a predominantly white campus.

What does everyone else think? I’ve discussed the program with friends, both white and “students of color,” and this seems to be an issue that everyone has an opinion on.  I’d love to hear people’s perspectives on this.

Omg. Stop equating the three, especially when it comes to Black people. First off, Black is a race. It is our master status okay. We cannot get around it, when you see us we are Black unless we can pass for something else. Secondly, our ethnicities are many. African-with its thousands of ethnic tribes-, Caribbean-with its different ethnicities i.e. Puerto Rican, Dominican, Haitian etc., and African American which is really a myriad of the three with components of capitalist white America values indoctrinated. Then, there is culture which ranges from the types of food we eat, the clothes we wear, the music we listen too, how we talk, etc. But ALL BLACK PEOPLE DO NOT SHARE THE SAME CULTURE…AND for the white guy in classes that said Black people will get more opportunities when Ebonics becomes an acceptable language…ALL BLACK PEOPLE DO NOT SPEAK EBONICS…that is definitely a particular urban culture of African Americans (ethnicity) in the United States who identify themselves as BLACK (race). Get it now! What if we equated all Latinos with Mexicans who eat Tacos…   Or all whites with conservatives who honor the Confederate flag? Or all Asians with Chinese people who eat rice? Do you see the logical fallacy in that?

I know we’re talking about this later in the class, but I thought I’d jump the gun:

Is this offensive?

I am ethnically Jewish. At dinner a few weeks ago, my best friend made the statement that “Jews aren’t white people.”

In response, my Jewish friend said “Okay, Hitler.” And chaos ensued.

If people think Jews are another race, does this make them anti-Semitic?

Did my friend overreact by calling him Hitler?

Being Jewish by heritage has left me with the decision to either represent myself as Adam Warner Weinstein or Adam Warner (as I mentioned in my last post). Essentially, I can pass for Anglo-Saxon White if I so choose. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s right, though.

I realize that this is a potentially dangerous question, but if you could change your skin color so that you could pass for another race or ethnicity, would you?

This question applies to everyone.

Personally, sometimes I wish that I were darker skinned like my father. When my mom met him, someone had fooled her into thinking that he was from the Dominican Republic. However, my dad is of Eastern European Jewish decent, and I definitely got the whole “gullible” trait from my mom’s side of the family. Of course, my reason for this is so that I wouldn’t sunburn so easily, like a lobster… I realize that’s going to sound a little trivial compared to some other answers here, but it’s the truth. So I guess, I wouldn’t change it in order to pass for anything other than what I’m currently seen as.

Yesterday, an acquaintance of mine, “I know this is a personal question, but do have any Asian blood in you?”

This made me wonder: is it socially acceptable, if you cannot readily characterize someone’s ethnic background, to ask them about it?

I usually take offense to such questions, for the following reasons:

1) I get the impression that when members of my own race ask, it is because they assume that, for whatever reason, I am unlike them.

2) I get the impression that when members of another race ask, it is because they are trying to find a way to make me that “exception” to all the stereotypes about my race.

3) We care about the “breed” of a dog or a horse so we can sell it, put it to work, or breed it. I am a human being — my “breed” should not be of such concern.

Perhaps I am being too sensitive. How do other people feel about this? Is it acceptable to ask someone his or her race? Ethnicity? Country of origin? Can I ask someone who is Asian-American, Arab-American, Hispanic-American, etc. about his or her country of origin, i.e. Are you Chinese or Japanese? Jordanian or Afghan? Dominican or Cuban?

How do those of you who are multicultural feel about receiving this question?

*Edited 1/29/09 in the interest of clearing up ambiguity. For the record, I have no issues with my health care providers asking me about my ethnicity so that they can better care for me.

Yesterday in class, our visitor from Fisk asserted that he did not think integration is possible. The question of whether integration is truly achieveable warrants further discussion.

Here’s my take: I think integration is possible, but only if we have realistic expectations for what integration is. Our visitor offered the fact that we (as Vanderbilt students) were sitting in that classroom talking about the problems facing racial and ethnic relations as proof that we are not integrated.  I disagree.  Yes, we were sitting there talking about our differences in opinions and experiences, but we were sitting there together, having an honest and open dialogue on these issues. People are different from one another, and, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, etc. are not going to agree on every single thing or even most things.  If our visitor’s definition of integration entails the elimination of these differences between us, then I understand why he believes it is not possible — the state of affairs I just described is about as attainable as world peace.

However, I believe that our classroom yesterday was integrated. We discussed our differences openly and treated one another with respect. I think that such integration is possible for the entirety of Vanderbilt’s campus and the United States and that this ideal is worth striving for. But perhaps I am an idealist. What does everyone else think? Is integration possible — anywhere, here at Vandy, and in our country?

A lot of people seem confused about what exactly qualifies as an ethnicity.  Here is my take. I think the points people were bringing up are more or less about culture–shared practices and beliefs.  Southerners have a different culture than Northerners for example.  Often times, however, people of different races can share the same culture, as someone brought up Eminem among other examples.  I consider culture very fluid yet real in differences, and I think the examples people brought up demonstrate that idea.

From the U.S. government to academia (their fixation on the trilogy of race, class, and gender), society tends to draw distinct lines around culture to construct ethnicities, historically based on similar biological features.  That is not to say ethnic differences are a myth and society just tricks us into differentiating ourselves from other people. The differences are real and have real implications, but where the boundaries are drawn amidst the fluid system of culture are determined by society.  Not everyone, as others’ examples have shown, fit into a neat label.

While today the way you look in many ways is predictive of your culture, I think in the future as people continue to migrate all over the world, where you live and grow up will be the most accurate predictor of culture, thus rendering the idea of ethnicity useless ie. a Black person and a White person from New York will have a much more similar shared beliefs and behaviors than a Black person from New York and a Black person from LA.

For anyone interested in race, ethnicity, and culture, I highly recommend Thomas Sowell, a Fellow at the Hoover Institution.  Here is a sample essay.

Today in class, we touched upon the question: Are southern Americans their own ethnicity?

Based on the definition for ethnicity that we’re working with- a category composed of people who share religion, ancestry, language, and cultural characteristics-  I would have to say that there’s definitely a good argument for that being the case.

Speaking for personal experience, having been a student at Vanderbilt for about a year and a half now, it sure seems to me that southerners fit the bill for an ethnicity. While not everyone holds the same beliefs here in the south, the majority of people are religious. That’s not to say that religious people don’t exist elsewhere in the US or the world, but there definitely is a much greater, visible presence of religion here than there is where I grew up, in New York City.

On top of that, the language in the south is different than it is elsewhere in the US, and it’s not just an accent. Just take the word “ya’ll” up north, and you’ll see what I mean.

The reason I believe that my ethnicity is based in New York City is because all of us New Yorkers have at some level, the same cultural rituals, language, and heritage. We’re proud, we’re loud, we’re high strung. Most of us ride the subway and, like it or not, come together through it. We’ve all gone through 9/11 together, and through all of this, we’re all in some way connected.

The real question here, though, is how narrow is too narrow for defining ethnicities? American is an ethnicity for sure, and almost all of us in this class share it. Really, though, do you consider yourself to identify with all of America, or just your hometown, or is your personal ethnicity even more exclusive than that?

Today we discussed how ethnicity is a very fluid and shifting idea, both in terms of legal code and self-identification.  There was also the mention of assimilation and how that can change ethnicity as well.  I would say that there also exists a sort of reverse assimilation, where an individual moves closer to their roots and heritage.  The example I am using is USC quaterback Mark Sanchez.  Both of his parents are of mexican descent, and yet, he speaks English,does not have an accent of any kind, and only recently learned to speak Spanish.  However, he has made a concious effort to understand his heritage and create the identifications that we used to discuss ethnicity.  As a result he has become a huge hero to the Mexican-American community in L.A.

I was wondering if people thought that this was truly a change in ethnicity?

Also, I was wondering what people thought or knew about this kind of movement towards a stronger self-determination of ethnicity given the discussion on Minority Theory.

Hey! So I was thinking about what Lisa said earlier today, and what Dr. Pitt had to say about Chris and his becoming an Alpha or hanging out at the black cultural center once he finds out about one black ancestor of his. What do you guys think the impact is of a person’s selected cohort? If Chris chooses to surround himself with only black people throughout his life, does this make him ethnically black? I suppose this question has to do with “wiggers” and whether or not you guys think that a white person could be ethnically / socially black or not. If Lisa has always been surrounded by WASPs, then would it be a normal assumption that she is also a WASP too?

Here are some references to specify what exactly I mean (this relates to previous post about Justin Timberlake’s hairstyle etc).

1. Marshall Mathers (aka Eminem): For any of you that have seen Eight Mile (those who have not, I suggest it), I think it pretty accurately represents the type of mixed cohort that one can CHOOSE to surround ones self with in downtown Detroit. Even though Eminem is painfully white racially, he chooses to surround himself with black people, he lives in a black neighborhood, works with black coworkers at a stereotypically “black” job etc. (Interesting to note that he DOES date white women…). In my opinion, Eminem could be considered a black man (if you disagree, please consider Michael Jackson’s ethnic identity as well).
2. Joshua Packwood: Last year’s valedictorian at (historically black) Morehouse College. Clearly he knows and accepts that he is white, but he still choses to surround himself with black people. What do you think this means about his sense of self? I think perhaps his sense of identity depends almost exclusively on interaction with black people and self-identification as “other.” If you have a moment or two read (or skim) this article, detailing Josh’s own comments about race and his Morehouse experience.  At the end of this article, administrators cite that he will have had the “typical” Morehouse experience, just like every other undergrad EXCEPT for ethnicity. Considering his biographical information and other stuff from the article, could he in fact be black ethnically?

I think that both of these men could be considered white African-Americans, as contradictory as that sounds… Is it fair for an ethnic group to exclude members based on phenotype? If a person knows that their race and ethnicity are different, is this a problem? Or does it represent some higher level of self awareness where the person is able to deal with contradictions within their identity?

This is the subject of my Inter-Disciplinary major…so I probably will post more about this eventually, but I am interested to see what you all think especially since our class is so diverse.