1.4 Race and American Identity

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From the course by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History

12 ratings

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History

12 ratings

Learners will deepen their understanding and appreciation of ways in which race, ethnicity and cultural diversity have shaped American institutions, ideology, law, and social relationships from the colonial era to the present. Race and ethnicity are ideological and cultural categories that include all groups and individuals. Hence, this course is designed in significant part to take a broad look at the ideology of race and cultural diversity in America’s past and present. The primary focus is on the historical and social relationships among European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latino/as, and Asian/Pacific Americans. Issues of race and ethnicity are examined across different ethno-cultural traditions in order to interweave diverse experiences into a larger synthesis of the meaning of race and ethnicity in American life. In this course, we conceive of “race” and “diversity” as references to the entire American population, even as we recognize that different groups have unique historical experiences resulting in distinctive and even fundamental cultural differences. We treat race and ethnicity as dynamic, complex ideological and cultural processes that shape all social institutions, belief systems, inter-group relationships, and individual experiences.

From the lesson

Introduction to Concepts of Race and Identity

This module introduces the concept of "race," and begins to address the use of the concept in the United States. It also explores both fears and opportunities raised by the realities of racial and ethnic diversity.

1.1 Introducing the Key Concepts and Social Challenges7:42

1.2 Exploring Attitudes to Race and Identity4:40

1.3 What Is Race?2:28

1.4 Race and American Identity3:48

1.5 Fear of Multiethnic Democracy4:55

1.6 Social and Economic Benefits of a Diverse Democracy3:20

Meet the Instructors

James D. Anderson
Edward William and Jane Marr Gutsgell Professor of Education
Education Policy, Organization and Leadership

We want to look at race and American identity.

America's changing,

American schools have already become a majority-minority population.

Reaching that mark in 2014, when the overall number of Latino, Africa-American,

and Asian-American, and Native American students surpassed the number of

non-Hispanic white students in our schools.

Despite the increase in demographic diversity in our K-12 population,

according to the Government Accountability Office,

school segregation is sharply increasing.

So we have a trend in which the nation is becoming more diverse,

it is changing in fundamental ways.

And at the same time, people because of perceptions of ethnic and

racial differences, are becoming more sharply segregated throughout the nation.

That also is demonstrated in the Pew Center the Next America study.

And there's a good talk by Paul Taylor who has written a book on this

really looking at the demographic transformation of American society.

Changing demographics have engendered fears of cultural displacement among

segments of the dominant white population, in particular.

But there are lot of concerns about the impact on the overall nature of American

identity, and what it means for this nation going forward.

There are many challenges as a consequence of diversity,

both historically and contemporarily.

One challenge is a challenge of increasing religious diversity.

Proposals to ban immigration based on religious faith,

particularly in refugees and Muslims, have become targets in recent months.

This is raising some fundamental questions about issues of

religious diversity that go back to the very founding of the American nation and

the initial framing of the American Constitution.

There is a rise, a reported and documented rise of Islamaphobia in our schools,

and the subsequent bullying of Muslim-American schoolchildren.

And that is a very important concern, critical concern.

And one that also raises questions about how we will respond to increasing

religious diversity.

So we learned from recent data driven reports that approximately 55%

of Americans voice unfavorable unfavorable opinions of Islam.

Such attitudes threaten to redefine and corrupt the most fundamental meaning of

American democracy, that is based on the Jeffersonian idea of religious freedom.

And [COUGH] you'll have a chance to look at Thomas Jefferson's,

A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, and

James Madison's Argument Against Religious Assessment for civil rights or

for office holding.

And both of these documents were written before the Constitution, 1785 and 1789,

and it's the basic American Constitutional view of religious freedom in our nation.

And it makes it very clear that civil rights, participation to a body politic,

immigration, none of these things should be based on a religious assessment.

And both Madison and Jefferson played the important role of incorporating

the principle of religious freedom into the American Constitution.

And therefore, it's a challenge going forward as the Islamicphobia,

and the bullying of children based on their religion,

immigration bans based on religion.

A direct challenge to the most fundamental principle of American democracy,

religious freedom.

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