Anthro 2229 Adittional notes - Google Docs PDF

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Madison McTighe 2021

Anthropology 2229 Additional Lecture Notes Wed. 24 Topic: Institutionalized Racism i.e., -is normalized, structural, colonialist, systemic racism Jim Crow legislation: -went to Supreme Court in U.S. which made segregation law. -included 3 main laws: literary tests, poll taxes, and the grandfather clause, which were all restrictions on voting meant to keep black men from casting a ballot. Bans on interracial marriage and separation between races in public and places of business. -introduced and passed (by Democratic-dominated state legislatures in 1800s & only abolished in 1965!) 3 Forms of Institutionalized Racism: 1. racist ideologies can influence social policies, programs, practices. –these not apparent in Canada any longer but were huge in past. –perhaps just hidden behind other more acceptable “reasons” for a policy, etc. -e.g., dress codes: “for safety reasons” -hijab, kirpan 2. policies were racist in origin, are no longer supported by Cdns & gov’t, but continue to exist e.g., Redskins (team, but now called Redhawks), Edmonton Eskimos, Indian Act. 3. Policies and programs that seem racially neutral but put minorities at a disadvantage, intentionally or not. –difficult to prove. e.gs: -Zero Tolerance policies in schools – misbehaviour noted when occurs by a minority-ethnicity child -University-based racism- name-calling, graffiti in name of “free speech”. a) university standards put racialized faculty members at a disadvantage. -work often community-based rather than traditional peer-reviewed “pure” research so considered less important. –huge time spent being mentors to students of same racialized category; this not recognized by university. –under-represented, very few at higher administrative levels. b) content-related education relates mostly to whites and European ways of learning

-e.gs, justice system, front-line workers

Mon 1st Policing: -Canada: Abdirahman Abdi (Somali-Cdn) -Ottawa, 2016, Oct. 20, 2020, Const. Montsion found not guilty of manslaughter or even assault. -under-policing of marginalized groups e.g., Robert Pickton, serial killer in BC killed minority sex workers (part of MMIWG) -convicted in 2007, appealed and it went to the Supreme Court of Canada where appeal was rejected in 2010. –life sentence for 25 yrs but eligible for parole then. –says he killed 49 women but convicted of way fewer. -over-policing of marginalized groups e.g., extra surveillance of ethnic enclaves, individuals, carding, racial profiling: denied by police in Canada who say they only “criminal profile”; that is, not by “race”. –difficult to prove which is correct. Patriarchal pyramid seen as “normal” -hegemony (the dominant ideology) of the state e.g., default is “whiteness”: disconnected worldview, hierarchy, competition, entitlement, discourse is Eurocentric (white) -other options then perceived as inferior Symbolic boundaries –dress & language -used to identify the Other Religion can be used to hide racism, the real motive Anti-Asian - Covid-19 -a cultural practice in another county(tries) gets used as an excuse to blame that Cdn ethnicity. Islamophobia – skyrocketed after Sept 11/2001. –fear. –stereotyping. –crowd frenzy -all Muslims, sects, considered the same. Anti-Semitism – Jews targeted over time, usually for being successful and therefore threatening. -portrayed by Nazis as threatening. -in France 2013, 50% of racist acts targeted Jews but they are only 1% of the pop’n of the country -media reduces and increases racism.

-easy to hide behind comments online. -censorship of hate sites and comments possible since they have been successful against child pornography. Ch. 4 Understanding Whiteness White privilege (e.g. Peggy McIntosh) -whites don’t have to be conscious of action all the time; universally accepted (though often resented) as the default. -she says if race disadvantages some, it has to also advantage others -made a list of more than 50 items in everyday life that advantage whites e.g., “race” does not make anyone suspicious, such as store clerks, security & can act rude & not have it attributed to “race”

White culture, whiteness, white flight Canadianness = whiteness; ignores the indigenous immigrant settler history -common belief amongst whites that racism has been resolved. -dismisses inequities

-whiteness: anything that is dominant; the default culture -tongue in cheek book & blog called “Stuff White People Like” 2008, by Christian Lander (white 41 yr. old American) -whites leave areas when economic downturns occur. -low-wage workers can’t do so as less transferable skills -often these are people who are immigrants and/or lower or unrecognized education levels e.g., Detroit, Alberta? -whites who remain resent non-whites, blaming immigration for economic downturns, etc. OR sometimes, whites then realize it is other whites causing all citizens grief (making decisions to close factories, move to offshore labour etc.)

Stereotypes (group vs. individual merit) –dumps all whites into one category as is regularly done with people of colour. -whites get a taste of what that feels like to be stereotyped -poor whites, e.g., rust-belt (-once a manufacturing hub; term gained popularity in the U.S. in the 1980s. The Rust Belt begins in Central New York and traverses west through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Indiana, and the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, ending in

northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, and southeastern Wisconsin). -whites there resentful because they see other whites benefiting while their own jobs continue to disappear. -other ethnic groups expect to be treated as inferior so are not as surprised by the disparities in income.

M/W. March 8/10 Topic: Institutionalized Racism (cont’d) Discussed: Youtube: The Event: How Racist Are You? with Jane Elliott Ppt 11: Chapter 4 cont’d 2008 U.S. election –Obama -44% whites voted for him; a surprising # of non-whites didn’t Working class whites & whites in poverty -seen as exception to the race rule, while people of colour who are affluent seen as exception to the rule -if white, your poverty is due to your lack of ambition, bad choices. -if non-white, due to your race -Eugenics -arranging reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable -Francis Galton (first published in 1869, England) – Darwin’s cousin, wanted to breed out “bad genes” in pop’ns -social engineering: means of bettering the quality and size of a pop’n. e.g., birth control but also sterilization and pre-pregnancy counseling. -“fittest” in Galton’s mind were those who had the most material goods as they outcompeted everyone else. –but what about lack of opportunity for the rest? -Galton ignored this inequity. -wanted to get rid of charity, social programs, etc. as these institutions “weakened the pop’n” -some believed that “nit-wits” were uncannily gifted with high fecundity. -in U.S. 30 states allowed sterilization, mostly done in the 1920s & 30s. –by late 1940s, “positive eugenics” became preferable, as a means to improve society via counseling couples on whether they should have kids, rather than “negative eugenics” to sterilize undesirables. –a white middle-class woman’s true contribution to society was in having children. Ppt 12: Nellie McClung & Emily Murphy (of Famous 5 in Canada) supported sterilization! -helped pass the Sexual Sterilization Act of 1928.

-later also supported by William Aberhart & Ernest Manning (all of whom have Calgary schools named after them!). -charismatic leadership, especially by McClung & Murphy who promoted women’s rights (supposedly) pushed AB to support the eugenics movement. Aberhart was premier and leader of Social Credit party, also fundamentalist Christian as was Manning, his successor. –both were highly authoritative; little public input. Alberta: -J.S. Woodsworth in AB, was core member of Bureau of Social Research in early 1900s representing the western provinces except BC. –published articles about the problems with “mental defectives” and promoting the eugenics position that defectiveness was hereditary so segregation & sterilization promoted. –some provinces and states never had eugenics movement. -women, teens, young children & aboriginals (27% of sterilizations yet only were 2.5% of pop’n) were especially targeted. -first consent was required but this was later removed since so many who were recommended for sterilization said no. -in 1920s, Cdn Mental Hygiene Committee in Alberta claimed that eastern European immigrants tended toward feeble-mindedness. UFA (United Farmers of AB) promoted involuntary sterilization due to perceived link btwn feeble-mindedness and social problems decreed by above Bureau - 1947 oil-boom meant more support for gov’t since economy prospering under Social Credit. -Catholic church weak in AB. –would have allowed no birth control, including sterilization. -between 1929-1972, Alberta Eugenics Board recommended 4739 residents of AB for sterilization; 60% of these were done (2834) in total. - change of gov’t (to PCs under Peter Lougheed) ended eugenics in AB for good in 1972 -Alberta continued to sterilize long after the U.S. and other Cdn provinces had given up the practice. Early anti-racism by these 2 anthropologists: Ashley Montagu (Jewish British-American anthropologist) 60s & 70s -tried to dispel the myth of race; used ethnicity instead -wrote Man’s most dangerous myth: The fallacy of race”. –called it witchcraft. –suggested the term ethnic group as correct, not race.

Margaret Mead (American Cultural Anthropologist) in 1960s, stated that anthropology had regressed and was scientifically inferior to the arguments for racial similarity posed decades earlier. Watch: Youtube: The Event: How Racist Are You? with Jane Elliott Ppt: 13 Ch. 5: Understanding Blackness -the racial optic: research focus on Blackness, pathologizing it. -Blacks, not Whites, seen as the object of inquiry -Whiteness (Ch. 4) is ignored because it is the default Who are “African-Americans”? -Wikipedia has a list of Afr-Amers who are celebrities

-its definition:

African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the black racial groups of Africa. The phrase generally refers to descendants of enslaved black people who are from the United States.

Watch: Youtube: Explained | Racial Wealth Gap “Racial” wealth gap growing in Canada & U.S. -is 26.7% in U.S. but 29% in Canada! Lincoln emancipated the slaves & U.S. made policy that blacks were to each receive 40 acres of tillable land, then Johnson was elected who promptly reversed this & all policies toward inequity. -he claimed whites were disenfranchised (reverse racism!) -slavery created 200 years of wealth for whites -why? -job types, ethnic-sounding names, poverty, schools paid by property taxes so if you live in a wealthy neighbourhood, your school well-funded and vice versa. -today, U.S. whites have avg 171k net wealth while blacks have 17k, and gap is increasing.

Week 9: M/W. March 15/17 (home study) W.E.B. DuBois -Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895. -also discussed in Week 5 lecture (& Ch. 3). -promoted black nationalism, wrote over 20 books; worked to remove Jim Crow legislation (abolished in 1968 in U.S.) -co-founder in 1909 of NAACP (Nat’l Association for Advancement of Colored People)

-Du Bois was big influence on: Desmond Cole: author of “The Skin We’re In” -found Black people made up 36.5 per cent of fatalities involving Toronto police, despite accounting for just 8.3 per cent of the city's population, in the period from 2000-17. Topic: Personalized Medicine, Health Disparities & “Race” Health differences among ethnic groups Complex diseases are multifactorial: -many intersectional factors contribute to incidence -e.gs: inequity, poverty, racism

-“race” does affect health but is a combo of inherited patterns of adaptation that are no longer useful Examples : Hypertension (today 40% of Blacks, 20% of whites) -salt retention (due to bodily adjustment to dehydration) in some blacks descended from enslaved populations due to slave trade ●

Indigenous incidence of: -alcoholism (35% off-reserve vs. 21% non-indigenou -Type 2 diabetes (4x non-indigenous rate)

Healthy Immigrant Effect: -health of immigrants decreases the longer they are in their new country (Canada or U.S) -why? -poor quality vegetable/fruit, processed, fast, cheap food sources, less time as working long hours in low-wage jobs Co-morbidities increase after one disease manifests e.g., Covid-19 mortality rate way higher if comorbidities present, especially: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Cancer Chronic kidney disease COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant -or contaminated environment, additive-ridden food & water Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30 kg/m 2 or higher but < 40 kg/m 2) Severe Obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m 2) Pregnancy Sickle cell disease Smoking Type 2 diabetes mellitus

-and who are most likely to have such comorbidities, unable to access healthcare, low health literacy? -not due to “poor choices” but instead, lack of better options! -much of affluent pop’n, especially whites, also have many comorbidities but these more likely due to disregard for personal health and health literacy. Structural Racism -the social connections of race->gene->disease: -race used as a “proxy” for social conditions (e.g., poverty) -genetics is blamed for what is really a social phenomenon e.gs., in 1970s, testing for possible carriers for sickle-cell anemia before they could get a marriage license in NY, also got fired or were prevented employment (e.g., pilots); and Tay-Sachs (is neurological, symptoms become physical & mental starting at a few months of age, fatal) more prevalent in those of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, but screenings helped to identify those needing treatment so was helpful for those who could afford intervention. *both due to social conditions, not embedded in genes (epigenome affected instead) -

INMEGEN (since 2004; National Institute for Genomics Research) genetic project to find commonalities in populations of allele inheritance for disease.

-called the Mexican book of life; is a report of allele concentrations within Mexico -hoped to isolate those pop’ns most susceptible to certain diseases (e.g., H1N1) & find what drugs work best on which patients due to their exposure to any given pathogen e.g., in Africa, 1/10 people in some areas are immune to AIDS but can have HIV. –why? –long exposure that killed everyone who couldn’t resist the virus. -how does the concept of “race” differ between the U.S. vs Mexico? -“Mexicans” considered a race (racialized pop’n) by U.S. associated w hierarchy and inferiority -but really based just on an arbitrary political border -“Mexicans” in Mexico have various concentrations of alleles but not these are NOT associated w social or biological value of a person. Typological (essentialist like the U.S perception associated w racism) vs. Statistical (Mexico INMEGEN project, based on concentrations of certain alleles to geographic & historical factors) concepts of race. Essentialism (i.e., a belief that things have a set of characteristics which make them what they are, and that the task of science and philosophy is their discovery and expression; the doctrine that essence is prior to existence) - “essence” can be based on culture or biology but the problem remains that the given person is still reduced to their “race”

- flexible essentialism means that the problem remains though definitions of race may differ -essentialism holds back progress in eradicating racism -contributes to false sense of reality Genomics Research -since 2000, research mapping genes to “race” has increased a lot, even as we better confirm that there is no biological race in reality -recently, the term “continental population group” is used in place of “race”: this replaces biology with geography instead -but dividing the globe into just 3 continents (there are 7) is itself colonialist thinking (illusion of division/boundary) -So, genomics research can contribute to essentialist thinking by accident or on purpose -researchers see themselves as enlightened however, so not as reflexive as they think e.g., Ancestry DNA is “self-fashioning” of one’s own racial identity for own purposes Richard Dawkins, biological evolutionist (wrote The Selfish Gene) admits that “when brains became sufficiently big (i.e. large/complex) they took off in other directions, which no longer have really any connection w gene survival at all”. Marshall Sahlins (Anth) & Stephen J. Gould (paleontologist) also confirm the independence of much of human behaviour from biology *Watch: Sterilization of Leilani Muir 1. What happened to her? -

Sterilized at age of 14

2. Why was she targeted? -

Said to have low iq after one test, said to be unfit to have children due to mental defecits.

3. How did she find out? -

Trying to have children years later a doctor told her

4. How was her case settled? -

She went to court to receive damages. the judge ordered the state pay Ms. Muir for wrongful sterilization, pain and suffering, aggravated damages, pain and suffering and interest to a total settlement of $740, 780.

1998, Klein’s gov’t tried to avoid compensation pay-outs to eugenics victims after Leilani Muir won her case in mid-1990s (see Muir video link below). –he tried to invoke the “notwithstanding” clause in the Cdn constitution but public outcry made him back down. *and he just got an Order of Canada medal! Eugenics Board of AB had 4 members: one Chair was a philosopher at U of A, J.M. MacEachern, who served from 1929-1965! -over 43 years, there were only ~20 members total who served.

Week 10: Mar. 22/24 --with regard to Leilani Muir case: Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is c ommonly known as the notwithstanding clause (or la clause dérogatoire in French), or as the override power, and it allows Parliament or provincial legislatures to temporarily override certain

portions of the Charter. Topic: Racism in Canada & globally Current examples: 1) yesterday a Muslim-Cdn woman attacked in Prince’s Island park by 28-year old Bridgette Serverite, now in custody 2) Turkey’s president Erdogan just revoked women’s protection legislation. 3) Atlanta, Georgia. U.S. 6 Asian-American women (& 2 others who tried to intervene) shot by gunman, 21 year old white supremacist Colonialism: the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically. -since 1492 but first permanent colonies settled in Acadia, Nova Scotia in 1607 (French) & in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 (British). -what happened and why? -patriarchal competition in Europe = population growth, overuse, environment degradation, poverty, rampant infectious disease Cultural Assimilation: process by which a person or a group's language and/or culture come to resemble those of another group. ... Full assimilation occurs when new members of a society become indistinguishable from members of the other group. Residential Schools -1880s to last ones closing in 1996 (Lac La Biche, AB & in Punnichy, SK same year!) - Anglican & Catholic mostly -1982 Constitution of Canada states that it “recognizes the existing aboriginal & treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada”. –this includes “status Indians”,

Inuit, & Metis. -“non-status Indians” recognized as indigenous peoples under Cdn law only since 2013!. - Gord Downie (died in Oct. 2017 at age 53) of the Tragically Hip -produced Secret Path (2016: book ,film & musical score), which began as ten poems incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died fifty years ago on October 22, 1966, after escaping from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School n...