Ethnic Identity

Perceived discrimination has been found to increase risk for depression in emerging adulthood, but explanatory cognitive mechanisms have not been well studied. We examined whether the brooding and reflective subtypes of rumination would mediate the relation between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among racial/ethnic minority, versus White, emerging adults, and whether a strong ethnic identity would buffer against this effect. Emerging adults (N 􏰅 709; 70% female; 68% racial/ethnic minority), ages 18–25, completed measures of perceived discrimination, rumina- tion, depressive symptoms, and ethnic identity. Perceived discrimination was positively associated with depressive symptoms among racial/ethnic minority and White participants. Brooding—but not reflection—mediated this relation only among racial/ethnic minorities. Ethnic identity, though negatively associated with depressive symptoms, did not buffer against the mediating effect of brooding on the discrimination-depression relation. Interventions for depression among racial/ethnic minority emerging adults should address maladaptive cognitive responses, such as brooding, associated with perceived discrimination.

The importance of race as social category in the United States is evident in how the federal government over time has defined the racial categories on the census forms starting with the first census in 1790. Minority groups have always contested these official categorizations (Miller, 2007; Simon & Piche, 2012) because these categorizations are at variance with how these groups define themselves. These categorizations are even more problematic because there is usually no single racial definition within the various racial groups in the United States. Moreover, these racial definitions are influenced by the history of White racial privilege and discrimination. Race has now become a defining feature of culture (Philogene, 2004). Therefore, studying the evolving categorizations of race on the census forms in the United States is a study of the history of the cultural representations of race which is the objective of this article.
The evolution and expansion of racial categories suggest that race is a social construction. The Jews and the Irish from Europe for example, were not considered white when the first major waves of Jewish and Irish immigrants came to the United States despite their White physicality. Their subsequent acceptance as Whites highlights the fact that race is a social construction (Brodkin, 1998; Ignatiev, 2008). The biological definition of race has lost ground to the social construction perspective because of the migration of the races over millennia buttressed by interracial copulation, and the decoding of the human genome (Schaefer, 2012). The censuses of the United States since 1790 provide historical and contemporary evidence that race is a social construction. This article explicates the content of these racial representations. We start this article with a discussion of how race has been represented in the United States followed by a very brief discussion of social representation theory (SRT) which frames the study. Next, we outline the method and present our findings that are discussed using SRT.

This article assesses the extent to which indigenous grants administered to school pupils and university students in Chile can be considered affirmative action towards social justice. Drawing on Fraser’s framework for parity of participation, I question whether the grants are able to provide both redistribution and recognition for indigenous pupils. I provide a historical policy analysis of education reform in regards to indigenous populations, and a discussion of secondary school Mapuche pupils’ responses to governmental compensatory measures. Indigenous grants have long been employed as a strategy for increasing indigenous pupils’ participation in the education system, but when viewed from a critical perspective, do little to alleviate inequalities in a culturally homogenising and strongly neoliberal-led education system. The article demonstrates that by viewing the impact of these policies – ingrained in a structural history of exclusion and discrimination – from the ground up, nuanced effects on pupils’ ethnic identity formation can also be perceived. Drawing on data from 20 focus groups conducted in the Araucanía Region of Chile, I argue that indigenous grants can have adverse effects on family and community relations, whilst also causing negative self and public perception regarding achievement disparities. Without further reform to the education system and the grants themselves, they may only provide an impetus for improving access to a mono-cultural discriminatory schooling system.

This article explores the nature, construction, and negotiation of identity among Oman’s ethnic return migrants called Zinjibaris. Using a social psychological approach, in which ethnic identity is conceptualized as fluid and socially constructed, the study examines how these migrants first define their identity in Zanzibar and then redefine it and forge a sense of belonging on returning to their ancestral homeland. The life stories of four women, representing three generations of returnees, highlight the role played by socio-historical narratives and Arab descent ideology in constructing a multi-hyphenated identity—Zinjibari-Omani and Arab-Omani. They also reveal the implications of such an identity positioning for processes of inclusion and differentiation.

The ethnic label Zinjibari in Omani society has various connotations that depend on who
is using the term and about whom it is being used. Through participant observation and within the context of ethnolinguistic identity theory, this qualitative study aims to demonstrate how the label Zinjibarican function as an outgroup or ingroup label, as a mark of solidarity, as a term of prestige or as a slur. It is also proposed that these different connotations influence language choice among Oman’s Swahili speakers.

This article discusses Mapuche adolescents' everyday articulations of civic virtue and ethnic belonging by juxtaposing their participation in their communities, schooling and civil society at large. It situates the youth within the exclusionary practices of education and broader society, and in the context of Chile's recent history of expanding youth civic participation. Chile is a highly racialised country and indigenous pupils experience altogether different modalities of inclusion and belonging compared to non-indigenous peers. Focus groups and interviews conducted during 2007–2008 are drawn on to explore how ideals of civic belonging are negotiated by those on the margins of society as a result of their schooling experiences and exposure to worldwide youth cultures. The article questions the ability of national schooling to produce a consistent discourse regarding a culturally diverse citizenry given that its practices are on the whole exclusionary towards Mapuche pupils. I argue instead that Mapuche youth construct a notion of the ‘good citizen’ from their home communities which respond to, and discursively resist, society's exclusionary values.

Abstract
The task of providing care and support services for vulnerable people from black communities for commissioners is often like a choice between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea… or so it seems. However, an understanding of the interactions between peoples at a micro level can aid in the delivery of a larger agenda; for example when delivering racial equality. In this article I profile a model of racial identity development, which can shed some light on the planning of services in local areas.

This essay discusses the issue of immigration and ethnic community, the concept of identity and its relation to culture, the concept of the right to difference and rights of the peoples, the origins of the immigration problem in the liberal system, the cause of xenophobia and racism as the unrestricted immigration policy, the relationship between egalitarian "anti-racism" and xenophobia or racism, and the possibility of taking a non-racist differentialist position (acknowledging differences and ethnic separation but rejecting both egalitarianism and xenophobia/racism).

This paper uses the experiences of those who claim more than one
ethnic identity to highlight the shortcomings of cultural competence
models that presume neat, bounded cultural translation
from one generation to the next. Such conceptualizations of ethnic
identity tend to pathologize those who embrace multiple ethnic
identities, best understood as the improvisation of changeable
narratives. This article uses examples from a qualitative study of
people with one Samoan and one Pakeha (white) parent in
Aotearoa/New Zealand, to explore the particularities of the social
and political context on identity constructions. It discusses the
utility of postmodern, narrative practice approaches, proposing
that such approaches are best able to empower people who hold
multiple ethnic identities.

Co-Autoren: Michael Oppitz, Thomas Kaiser, Alban von Stockhausen, Marion Wettstein

Die Nagastämme bewohnen die südöstlichen Ausläufer des Himalaya im Grenzgebiet von Indien und Burma. Bis vor etwa hundert Jahren als Kopfjäger gefürchtet und von den Bewohnern der Ebenen gemieden, entwickelten sie in ihrer Abgeschiedenheit eine einzigartige materielle Kultur und orale Tradition. Durch die britische Kolonialherrschaft und die baptistische Missionierung, erfuhr die Kultur der Naga ab Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts einen starken Wandel. Nach 1947 wurden die Nagaberge gegen den Willen ihrer Bewohner in den neuen indischen Staat integriert. Die Folge war ein blutiger Krieg, der unter Ausschluss der Weltöffentlichkeit mehr als fünfzig Jahre lang tobte. Erst seit kurzem sind die Gebiete für Ausländer wieder zugänglich. Dieser Band versammelt Aufsätze, Interviews und Bildessays von Naga- und westlichen Autoren zur Kultur, Geschichte und zum Identitätswandel der einstigen Kopfjäger. In detaillierten Objektbeschreibungen von renommierten internationalen Ethnologen und Völkerkundlern wird sowohl die vergangene als auch die gegenwärtige Welt der Naga lebendig.

In: 2008b (Edited Book) with Michael Oppitz, Thomas Kaiser and Marion Wettstein. Naga Identitäten: Zeitenwende einer Lokalkultur im Nordosten Indiens. Benteli Verlag, Basel: 2008. pp. 11-29.