This page serves as an introduction to studies and topics on Race, Culture, and Ethnicity. To find more information and research tips explore these guides:
Definitions provide by the Racial Equity Tools Glossary
Race: A social construct that artificially divides people into distinct groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance (particularly color), ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, cultural history, ethnic classification, and the social, economic and political needs of a society at a given period of time. Racial categories subsume ethnic groups.
Ethnicity: A social construct that divides people into smaller social groups based on characteristics such as shared sense of group membership, values, behavioral patterns, language, political and economic interests, history and ancestral geographical base.
Examples of different ethnic groups are: Cape Verdean, Haitian, African American (black); Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese (Asian); Cherokee, Mohawk, Navaho (Native American); Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican (Latino); Polish, Irish, and Swedish (white).
Culture: A social system of meaning and custom that is developed by a group of people to assure its adaptation and survival. These groups are distinguished by a set of unspoken rules that shape values, beliefs, habits, patterns of thinking, behaviors and styles of communication.
These tabs offer a small selection of resources on race, culture, and ethnicity. For more recommendations see this list of more resources or explore the NU Libraries website.
Minor Feelings: an Asian American Reckoning by
"[A] formidable new essay collection . . . I read Minor Feelings in a fugue of enveloping recognition and distancing flinch. . . . [Cathy Park] Hong is writing in agonized pursuit of a liberation that doesn't look white--a new sound, a new affect, a new consciousness--and the result feels like what she was waiting for."--Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror "Minor Feelings is a major reckoning, pulling no punches as the author uses her life's flashpoints to give voice to a wider Asian American experience, one with cascading consequences."--NPR "Hong dissects her experiences as an Asian American to create an intricate meditation on racial awareness in the U.S. Through a combination of cultural criticism and personal stories, Hong, a poet, lays bare the shame and confusion she felt in her youth as the daughter of Korean immigrants, and the way those feelings morphed as she grew older. From analyzing Richard Pryor's stand-up to interrogating her relationship with the English language, Hong underscores essential themes of identity and otherness."--Time "Cathy Park Hong's new memoir confronts the tough questions of Asian American identity. Drawing its title from Hong's theory regarding the impact of racial stereotypes and lies on ethnic minorities, this memoir-in-essays is a must-read at a time of rising racist violence and distrust."--Bustle "An incendiary nonfiction book about a pressing social issue of the day . . . With its mix of the personal and political, Minor Feelings is the kind of trenchant social critique that's bound to get people talking."--BuzzFeed "Hong busts out of the closed loop of Asian American discourse and takes off at a run. It's not that she doesn't address the model minority myth, the brutality of casual racism, or the mortifications of a first-gen childhood; she writes passionately about how Asians are dismissed, the lowly 'carpenter ants of the service industry.' It's just that she also makes every 'immigrant talking point,' as she calls them, viscerally specific. . . . Hong's essays make a case for solidarity that begins at self-awareness."--GEN "At-times funny, often deeply thought-provoking work . . . Minor Feelings is an urgent consideration of identity, social structures, and artistic practice. It's a necessary intervention in a world burgeoning with creativity but stymied by a lack of language and ability to grapple with nuance. Hong takes a step in remedying that."--Chicago Review of Books "Self aware and relentlessly sharp essays. Nimble, smart, and deliberate, Minor Feelings is a major conversation starter."--Marie Claire "With radical candor, Cathy Hong Park critically examines what it means to be Asian American today and challenges herself and her readers to abandon the idea of a monolithic Asian American experience and instead acknowledge a range of racialized emotions which have been heretofore dismissed."--Ms. "Part memoir, part cultural criticism, the poet and essayist's Cathy Park Hong's first book of prose had me underlining and annotating nearly every page."--R. O. Kwon, Electric Literature
Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by
Latinos are the second-largest demographic in the United States, but is “Latino” an ethnic identity or a racial one? How can Latino be a race if Latinos themselves can be various races? In her book, Inventing Latinos, UCLA Law professor Laura E. Gómez makes the case that Latinos are both. She does so by examining the ways that American colonialism in Latin America and laws in the United States have led to the racialization of Latinos by denying them “full and equal participation in American life.”
The Undocumented Americans by
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation. LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD * "Karla's book sheds light on people's personal experiences and allows their stories to be told and their voices to be heard."--Selena Gomez NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VULTURE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Book Review * Time * NPR * The New York Public Library * Book Riot * Library Journal Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants--and to find the hidden key to her own. Looking beyond the flashpoints of the border or the activism of the DREAMers, Cornejo Villavicencio explores the lives of the undocumented--and the mysteries of her own life. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited into the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami, we enter the ubiquitous botanicas, which offer medicinal herbs and potions to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we learn of demands for state ID in order to receive life-saving clean water. In Connecticut, Cornejo Villavicencio, childless by choice, finds family in two teenage girls whose father is in sanctuary. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival. In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. Through these stories we come to understand what it truly means to be a stray. An expendable. A hero. An American.
As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, From Colonization to Standing Rock by
The standing rock saga -- Environmental justice theory and its limitations for indigenous peoples -- Genocide by any other name, a history of indigenous environmental injustice -- The complicated legacy of western expansion and the industrial revolution -- Food is medicine, water is life, American Indian health and the environment -- (Not so) strange bedfellows, Indian country's ambivalent relationship with the environmental movement -- Hearts not on the ground, indigenous women's leadership and more cultural clashes -- Sacred sites and environmental justice -- Ways forward for environmental justice in Indian country.
"Interrogating the concept of environmental justice in the U.S. as it relates to Indigenous peoples, this book argues that a different framework must apply compared to other marginalized communities, while it also attends to the colonial history and structure of the U.S. and ways Indigenous peoples continue to resist, and ways the mainstream environmental movement has been an impediment to effective organizing and allyship"--
Envisioning Religion, Race, and Asian Americans by
In Envisioning Religion, Race, and Asian Americans, David K. Yoo and Khyati Y. Joshi assemble a wide-ranging and important collection of essays documenting the intersections of race and religion and Asian American communities--a combination so often missing both in the scholarly literature and in public discourse. Issues of religion and race/ethnicity undergird current national debates around immigration, racial profiling, and democratic freedoms, but these issues, as the contributors document, are longstanding ones in the United States. The essays feature dimensions of traditions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Sikhism, as well as how religion engages with topics that include religious affiliation (or lack thereof), the legacy of the Vietnam War, and popular culture. The contributors also address the role of survey data, pedagogy, methodology, and literature that is richly complementary and necessary for understanding the scope and range of the subject of Asian American religions. These essays attest to the vibrancy and diversity of Asian American religions, while at the same time situating these conversations in a scholarly lineage and discourse. This collection will certainly serve as an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and general readers with interests in Asian American religions, ethnic and Asian American studies, religious studies, American studies, and related fields that focus on immigration and race.
Selected journals:
SAPIENS -- open access anthropology magazine. Articles include
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
earlier designation as Asian American and Pacific Islander; some resources may still use this older category
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
U.S. federal government agencies must adhere to standards issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which specify that race and Hispanic origin (also known as ethnicity) are two separate and distinct concepts.
Looking for a topic?
Consider one of these: