Philip Yang on theoretical perspectives of the basis and nature of ethnicity
Philip Yang presents three theoretical perspectives of the basis and nature of ethnicity into three schools of thought, namely constructionist school, primordial school, and instrumentalist school. He analyzes the specific variants and basic ideas of each school. Primordialism is the belief an ethnic affiliation or identity is both fixed and biologically defined. It argues that ethnicity is an assigned status or ascribed identity, which is inherited from the ancestors. It regards ethnicity as being static, and it is determined by collective identity. (Yang 42).
The instrumentalist school perceives ethnicity as a strategic tool or an instrument for gaining resources. People tend to become ethnic and retain ethnicity when their ethnicity gives rise gives them significant returns. Ethnicity is thus considered useful, and its functional benefits range from material and moral support yielded by ethnic networks to other forms of political gains generated via ethnic bloc voting (Yang 46).
The constructionist school views ethnicity as a social construct. Gender identities, races, and other factors are dictated by where someone lives and determined by the system of the society. This school presents the centrality of social construction in the formation and retention of ethnicity. It demonstrates the structural and historical forces that develop and sustain ethnicity and expounds on the volatility of ethnicity (Yang 46).
The Jim Crow laws local and state laws that were enforced in the southern states of the US between 1876 and 1965. They were used to segregate African Americans from the white community. Despite African Americans being free from slavery, this community was still not treated as being free. Jim Crow laws enforced the separation and segregation of the whites and blacks in public institutions, including public transportation, public places, public schools, restaurants, and the restrooms, among others. As a result, African Americans received inferior treatment and hence being relegated to second-class citizens’ status. Legalized discrimination is one of the most obvious parallels that exists between Jim Crow and mass incarceration (Guffey 47).
The Irish, Jewish, and Italian collectives were given staged exits through invitations from their minority status to whiteness. They became Americans through the process of assimilation, whereby their culture was absorbed into the dominant group. Cultural assimilation was possible because the three groups had endeavored to maintain a solid cultural identity, and thus, assimilation led to easier Americanization. Members of each nationality settled in practically exclusive settlements, and these particular settlements were later Americanized, provided the immigrants thought and acted like Americans. Each of the three groups exhibited a different degree of Americanization (Barrett 998).