From The Peopling of New York City

Racism

Racial categories have been commonly used as a way of identifying individuals for a long period of time. However, these categories have no clear scientific basis: it is rather an ambiguous social construct. Racial identifications are neither biologically nor culturally based. They are solely dependent on one’s physical qualities of which skin color is the most determinant factor. One of the greatest problems that arise with racial identifications is people’s tendency to correlate one racial group with stereotypes. These racial stereotypes have stratified racial groups in hierarchical levels, putting social and economic restraints on inferior groups. Such oversimplification of people’s characteristics has led to not only conflicts among different racial groups but also those within one racial group. These intra-racial conflicts have long been in existence, thus showing there are also vast differences within one racial group that should not be overlooked by simple racial categories that identify people into only four groups: white, Asian, Hispanic, and black.

One racial group that shows a great degree of intra-racial conflict with the most complicated structure is the Hispanic group: their racial category is more ambiguous than is any other racial category. One main reason that makes Hispanic a vague racial category is that people who fall into this group are racially diverse. This is even ironic in a sense that they are put into one racial classification when they demonstrate such a great deal of diversity. The term Hispanic actually is more of a regional or cultural classification rather than a racial category. However, most people imagine any Hispanics to be of brown skin color. But the truth is that “there are black Hispanics from the Dominican Republic, Argentines who are almost entirely European white, and Mexicans who would be counted by census takers as American Indians if they had been born north of the Rio Grande (Foner 155).” With the 4-frame racial category, many Hispanics become confused as to how to classify themselves. For example, white Hispanic is both Hispanic and white. Therefore, the racial category of “Hispanic” is very much misleading than any other racial category. Also, because of an immense difference between the general public image of the Hispanic group and the actual makeup of the Hispanic group, Hispanics with different physical qualities face different attitudes and treatments. Therefore, within this one racial group, there are some who easily get away from racial stereotypes without much effort while there are others who could never break away from racial stereotypes regardless of how much they try.

Brazilians are one Hispanic group with white skin color, trying to break away from the negative connotations of Hispanic that people relate to them when they are identified as “Hispanics.” In order to obtain separation from the Hispanic label, they emphasize their ethnicity and their cultural distinctiveness from other Latino population. They also emphasize the fact that they are generally more educated and that they come from middle social class. In some other, more general cases, white Hispanics even change their Hispanic last names to escape from images of Hispanic stereotypes people conjure up upon hearing their names. Such practices would not provide any benefits to dark skinned Hispanics, however, because their skin color becomes explicit to others. Whichever way it may be, white Hispanics do get into a better position than do the dark-skinned Hispanics. One evidence that shows white Hispanics are doing much better is that they are less residentially segregated than are dark-skinned Hispanics. This pattern shows that people are generally more accepting of the white-skinned Hispanics than of the dark-skinned Hispanics.

Such conflict in Hispanic groups is more clearly illustrated in an autobiographical book, Down These Mean Streets, by Piri Thomas. This book depicts Piri’s unique position in terms of his family unit. Despite Piri’s family’s same ethnic background, only Piri and his father are dark skinned while Piri’s mother and siblings are all white. Piri’s difference in skin color makes him question his identity as he faces more explicit discriminations than his other family members with white skin color. Therefore, Piri starts to despise his siblings’ and his mother’s sin color. He constantly questions why he is the only dark-skinned out of all his family members. He even feels angry with his father who does not seem to pay much attention to his skin color. Later on, Piri even remarks that it is easier for him to be “black” than “Puerto Rican.” His brother, on the other hand, does not understand Piri. Piri’s white brother strongly objects to Piri who tells him that he is also “black,” at least on the inside, if not outside. Piri’s brother cannot give in to the idea that he is “black” and emphasizes his white skin color, in response to Piri. The general conception of race alters one’s self-perception tremendously and thus creates a big gap between the two bearing the same racial label. The fact that Piri’s family name is “Thomas” plays an even more significant role in widening the gap between Piri and his brother in terms of the degree of racial discrimination they each gets. From his childhood experience, Piri realizes his emphasis on his ethnicity does not benefit him much. Whenever Piri tried to identify himself as “Puerto Rican” to those who called him a “nigger,” he was always questioned about his last name, which is not Puerto Rican. When he had a few ore similar experiences as growing up, he gives up his ethnicity and wants to identify himself as a black American: he feels that would give him more sense of belonging. Piri’s experience is completely opposite to the experiences of Brazilians, mentioned earlier, who emphasize their ethnicity to obtain a higher position in the racial hierarchy and to those who purposely changed their surnames. In the same principle, Piri’s brother probably was able to escape from racial discriminations as a white Hispanic with an American name. The conflict Piri has with his brother portrays the inappropriateness of racial categories, especially with Hispanic label. The ambiguity in the concept of race creates a severe intra-racial conflict within the Hispanic group.

The people within the racial category of “black,” also undergo intra-racial conflicts. Similar to Brazilians, Jamaicans also try to emphasize their ethnicity to break away from negative connotations of being black. Jamaicans strongly believe that they should be distinguished from other black Americans because of their cultural value on education: they believe their efforts are not fully recognized. They also try even harder to break away from their racial categories because they never had such discriminatory conception of race in their own culture. In Jamaica, where the majority of the population is black, Jamaicans do not face much discrimination. Also, because of their political value that emphasizes the diversity of Jamaica, race or skin color is not an important aspect in evaluating a person. Rather, they put more emphasis on education. They believe that people should be recognized for their individual achievements rather than their appearances. They believe that education and achievements allow people to move upward in terms of social classes. “Whereas Americans often have a generalized negative view of ‘blackness,’ Jamaicans are accustomed to seeing blacks occupy all levels of their society and, especially among recent immigrants, they tend not to perceive race as a bar to upward mobility (Vickerman 207).” Therefore, Jamaicans tend to strive hard to be recognized for their abilities and achievements even as American immigrants. However, regardless of what they do, they simply seem to be treated as “blacks.” Their diligence and drive for education are often shadowed under the stereotypes people see in their skin color. This is their rational for emphasizing their ethnic identity and for breaking away from “blacks.” Even though Jamaican immigrants’ determination is very strong, continuing discrimination against weakens their motivation in the long-term. Later generations of Jamaican immigrants tend to lose the tendency to value education because they are more exposed to the American conception of race rather than the traditional Jamaican idea of race. Therefore, the Jamaican immigrants’ descendents often relate themselves with black Americans and live near or among black Americans. Unlike the intra-racial conflict within Hispanics that seems to increase in its intensity due to Hispanics’ racial diversity, intra-racial conflict between Jamaicans and African Americans tend to get weakened because of their sharing of skin color.

Another example of intra-racial tensions arose between the northern and southern black Americans. Osofsky explains in Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto the relationship between the two groups. In late 1800s, the black Americans in North were starting to gain equality through laws such as Civil Rights Act. The white Americans’ hostile attitudes towards these northern black Americans had also reduced. Even though northern black Americans were being referred to as “half-men” by white Americans, the black Americans were slowly being accepted. However, this trend reversed with influx of southern black population during early 1900s. With increasing number of black Americans, the white Americans in North turned their backs on black Americans completely. The white Americans insisted that the blacks set up their own institutions, stopping blacks from attending regular church services and refusing services to blacks in hotels, restaurants, theaters and other institutions. They also set up new “Black Codes,” forbidding intermarriages between blacks and whites. Unemployment rate went up drastically among blacks in North as well. When situations worsened for the blacks with increasing migration of southern blacks, the original northern American population started to blame the southern blacks. Therefore, even the northern blacks insisted that the southern blacks go back to the South. In this case, the intra-racial conflict was caused in a response to threats to the northern blacks who were slowly gaining acceptance from the northern white Americans.

Intra-racial conflicts are as common as inter-racial conflicts. Such intra-racial conflicts show evidence to the obscurity of racial categories and suggest the complexity of human characteristics that cannot be broken down into just four racial groups. Intra-racial conflicts also show people’s general desire to move up in the racial hierarchical system.