Digital Content

Mapping race + ethnicity - definitions, spectrums + intersections

Version 2.0

UPDATED DEFINITIONS + MEANINGS

• Race as a social construct - social meanings + outcomes, still “real”

• Race not “biological” - shift categories of shared / common phenotypic expression to ancestral DNA, genealogy, original geographic isolation

• Ethnicity also a social construct - tied to nationality, culture + community

• Ethnicity involves shared national and/or cultural components - could be historical, linguistic and/or religious

• Race + Ethnicity overlap + intersect - a racial identity can be informed by an ethnic or cultural identity, and vice versa

• Identities do not exist in a vacuum - part of the social construct aspect - every identity is informed by others perception of that identity

Complex identities + Expression

What media type (hot or cold) do you think is the best fit for expressing a complex racial and/or ethnic identity? Why?

Malcolm Gladwell Reading (Washington Post article starting with 1. Mother) + Marcus Lynch Young Brothers in Cyberspace Discussion Questions:

What types of connections do you see between these 2 articles?
What opportunity space does Lynch believe blogging offers to individuals part of the Society of Muslim Brothers?
What are some of the complexities that Gladwell describes in terms of his and his family’s racial and cultural identities?
What are some of the varied viewpoints and perspectives that Lynch notes younger Muslim Brothers are expressing via blogging?