To help with the key question "Where Are Ethnicities Distributed"? examine this question both in a Canadian and an American context (as the text is American we will supplement it and add Canada to the conversation). The meaning of ethnicity is often confused with the definition of race and nationality. Ethnicity is identity with a group of people who share cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth. In Canada more than 200 ethnic origins were reported by respondents to the 2011 National Household Survey, 57.9% of the population reported one ethnic origin and the rest, 42.1%, reported more than one origin. In the 2016 Census, over 250 ethnic origins or ancestries were reported by the Canadian population. Who are they and where are they distributed across Canada are what we'll look at today.
Vancouver Sun: Almost 7 in 10 Metro residents will be non-white in two decades
Ethnic and cultural origins of Canadians: Portrait of a rich heritage
CBC News 21.9% of Canadians are immigrants, the highest share in 85 years
CTV News Latest census numbers showcase Canada's ever-evolving ethnic diversity
Open Text BC Introduction to Sociology text "Race and Ethnicity" chapter
For the pie chart of British Columbia's top 15 ethnicities please use:
Rapid Tables Pie Chart Maker
Pie Chart at Meta Chart
Pie Chart Maker at Visme
To examine the key issue "Why Do Ethnicities Have Distinct Distribution"? start with a quick review of the triangular slave trade and the concentrated population of African Americans in the American southeast (you know...due to slavery). Then look at the inter-regional migration from the rural U.S. South to northern and western urban areas in the mid to late 20th Century. Connected to this will be "Jim Crow" laws, "white flight", and civil rights. Lastly, look at Apartheid in South Africa as you'll have some questions to work on for me.
To examine the key question "Why Do Conflicts Arise among Ethnicities?", as with your big thinking question on religious conflict, there is no easy answer to this inquiry. In some cases, ethnicities compete in civil wars to dominate the national identity. In other cases, problems result from division of ethnicities among more than one state. Briefly look at the Quebec, Scotland and Catalan nationalist movements then focus on Sri Lanka
Next, look at Sri Lanka and the conflict between the Tamil minority and Sinhalese majority. For help ThoughtCo. has a nice piece on the Civil War as does Al Jazeera as does A World Without Genocide. But...if you can, watch the Anthony Bourdain Sri Lanka episode of Parts Unknown as well.
As with your big thinking question on religious conflict there is no easy answer to this inquiry. Today we'll focus on Lebanon, India and the Kurds. For the Kurds and Kurdistan a good primer is this GPS video from CNN with Fareed Zakaria as well as this article form the Economist or this article from Foreign Policy or the website "The Kurdish Project" following videos help too:
And, of course, there is the partition of India which displaced fifteen million people and killed more than a million as the British left India and religious communities were pitted against one another. The Guardian has a good article Why Pakistan and India remain in denial 70 years on from partition and the Conversation has an article How the Partition of India happened – and why its effects are still felt today and there's also a good piece on the BBC Partition of India: My memories
OH WAIT...Don't forget Jammu & Kashmir
To deal with the key question "Why Are Nation-states Difficult to Create?" look the nations created in the fall of the USSR and look at the 15 countries created along with problems in the Caucuses (Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia) also examine the Russian annexation/repatriation of Crimea from the Ukraine.
Try to watch the Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown episode on Armenia (see below) and remember the questions for today and tomorrow...
- How did Communists suppress the issues of ethnicity and nationalism? (Give several examples)
- When the Soviet Union dissolved into 15 countries in the 1990s, the new countries were based on ethnicities. Other than Russia, they can be divided into 4 groups based on their location. Complete the chart indicate the countries in each group: Baltic Region (3 states); Eastern Europe (3 states); Central Asia (5 states); Caucusus (3 states)
- In the Caucusus region, there have been many problems with the new nations and ethnicities. Summarize the main problems and note specifics of regions and peoples for each. Azeris (Azerbaijan) Armenians (Armenia) Georgians (Georgia)
- If Abkhazia and South Ossetia become independent states, how would they compare in size to microstates described earlier in this chapter?
To examine the key question "Why Do Ethnicities Engage in Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide"? focus first on the former Yugoslavia (1991-1999) and ethnic cleansing (take a deeper look at Srebrenica in the Bosnian War). Ethnic cleansing is undertaken to rid an area of an entire ethnicity so that the surviving ethnic group can be the sole inhabitants. The point of ethnic cleansing is not simply to defeat an enemy or to subjugate them but it involves the removal of every member of the less powerful ethnicity - women as well as men, children as well as adults, the frail elderly as well as the strong youth. There's a good timeline and in depth page of the Balkan Wars (including Srebrenica in the Balkan War and also Podujevo in the Kosovo war) on the CBC here. You'll need to work on the following for me:
- Define ethnic cleansing
- How is ethnic cleansing different than normal warfare?
- Regarding the Yugoslav refrain that was common during the rule of Josip Tito, identify Yugoslavia’s: Five Nationalities; Four Languages; Three Religions; and Two Alphabets
- Why did Serbs and Croats in Bosnia (aka Bosnia-Herzegovina) ethnically cleanse themselves of Bosnia Muslims?
- After the 1996 Dayton Accords (end of Yugoslav civil war) What country controlled Kosovo
- What ethnic group lives in Kosovo (and %)?
- With the breakup of Yugoslavia, what began to happen in Kosovo?
- How did the U.S. and U.N. respond?
- Define balkanized
- Define balkanization
And for information about the Rohingya in Myanmar please check out
BBC Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis
Al Jazeera Who are the Rohingya?
Council on Foreign Relations The Rohingya Crisis
For Africa (Somalia and Darfur) watch Scream Bloody Murder from CNN about Rwanda...
and on Darfur...
The entire documentary can be found here
And look at a few parts of "The Devil Came on Horseback"
And for Myanmar...
If you are interested, Daniel Goldhagen's ground-breaking documentary "Worse than War" is linked below. In his documentary he states, "By the most fundamental measure -- the number of people killed -- the perpetrators of mass murder since the beginning of the twentieth century have taken the lives of more people than have died in military conflict. So genocide is worse than war."
And your questions are:
- Give the historical background of the two rival groups in Central Africa’s countries of Rwanda and Burundi.
- What is the situation in Rwanda and Burundi today?
- Why might the European colonial powers have preferred to place in leadership positions members of the minority Tutsis rather than members of the majority Hutus?
No comments:
Post a Comment