ETHNIC IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY RESOURCES

Ethnicity generally refers to a person’s affiliation with a particular ethnic group, or to their sharing qualities, characteristics or customs of that ethnic group. Ethnic identity is quite personal and individual, and it has many facets. It can be based on geography, nationality, ancestry, family, culture and sub-culture, religion, language, race—or any combination of these.

For example, a Japanese-American man marries a woman of pure Peruvian ancestry. They move to Australia and have three children, all of whom are raised in Australia until the age of adulthood. The nationality of the children may be Australian, but what is their ethnicity? Is it Oriental, Asian or Japanese? Is it American? Is it Hispanic? Is it Australian? The answer is: “It depends.” From a personal point of view, each of the three children might identify themselves differently. One might identity herself as Oriental; another might identify herself as Hispanic; and her brother might self-identify as Australian.

Also consider there are other factors that influence ethnic identity. As countries go to war with each other, or invade each other, political boundaries can change. This can influence ethnic identity. When territories gain independence from a larger country, ethnic identity can change. When new countries (such as Israel) are created, new ethnicities are created. When countries cease to exist (such as the U.S.S.R), ethnic identities change.

Because ethnic identity is such a personal issue, many people become offended if you mistakenly identify them with a particular group, or if you fail to recognize all of their ethnicities. Throughout our lives, we must fill out many different forms or applications that ask us about our ethnic background. Most of these forms (such as the U.S. Census) force us to reduce out ethnicity to a single group. Sometimes such information can lead to stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, racial profiling and other offensive practices.

Vocabulary and Search Terms

In searching for information about ethnic groups, ethnicity and ethnic identity, it is important to be as specific as possible in your choice of search terms, and to understand the exact perspective you are trying to take. If you are not entirely clear as to which terms should be used, you might want to begin your research by looking in a general encyclopedia under the entry for a particular ethnic group. This will help you develop additional search terms, and perhaps narrow your search to find the specific items you need.

Examples of very general or broad concepts pertaining to ethnic identity include:

Acculturation

Assimilation

Biracial

Discrimination

Diversity

Ethnic attitudes

Ethnic groups

Ethnic relations

Ethnicity

Ethnocentrism

Ethnohistory

Ethnology

Identity

Immigration

Minorities

Multiculturalism

Multiracial

Pluralism

Prejudice

Race relations

Racism

If you are interested in searching for information on specific ethnic groups, simply use the name of that group as a search term, e.g. African, African-American, Russian, Hispanic, etc. If that is not the term used in the source you are using, it will generally cross-reference you to the term that is used to identify that group. If you need help, ask a librarian for assistance.

You can also combine any of the general terms with any specific group—again, depending on your information need. This will allow you to narrow your search. You can also narrow your search in the following ways:

1. Geographically (United States, Spain, China, Arizona)

2. By time period (20^th century, Renaissance)

3. Cultural, ethnic or racial group (Jewish, Hispanic, African-American)

4. Discipline or subject area (science, mathematics, history)

5. By type of material (encyclopedia, directory, etc.)

Searching electronic resources such as the library online catalog, periodical and

newspaper databases and the World Wide Web will allow you to combine any of the terms or concepts you want to use. By adding more terms, you can be as specific as possible.

Sample exercises

Here are five sample exercises that are typical of research and/or personal information needs of students. Look at these and decide which terms you would use to find information—using both print and electronic resources such as the World Wide Web. In some cases, you might want to use additional terms, or use synonyms for the terms that are used here. You might also need to use terms that are broader or narrower in scope and meaning.

1. I’m trying to understand what happened when Yugoslavia split up into different countries, and all the fighting that seems to be going on in Bosnia.

Who exactly is fighting whom? And how many different ethnic groups are involved?

2. One of my assignments is to locate maps, if there are any, of the migration of

Spanish-speaking groups onto the United States. I need to find out when they

started coming here, and from where. I also need to find out why they settled

where they settled, and how their culture influenced the cultures that were

already here. Where do I begin?

3. I’ve notice that not all cultures count the same way. I know some cultures use

Arabic numerals, and some cultures use Roman numerals. I want to find out what other number systems are used by different cultures around the world.

Is it possible to identify somebody by how they count?

4. When I lived in new York City, I remember reading a few articles about the

on-going tensions between the Jewish and the African-American communities. I’m trying to locate some good Web sites that have some information about this. Like, is it true? And if it is, why does that happen?

5. I’m doing research about native peoples that lived in the United States before

it was discovered by European explorers. Was there anybody here before all the Indian tribes, and what was their culture like?

RESOURCES

Maricopa Online Catalog

This is a library catalog to all materials located in any of the ten Maricopa community colleges. The Online Catalog includes books, videotapes and DVDs, music and audiotapes, and many other materials. You can search this catalog using author’s name, title, subject or keyword.

You can limit your search according to format of material, individual library, date of publication and other criteria. For example, if you wanted videotapes about abortion that were made after 1995, and that were located at Phoenix College Library, the Online Catalog will list only those items for you.

Periodical, Magazine and Newspaper Databases

All of the Maricopa Community Colleges libraries have full-text periodical and newspaper databases available for you to use. Some of these are both indexes and full-text databases. This means that they can provide you—free of charge—with full-text articles about your topic. These can be searched in the same way that you search the Online catalog, and many of them will allow you additional methods of limiting your search.

There are general indexes, such as InfoTrac, MasterFile Premier and NewsBank. In addition to these, there are specialized databases—for example: nursing, health, business, law, education—available to you. Some of these are also available to you at home or at your office, if you are a registered library user.

Check your library homepage, or consult with a Reference Librarian, to determine which of these databases would be best for your research.

Internet/World Wide Web Resources

In addition to searching the Online Catalog and the newspaper/periodicals databases, you might be able to find valuable information related to ethnic identity on the World Wide Web. Be careful!!! Remember that no one controls the quality of information here, so you might find a lot of sites that are not reliable or accurate or timely.

Using search engines such as Google, Metacrawler, Yahoo, etc., you should be able to find some information on your topic. When you enter search terms, be sure to be as specific as possible. If you simply enter the word ethnic, you will get more results than you could read in a lifetime!

One excellent Web site to begin searching for information is:

Voice of the Shuttle: Minority Studies Page

(http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse-netscape.asp?id=2721 )

Other interesting sites include the following. Some of these sites are very general in nature, while others focus on specific ethnic groups.

Affirmative Action and Diversity: A Web Site for Research

(http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/)

Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies

(http://www.balchinstitute.org/)

Multicultural and National WWW Service Links

(http://latino.sscnet.ucla.edu/diversity1.html#MN)

Stitching Vada: Your Portal to the Multicultural World

(http://www.vada.nl/)