Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T21:03:02.255Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Identity Not Culture

Where Ethnic Majorities Are Disadvantaged

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2022

Liav Orgad
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
Ruud Koopmans
Affiliation:
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Get access

Summary

This chapter argues that ethnic majorities are set to occupy an increasingly central place in discussions of ethno-political accommodation in western societies. These actors are not well captured by the liberal nationalism or multiculturalism paradigms, which were developed during a period of relative ethnic homogeneity. Ethnic majorities are, in my estimation, advantaged in politics, the economy and in official culture; but are disadvantaged when it comes to recognition of their ethnic identity and demographic malaise, criticism of their collective past, and the treatment of national symbols and narratives that are implicitly associated with them. An increasingly influential cultural left has sought to anathematize majority ethnic groups, which has contributed to populism and polarization as well as silencing important conversations. The cultural left has also engaged in a fallacy of composition by collapsing the distinction between majority group concern over the preservation of ethno-traditions with ethnic exclusion at the individual level. It has celebrated majority decline, producing profound alienation. In combination, this has prevented the recognition of liberal, absorptive ethnic majorities, contributing to our current moment in both political and intellectual terms.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adekoya, R., et al. (2020). Academic Freedom in the UK. London: Policy Exchange.Google Scholar
Adida, C. L., et al. (2010). Identifying Barriers to Muslim Integration in France. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107/52: 22384–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alba, R. (1990). Ethnic Identity. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Alba, R., et al. (2005). A Distorted Nation: Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic Group Sizes and Attitudes toward Immigrants and Other Minorities. Social Forces, 84/2: 901–19.Google Scholar
al-Gharbi, M. (2020). Who Gets to Define What’s “Racist?” Contexts, May 15.Google Scholar
BBC. (2018). BBC/YouGov Englishness Survey. March, 9–26.Google Scholar
Benedetto, G., et al. (2020). The Rise and Fall of Social Democracy, 1918–2017. American Political Science Review, 114/3: 928–39.Google Scholar
Bourne, R. S. ([1916] 1964). Trans-National America. In Resek, C., ed., War and the Intellectuals: Collected Essays, 1915–1919. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 107–23.Google Scholar
Brubaker, R. (2001). The Return of Assimilation? Changing Perspectives on Immigration and its Sequels in France, Germany and the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 24/4: 531–48.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. P. (1996). Personal Nationalism: A Scottish View of Some Rites, Rights, and Wrongs. American Ethnologist, 23/4: 802–15.Google Scholar
Coughlan, S. (2020). University Entrance: The “Taboo” About Who Doesn’t Go. BBC, September 27.Google Scholar
Craig, M. A. & Richeson, J. A. (2014). More Diverse Yet Less Tolerant? How the Increasingly Diverse Racial Landscape Affects White Americans’ Racial Attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40/6: 750–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennison, J. & Geddes, A. (2018). A Rising Tide? The Salience of Immigration and the Rise of Anti‐Immigration Political Parties in Western Europe. The Political Quarterly, 90/1: 107–16.Google Scholar
Devos, T., & Banaji, M. R. (2005). American = White? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88/3: 447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York, London: W. W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Eatwell, R., & Goodwin, M. (2018). National Populism: The Revolt against Liberal Democracy. UK: Penguin.Google Scholar
Ehsan, R. (2021). Race, Identity, and BLM: What the UK Really Thinks. Centre on Social & Political Risk, Henry Jackson Society, February.Google Scholar
Fynn-Paul, J. (2020). The Myth of the “Stolen Country”. Spectator, September 26.Google Scholar
Gaudreault, C. (2019). The Impact of Immigration on Local Ethnic Groups’ Demographic Representativeness: The Case Study of Ethnic French Canadians in Quebec. Nations and Nationalism, 26/4: 923–42.Google Scholar
Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Blackwell: Oxford.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Z. (2019). America’s White Saviors. Tablet Magazine, June 6. www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/284875/americas-white-saviorsGoogle Scholar
Gordon, M. M. (1964). Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harff, B. (2003). No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955. American Political Science Review, 97/1: 57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, D. J., et al. (2016). The Muted Consequences of Correct Information About Immigration. Paper presented at American Political Science Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jardina, A. (2019). White Identity Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2000). Liberal Ethnicity: Beyond Liberal Nationalism and Minority Rights. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23/6: 1086–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2004). The Rise and Fall of Anglo-America: The Decline of Dominant Ethnicity in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2018a). Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities. UK: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2018b). Why Culture Is More Important than Skills: Understanding British Public Opinion on Immigration. LSE British Politics and Policy Blog, January 30.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2019a). Ethno‐Traditional Nationalism and the Challenge of Immigration. Nations and Nationalism, 25/2: 435–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2019b). White Identity and Ethno-Traditional Nationalism in Trump’s America. The Forum, 17/3: 385–402.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2021). Academic Freedom in Crisis. Los Angeles, CA: Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, E., & Goodwin, M. J. (2018). The Diversity Wave: A Meta-analysis of the Native-Born White Response to Ethnic Diversity. Social Science Research, 76: 120–31.Google Scholar
Kohn, H. (1944). The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in Its Origins and Background. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kymlicka, W. (1995). Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Langbert, M. (2018). Homogenous: The Political Affiliations of Elite Liberal Arts College Faculty. Academic Questions, 31/2: 186–97.Google Scholar
Leal, D., & Kaufmann, E. (2019). Timeless Landscape or Diverse Urbanity: Nationhood in the US and England. Paper presented at American Political Science Association, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Martin, C. (2017). Arthur Sakamoto, Paradigms in Sociology. Half Hour of Heterodoxy, October 10.Google Scholar
McLemee, S. (2001). What Makes Martha Nussbaum Run? The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 5.Google Scholar
Modood, T. (2014). Multiculturalism, Interculturalisms and the Majority. Journal of Moral Education, 43/3: 302–15.Google Scholar
Morin, R. (2013). Study on Twins Suggests Our Political Beliefs May Be Hard-Wired. Pew Research Center.Google Scholar
Orgad, L. (2015). The Cultural Defense of Nations: A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rich, J. (2014). What Do Field Experiments of Discrimination in Markets Tell Us? A Meta Analysis of Studies Conducted since 2000. IZA Discussion Paper 8514, October.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, B. (2008). Charles Taylor Interviewed. Prospect, February 29.Google Scholar
Rojas, F. (2007). From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. D. (1986). The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Smith, A. D. (1991). National Identity. UK: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sunstein, C. R. (2019). Conformity: The Power of Social Influences. New York, NY: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Willer, R., Feinberg, M., & Wetts, R. (2016). Threats to Racial Status Promote Tea Party Support among White Americans, SSRN Working Paper, May 4.Google Scholar
Wimmer, A. (2008). The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory. American Journal of Sociology, 113/4: 970–1022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Identity Not Culture
  • Edited by Liav Orgad, European University Institute, Florence, Ruud Koopmans, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
  • Book: Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
  • Online publication: 12 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009233378.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Identity Not Culture
  • Edited by Liav Orgad, European University Institute, Florence, Ruud Koopmans, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
  • Book: Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
  • Online publication: 12 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009233378.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Identity Not Culture
  • Edited by Liav Orgad, European University Institute, Florence, Ruud Koopmans, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
  • Book: Majorities, Minorities, and the Future of Nationhood
  • Online publication: 12 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009233378.004
Available formats
×