The Newest American Ethnicity

(this is an edited transcript from The Neighborhood Sociologist podcast)

In an earlier substack piece, I speculated on a group of Americans whose culture is so distinct they may actually be better described as an ethnic group. At the time, I pegged this to conservatism, but I believe that may have been too reductionist. The point of this piece is to flesh out this idea more, using a core sociological idea — ethnicity. I’ll start with ethnicity first, and then move to applying it to this unique group of people.

The fluid, changeable nature of ethnicity

The simple way to talk about ethnicity is to describe it as being rooted in culture and is often contrasted with race, which is rooted in physical characteristics. Both I and a Nigerian immigrant may be classified racially as being of the same category. However, we are of very different ethnicities because of our differing cultural backgrounds.

Before saying more about ethnicity, I should say that both race, ethnicity, and really most categories used to describe collections of people are socially constructed. I will certainly do a podcast on what sociologists mean by social construction later. But for now, it means that these categories are made through human intellectual thought and are shaped and molded by people interacting with each other.