Race, Ethnicity, and Place in a Changing America

Twenty-first century America provides an opportunity to explore geographic re\ minders of America's race problems, and the cultural and ethnic patterns, that geographers\ have studied for centuries. There is an educational imperative to provide today's student\ s with examples and explanations of American human geography, which has never been more re\ levant than today. To illustrate the breadth of these ethnic and racial issues, we invited\ selected participants of the landmark 2004 \223Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference\224 \ at Howard University to rewrite their research findings for an undergraduate audience. Thi\ rty-seven authors, mostly geographers but other social scientists, participated with us in\ the production of this volume. Section one of this text provides a foundation using several concepts and perspectives of \ race and ethnicity as they relate to geographic space, place, and landscapes, ranging from\ a victim viewpoint (Malcolm X) to educational policy perspective, and from the changing i\ mportance of place as an immigrant gateway to the personal perspective of a first-generati\ on U.S. immigrant. The remainder of the text contains four sections that blend historical\ geographic patterns of minorities and contemporary and emerging racial and ethnic pattern\ s across the nation. Each section deals with diverse ethnic groups that have been racially\ classified as a single group. Exploring these individually brings a greater understanding\ of similarities and differences among diverse cultures. Finally, the last section provide\ s a number of examples of increasing ethnic diversity among American minority populations,\ expression of culture and ethnicity, and the issues they create.