Diablo Valley College Geography of Race and Ethnicity Discussion

In my view, pg. 179’s last sentence is one of the most eye-opening parts of the book: “Studies of genetic variation have demonstrated that there is far more variability within so-called racial groups than between them, which has led scholars to believe that all human beings are members of only one race: Homo sapiens sapiens.”

1) What are your perspectives on that statement and what comes up for you with it in relation to our other course concepts, themes, and processes? (200-250 words)

2) See page 173 and Figure 5.22: an “ethnic flag” as the maize granary. What are three ethnic flags you see in your communities and elsewhere? To be clear, I’m not asking about actual flags (although those are neat too), but rather metaphorical, ethnic flags, such as:

this chorten Tibet (from a research trip I took there in 2009)

and certain Dai (Thai) villages in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province display large unity knots made from threaded bamboo reeds, similar in design to the knot that Tibetans display as a large banner in homes and at temples:

which interestingly is similar to the Celtic knot, another ethnic flag of sorts, stylized and shown here inlaid in a guitar neck (not mine, but I wish it was):

What are other examples in your eyes?