“Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.” – Toni Morrison.
How does one go about discussing the fabricated concept of race and the subsequent effects it dictates on ethnicity and social mobility in a society whose structures are steeped in racism and inequity? These were the launching pads from which Vilna Bashi Treitler brought forth The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions, a comprehensive guide and analysis of the legacy of ethnic projects in the United States, as well a critical discussion surrounding the structures of ethno-elitism and racism that allows them to continue running.
Treitler is a sociologist, visual artist, and Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, with a history of scholarship in “international migration, race and ethnicity and the dynamics of hierarchical socioeconomic structures both domestically and internationally.”[1] She also received the American Sociological Association’s Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award in 2020 for “scholarship in service to social justice.”[2] Her background in the field shines in her text, as every case study, concept, and theory is dissected and expounded with a distinct mastery that weaves together both anecdotal and academic elements.
Treitler begins The Ethnic Project with an introduction explaining her motivations for writing this book, “‘Well, if race isn’t biological, then what is it?’” Students would ask this question over the many years that I have worked to teach them that race is socially constructed. And I always thought it was wholly insufficient to tell students that race isn’t real, but racism is.”[3] This opening allowed Treitler to spend some time on introducing critical vocabulary and concepts before one could fully delve into comprehending the ethnic projects.
The running question Treitler continuously explores throughout her book is “how do some ethnicities become more desirable and others less so?”[4] Her central thesis asserts that American history can be viewed through ethnic projects which operate inextricably through racial lens, in which “various outsider groups undertook concerted social action to foster a perception of themselves as ‘different’ from the bottom and ‘similar’ to the top of that racial hierarchy.”[5]
In the initial chapters of The Ethnic Project, Treitler explains how ethnoracial mythmaking came into being, shedding light on the process of developing racial lore for an ethnic group, and emphasizing how ethnicity cannot be discussed without race, “the reality of ethnic group formation in North America is that ethnic groups are formed in a racial context, meaning that the group itself does not always have control over how they are read by those in the larger society… it is the racially dominant group that controls the ethnoracial landscape.”[6]
In response to this nonconsensual development of lore, ethnic groups attempt to propel themselves upwards in the hierarchy, dissatisfied with the racial perceptions placed on them. Treitler advances this theory with the following passage, “We make ethnic lore to explain to one another the characteristics of any group of people, be they Irish, or Latina, or Terrorists… This understanding of how they ‘fit in’ is the key to their racialization. What we know about ethnic groups—all that we’ve ever known about them—is what we know about them racially.”[7]
Treitler spends some time discussing the history and timeline of various ethnic projects. She argues that the Irish, Chinese, Italians, and Jews, whom were all considered non-white when they first arrived in America as outsiders, managed to rise up in the social hierarchy, labeling themselves as successful ethnic projects. However, it is important to note that this mobility occurs at the expense of the ethnic groups beneath you, which in the United States of America, has meant that Black people have always been used as steppingstones for growth, not just by whites to build this nation, but by immigrants who reinforced the racist status quo and mobilized against the Black community to advance themselves in society.
Treitler continuously touches upon this throughout the book as she explains that Black people too have attempted to utilize the ethnic project in hopes of similar success stories, “African Americans used many of the same strategies other ethnic groups used to achieve racial uplift. But one crucial project element evident in the preceding case studies was impossible for blacks in the United States to achieve. Blacks were unable to favorably and convincingly contrast their own group with a more denigrated group—for blacks in the United States seemingly are the group that one should denigrate to achieve racial uplift.”[8]
Therein lies the proof to Treitler’s thesis, that race is consistently tied to ethnicity, as Black people are unable to be viewed as distinct ethnicities removed from their perceived race, “Others have made gains in their ethnic projects when they denigrate black Americans; what race remains for the black American to denigrate in order to get ahead in the racial game? From which racialized ethnics should black Americans segregate to avoid interpersonal relations with their inferiors? Even those West Indians who escape black neighborhoods by being the first to enter white neighborhoods and integrate them are soon back where they started, as white flight begins when black native-born persons seeking relief from segregation move in. Fleeing whites are running too fast to see ethnic differentiation among their new black neighbors. Black ethnics are unable to successfully self-segregate the way other ethnic groups have.”[9]
Fellow sociologist Stephen Steinberg echoes the sentiment in a review of The Ethnic Project, commending that Treitler’s “ingenious concept” of ethnic projects introduced a “new optic” to the study of race.[10] What this book masterfully provides is not only a new rhetoric with which to better understand sociological interactions and implications of systemic racism and ethnocentric structures, it also demonstrates a call to action and a horizon of hope.
The Ethnic Project is an emotive, provoking, and critically eye-opening read in which Treitler brings to light underlying truths about society and the structures upholding centuries of racism and inequity. Treitler concludes the text with a crucial reminder, that the creation of race and racism was a human invention, and so too the responsibility to dismantle it rests with us:
“We must talk about it. We who know the fallacy of race have to speak up… We know that standing for race is almost always siding with powers who win more than we ever could when we regrettably, but yet again, vote against our own interests. We must be willing to stand apart. We can do better and we must do better. Our future depends upon it.”[11]
Works Cited
“Vilna Bashi Treitler: Department of Sociology - Northwestern University.” Northwestern Education, 2022. https://sociology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core/vilna-bashi-treitler.html.
Treitler, Vilna. “The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions.” Stanford University Press PY, 2013, http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=12123
Treitler, Vilna. 2013. “The Ethnic Project.” Stanford University Press. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780804787284/html.
Endnotes
[1] “Vilna Bashi Treitler: Department of Sociology - Northwestern University.” Northwestern Education, 2022. [2] Ibid. [3] Treitler, Vilna. “The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions.” Stanford University Press PY, 2013 px. [4] Ibid p3. [5] Ibid p4. [6] Ibid p9. [7] Ibid p14. [8] Ibid 164. [9] Ibid p165. [10] Treitler, Vilna. 2013. “The Ethnic Project.” Stanford University Press. [11] Treitler, Vilna. “The Ethnic Project,” p186.
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