Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, and Geography
Diversity is a central fact of American life. Americans' ancestors came from every part of the world, and in a vast and complex country, their experiences are influenced by ethnicity, gender, religion, geographical background, and a host of other factors. These experiences in turn shape outlook and behavior.
The idea that there are innate differences between racial and ethnic groups û that Africans have "natural rhythm," or that the Irish are natural storytellers û has long been rejected as both racist and simply erroneous. So-called racial differences are in fact both a very late and literally superficial development in human evolution. Ten thousand years ago, people looked pretty much like us, and they invented agriculture, domesticated animals, and in a host of other ways showed themselves just as smart. However, none of our present-day ethnic distinctions had yet come into being. The "races" of modern times did not yet exist.
People of different ethnic background can and do, however, differ in their experiences. African-Americans and Latino Americans tend to listen to different music and watch different television shows than other groups of Americans, responding to family and community traditions. All too much evidence also suggests that ethnicity still influences how people are treated: phenomena such as "driving while black." In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for example, blacks and whites differed sharply in their view of how the race of many of the victims influenced the rescue effort (Pew Center, 1995). Race may be superficial, but it remains deeply rooted in American life.
Women are from Venus, goes the popular saying (derived from a book title), and men are from Mars. To what degree men and women have innate mental and psychological differences û as opposed to the obvious physiological ones û r
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