Ethnicity, the Great Political Power-Tool

In the conclusion of her essay "Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture" Joane Nagel offers her readers an ominous warning in reference to ethnicity: "While ethnic boundaries and the meanings attributed to them can be shown to be socially constructed, they must not, therefore, be underestimated as social forces" (260). Nagel's warning stems from a fluid view of ethnicity, which emphasizes that aspects of ethnicity, such as its borders and their meanings, are created by society. More specifically, ethnic boundaries and their meanings are created by political forces. Also, the social forces, which Nagel claims result from ethnicity, are all of political natures: the unification of peoples in their attempts to overcome discrimination, like the Chicanos of East Los Angeles in the 70's, the manipulation of the public by those seeking political power, like Slobodan Milosevic during the Yugoslavian conflict, and ethnic conflict in regards to the allocation of sparse government resources, like issues of undocumented immigrants in the Latino/Chicano population. This is not to deny that ethnic issues take no toll on political conflicts, which is evident in the controversy surrounding the recording of Malaysian history. In studying all of these cases, it becomes apparent that ethnicity is not some essential aspect of every person and does not unite them accordingly. In actuality, ethnicity, at its worst, is a manifestation of racism and, at its best, is a veil for political motivation.