Untitled

R
race
Racial identity, including appearance, language,
religion or other ascribed characteristics, affects
the lives of millions of people who are forced to
define and even defend themselves in relation to it.
Identity and the privileged meanings of it form the
social core of all human groups. Humans exert
control over others by utilising socially constructed
images and terms in language and behaviour to
create hierarchy and legitimise actions. Thus, race
is a cultural notion applied and used in specific
ways to structure, legitimise or reproduce political
and economic conditions and relationships.
Tourism development has had far reaching
effects on the construction of race and experience
of racism. Racial constructs are often used to
legitimise efforts to gain control of land, labour and
resources of peripheral peoples. Resources formerly
used to support traditional activities and
sustain the household and community are redefined
as commodities supporting growth in the
national and global economy. Traditional beliefs,
actions and endeavours are termed `primitive' or
`backwards', and imposed tourism projects and
activities represent `progress'. Resident peoples are
described in racial and subservient terms, legitimising
their low status and place in the socioeconomic
hierarchy of an international
tourism economy.
Tourism based on the exploration of exotic
differences can stimulate cultural revitalisation and
enhance the relative position and power of
minorities. Racism can be a tourism commodity,
with tourists exploring, for example, the historical
experience and struggles against slavery and
segregation. More typically, the sharp contrasts in
the tourism experience ± between residents and
visitors, those who serve and are served, and those
with money and those who work for wages ±
underscores the various divisions in society, emphasising
and at times exacerbating racism and
other forms of inequality.
See also: commoditisation; ethnic group; ethnic
tourism; exoticism
Further reading
Bolles, A.L. �1994) `Sand, sea and the forbidden',
Transforming Anthropology 3�1): 30±4. �Analyses
race, class and gender dimensions of Jamaican
tourism, challenging the notion of the `oppressed'
as a passive victim.)
Harrison, F.V. �1995) `The persistent power of
``race'' in the cultural and political economy of
racism', Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 47±74.
�A critical review of anthropological discourse on
race.)
Olwig, K.F. �1985) Cultural Adaptation and Resistance
on St. John:Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life,
Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press. �A
history of St John, including the impacts of
National Park and related tourism development
on demography, identity and race relations.)
BARBARA ROSE JOHNSTON, USA