National identity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identity

National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or to one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity may refer to the subjective feeling one shares with a group of people about a nation, regardless of one's legal citizenship status. National identity is viewed in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and recognition of 'we' and 'they'". National identity also includes the general population and diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while being made up of several component ethnic groups. Hyphenated ethnicities are an example of the confluence of multiple ethnic and national identities within a single person or entity.

A postcard from 1916 showing national personifications of some of the Allies of World War I, each holding a flag representative of their nation.

As a collective phenomenon, national identity can arise as a direct result of the presence of elements from the "common points" in people's daily lives: national symbols, language, the nation's history, national consciousness, and cultural artifacts.

Under the International Law a term national identity, with respect to states, is interchangeable with the term state's identity or sovereign identity of the state. State's identity by definition in related to the Constitutional name of the state used as a legal identification in international relations and an essential element of the state's international juridical personality. Sovereign identity of the nation also represent a common denominator for identification of the national culture or cultural identity and under the International Law any external interference into the cultural identity or cultural beliefs and traditions appears to be inadmissible. Any deprivation or external modification of the cultural national identity seems to violate the basic collective human rights.

The expression of one's national identity seen in a positive light is patriotism which is characterized by national pride and positive emotion of love for one's country. The extreme expression of national identity is chauvinism, which refers to the firm belief in the country's superiority and extreme loyalty toward one's country.

Formation of national identity

Norwegians celebrating national day.

National identity is not an inborn trait and it is essentially socially constructed. A person's national identity results directly from the presence of elements from the "common points" in people's daily lives: national symbols, languages, colors, nation's history, blood ties, culture, music, cuisine, radio, television, and so on. Under various social influences, people incorporate national identity into their personal identities by adopting beliefs, values, assumptions and expectations which align with one's national identity. People with identification of their nation view national beliefs and values as personally meaningful, and translate these beliefs and values into daily practices.

Many scholars categorized nationalism as civic and ethnic nationalism. Ethnic nationalism focuses on the belief in myths of common ancestry, biological inheritance, blood relations, similarities in language and religion. Contrary, civic nationalism focuses on a common territorial homeland and involvement in its society. It generates a distinctive shared culture that all citizens embrace a community. It was ethnic nationalism that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, where many tensions arose when two or more ethnic groups shared the same territory. The question about which ethnic identity should be dominant was a significant problem. Therefore, in literature, civic nationalism is characteristic of culturally developed nations that can, from a self-confident position, approach each other on an equal footing, seeking cooperation based on mutual respect. In contrast, ethnic nationalism is indicative of less advanced nations, caused by feelings of inadequacy and inspiring belligerent policies. Gellner (1983, pp. 99–100) intensifies the national–cultural distinction by claiming that Western civic nations are assembled based on high culture. In contrast, Eastern civic societies are joined based on a local, popular, and traditional culture.  Ignatieff (1993, pp. 7–8). kept the same line by debating that ethnic nationalism is the uneducated masses' nationalism where the community defines the individual and not vice versa.

Three main schools of defining national identity exist. Essentialists view national identity as fixed, based on ancestry, a common language history, ethnicity, and world views (Connor 1994; Huntington 1996). Constructivists believed in an importance of politics and the use of power by dominant groups to gain and maintain privileged status in society (Brubaker, 2009; Spillman, 1997; Wagner-Pacifici & Schwartz, 1991). Finally, the civic identity school focuses on shared values about rights and State institutions' legitimacy to govern.

A few scholars investigated how popular culture connects with the identity-building process. Some found that contemporary music genres can strengthen ethnic identity by increasing the feeling of ethnic pride.

Conceptualization

Political scientist Rupert Emerson defined national identity as "a body of people who feel that they are a nation". This definition of national identity was endorsed by social psychologist, Henri Tajfel, who formulated social identity theory together with John Turner. Social identity theory adopts this definition of national identity and suggests that the conceptualization of national identity includes both self-categorization and affect. Self-categorization refers to identifying with a nation and viewing oneself as a member of a nation. The affect part refers to the emotion a person has with this identification, such as a sense of belonging, or emotional attachment toward one's nation. The mere awareness of belonging to a certain group invokes positive emotions about the group, and leads to a tendency to act on behalf of that group, even when the other group members are sometimes personally unknown.

National identity requires the process of self-categorization and it involves both the identification of in-group (identifying with one's nation), and differentiation of out-groups (other nations). By recognizing commonalities such as having common descent and common destiny, people identify with a nation and form an in-group, and at the same time they view people that identify with a different nation as out-groups. Social identity theory suggests a positive relationship between identification of a nation and derogation of other nations. By identifying with one's nation, people involve in intergroup comparisons, and tend to derogate out-groups. However, several studies have investigated this relationship between national identity and derogating other countries, and found that identifying with national identity does not necessarily result in out-group derogation.

National identity, like other social identities, engenders positive emotions such as pride and love to one's nation, and feeling of obligations toward other citizens. The socialization of national identity, such as socializing national pride and a sense of the country's exceptionalism contributes to harmony among ethnic groups. For example, in the U.S, by integrating diverse ethnic groups in the overarching identity of being an American, people are united by a shared emotion of national pride and the feeling of belonging to the U.S, and thus tend to mitigate ethnic conflicts.

From the point of International Law, sovereign national identity could not be subject of a treaty regulation or revision and any international treaty aiming to create or change the national identity of the sovereign state appears to violate the jus cogens rights of the nation. Treaty of revision of the national identity could be subject to termination under the Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (that states: "A treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law."). Any deprivation or revision of the sovereign national identity appears to constitute an ethnocide. National identity could not be subject of imposition, revision or deprivation under any circumstances.

Salience

National identity can be most noticeable when the nation confronts external or internal enemy and natural disasters. An example of this phenomenon is the rise in patriotism and national identity in the U.S after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The identity of being an American is salient after the terrorist attacks and American national identity is evoked. Having a common threat or having a common goal unites people in a nation and enhances national identity.

Sociologist Anthony Smith argues that national identity has the feature of continuity that can transmit and persist through generations. By expressing the myths of having common descent and common destiny, people's sense of belonging to a nation is enhanced. However, national identities can disappear across time as more people live in foreign countries for a longer time, and can be challenged by supranational identities, which refers to identifying with a more inclusive, larger group that includes people from multiple nations.

Research on the study abroad experience that focused on the effects of American stereotypes found that American students faced challenges in connecting with their host country during their study abroad experience because of stereotypes of American identity. A stereotype that affected their experience was connected to politics during the election of Trump, the study found that students would disengage, distance, avoid, assimilate, or challenge their identity or host culture in response to the interactions they faced (Goldstein, 97). These preconceived ideas by the host culture and even by Americans affect the ability of people from different backgrounds to understand and accept one another as an individual rather than the stereotype of a cultural group. 

People

The people are the basic concept for a national identity. But people can be identified and constructed through different logics of nationalism. Examples range from the Völkisch movement to people's republics.

National consciousness

American flag as a national symbol.

A national consciousness is a shared sense of national identity and a shared understanding that a people group shares a common ethnic/linguistic/cultural background. Historically, a rise in national consciousness has been the first step towards the creation of a nation. National consciousness, at a glance, is one's level of awareness, of the collective and one's understanding that without "them" there is no "us". It is the mere awareness of the many shared attitudes and beliefs towards things like family, customs, societal and gender roles, etc. The awareness allows one to have a "collective identity" which allows them to be knowledgeable of not only where they are but how those places and people around them are so significant in that they ultimately make the collective, a nation. In short, national consciousness can be defined as a specific core of attitudes that provide habitual modes for regarding life's phenomena.

National identities in Europe and the Americas developed along with the idea of political sovereignty invested in the people of the state. In Eastern Europe, it was also often linked to ethnicity and culture. Nationalism requires first a national consciousness, the awareness of national communality of a group of people, or nation. An awakening of national consciousness is frequently ascribed to national heroes and is associated with national symbols.

National identity can be thought of as a collective product. Through socialization, a system of beliefs, values, assumptions, and expectations are transmitted to group members. The collective elements of national identity may include national symbols, traditions, and memories of national experiences and achievements. These collective elements are rooted in the nation's history. Depending on how much the individual is exposed to the socialization of this system, people incorporate national identity into their personal identity to different degrees and in different ways, and the collective elements of national identity may become important parts of an individual's definition of the self and how they view the world and their own place in it.

Perspectives

Benedict Anderson

Nations, to Benedict Anderson, are imagined. The idea of the "imagined community" is that a nation is socially constructed, and the nation is made up of individuals who see themselves as part of a particular group. Anderson referred to nations as "imagined communities". He thought that nations, or imagined communities, were delimited because of their boundaries as far as who is in and who is out. Anderson believed that the nation operates through exclusion. Though, nations exclude those who are outside of it but also their members who are not immediately considered in the collective idea of their national identity. Anderson thought that nations were delimited and also were:

Limited: Because of the mental boundaries, or concepts, we set pertaining to others are by culture, ethnicity, etc. We do not imagine everyone in one society or under one nationalism, but we mentally separate.

Sovereign: Nations were sovereign because sovereignty is a symbol of freedom from traditional religious practices. Sovereignty provides the organization needed for a nation while it is kept free of traditional religious pressures.

Ernest Gellner

Unlike Benedict Anderson, Gellner thought that nations are not "imagined communities". In his book, Ernest Gellner explained how he thought that nations originated. In his eyes, nations are entirely modern constructs and products of nationalism. Gellner believed nations to be a result of the Industrial Revolution. Since large numbers of people from different backgrounds were coming together in cities, a common identity had to be made among them. The spread of capitalism bought the demand for constant retraining and Gellner thought that as a result, the demand was met by creating a common past, common culture, and language, which lead to the birth of nations.

Gellner thought that nations were contingencies and not universal necessities. He said that our idea of the nation was as such.

Two men were only of the same only if they were from the same culture. In this case, culture is "a system of ideas, signs, associations, and ways of communicating.

Two men are of the same nation only if they recognize each other as being a part of the same nation.

It was men's recognition of each other as people of the same kind that made them a nation and not their common attributes.

Paul Gilbert

In "The Philosophy of Nationalism", Paul Gilbert breaks down what he thinks a nation is and his ideas contrast those of both Anderson and Gellner. In the book, Gilbert acknowledges that nations are many things. Gilbert says nations are:

Nominalist: Whatever a group of people who consider themselves a nation say a nation is 

Voluntarist: "Group of people bound by a commonly-willed nation" 

Territorial: Group of people located in the same proximity, or territory 

Linguistic: People who share the same language

Axiological: Group of people who have the same distinctive values

Destinarian: Group of people who have a common history, and a common mission 

Challenges

Ethnic identity

Aboriginal groups protesting in Brisbane, Australia

In countries that have multiple ethnic groups, ethnic identity and national identity may be in conflict. These conflicts are usually referred to as ethno-national conflict. One of the famous ethno-national conflicts is the struggle between the Australian government and aboriginal population in Australia. The Australian government and majority culture imposed policies and framework that supported the majority, European-based cultural values and a national language as English. The aboriginal cultures and languages were not supported by the state, and were nearly eradicated by the state during the 20th century. Because of these conflicts, aboriginal population identify less or do not identify with the national identity of being an Australian, but their ethnic identities are salient.

Immigration

As immigration increases, many countries face the challenges of constructing national identity and accommodating immigrants. Some countries are more inclusive in terms of encouraging immigrants to develop a sense of belonging to their host country. For example, Canada has the highest permanent immigration rates in the world. The Canadian government encourages immigrants to build a sense of belonging to Canada, and has fostered a more inclusive concept of national identity which includes both people born in Canada and immigrants. Some countries are less inclusive. For example, Russia has experienced two major waves of immigration influx, one in the 1990s, and the other one after 1998. Immigrants were perceived negatively by the Russian people and were viewed as "unwelcome and abusive guests". Immigrants were considered outsiders and were excluded from sharing the national identity of belonging to Russia.

Globalization

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, international tourism, communication and business collaboration has increased. People around the world cross national borders more frequently to seek cultural exchange, education, business, and different lifestyles. Globalization promotes common values and experiences, and it also encourages the identification with the global community. People may adapt cosmopolitanism and view themselves as global beings, or world citizens. This trend may threaten national identity because globalization undermines the importance of being a citizen of a particular country.

Several researchers examined globalization and its impact on national identity found that as a country becomes more globalized, patriotism declined, which suggests that the increase of globalization is associated with less loyalty and less willingness to fight for one's own country. However, even a nation like Turkey that occupies an important geographic trade crossroads and international marketplace with a tradition of liberal economic activity with an ingrained entrepreneurial and foreign trade has degrees of ethnocentrism as Turkish consumers may be basically rational buyers by not discriminating against imported products, but they exhibit preferences for local goods that are of equal quality to the imports because buying them assists the nation's economy and domestic employment.

Issues

Taiwanese protesting for independence

In some cases, national identity collides with a person's civil identity. For example, many Israeli Arabs associate themselves with the Arab or Palestinian nationality, while at the same time they are citizens of the state of Israel, which is in conflict with the Palestinian nationality. Taiwanese also face a conflict of national identity with civil identity as there have been movements advocating formal "Taiwan Independence" and renaming "Republic of China" to "Republic of Taiwan." Residents in Taiwan are issued national identification cards and passports under the country name "Republic of China", and a portion of them do not identify themselves with "Republic of China", but rather with "Republic of Taiwan".

Markers

National identity markers are those characteristics used to identify a person as possessing a particular national identity. These markers are not fixed but fluid, varying from culture to culture and also within a culture over time. Such markers may include common language or dialect, national dress, birthplace, family affiliation, etc.

Sednoid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sednoid 

The orbits of three of the four known sednoids with Neptune's 30 AU circular orbit in blue.

The apparent magnitudes of three of the known sednoids.

Discovery image of Sedna, the eponymous and first known sednoid

A sednoid is a trans-Neptunian object with a perihelion well beyond the Kuiper cliff at 47.8 AU. Only four objects are known from this population: 90377 Sedna, 2012 VP113, 541132 Leleākūhonua (2015 TG₃₈₇), and 2021 RR205, but it is suspected that there are many more. All four have perihelia greater than 55 AU. These objects lie outside an apparently nearly empty gap in the Solar System and have no significant interaction with the planets. They are usually grouped with the detached objects. Some astronomers, such as Scott Sheppard, consider the sednoids to be inner Oort cloud objects (OCOs), though the inner Oort cloud, or Hills cloud, was originally predicted to lie beyond 2,000 AU, beyond the aphelia of the four known sednoids.

One attempt at a precise definition of sednoids is any body with a perihelion greater than 50 AU and a semi-major axis greater than 150 AU. However, this definition applies to objects such as 2013 SY99, which has a perihelion at 50.02 AU and a semi-major axis of about 700 AU but it is thought to not belong to the Sednoids, but rather to the same dynamical class as 474640 Alicanto, 2014 SR349 and 2010 GB174.

With their high eccentricities (greater than 0.8), sednoids are distinguished from the high-perihelion objects with moderate eccentricities that are in a stable resonance with Neptune, namely 2015 KQ174, 2015 FJ345, (612911) 2004 XR190 ("Buffy"), 2014 FC72 and 2014 FZ71.

Unexplained orbits

The sednoids' orbits cannot be explained by perturbations from the giant planets, nor by interaction with the galactic tides. If they formed in their current locations, their orbits must originally have been circular; otherwise accretion (the coalescence of smaller bodies into larger ones) would not have been possible because the large relative velocities between planetesimals would have been too disruptive. Their present elliptical orbits can be explained by several hypotheses:

1. These objects could have had their orbits and perihelion distances "lifted" by the passage of a nearby star when the Sun was still embedded in its birth star cluster.
2. Their orbits could have been disrupted by an as-yet-unknown planet-sized body beyond the Kuiper belt such as the hypothesized Planet Nine.
3. They could have been captured from around passing stars, most likely in the Sun's birth cluster.

Known members

Sednoids and sednoid candidates

Number	Name	Diameter (km)	Perihelion (AU)	Semimajor axis (AU)	Aphelion (AU)	Heliocentric distance (AU)	Argument of perihelion (°)	Year discovered (precovered)
90377	Sedna	995 ± 80	76.06	506	936	85.1	311.38	2003 (1990)
—	2012 VP113	300–1000	80.50	261	441	83.65	293.78	2012 (2011)
541132	Leleākūhonua	220	64.94	1094	2123	77.69	118.17	2015 (none)
—	2021 RR205	100–200	55.54	991	1926	60	208.57	2021 (2017)

Orbits and positions of the three sednoids (labeled in pink) and various other extreme trans-Neptunian objects as of 2021

The first three known sednoids, like all of the more extreme detached objects (objects with semi-major axes > 150 AU and perihelia > 30 AU; the orbit of Neptune), have a similar orientation (argument of perihelion) of ≈ 0° (338°±38°). This is not due to an observational bias and is unexpected, because interaction with the giant planets should have randomized their arguments of perihelion (ω), with precession periods between 40 Myr and 650 Myr and 1.5 Gyr for Sedna. This suggests that one or more undiscovered massive perturbers may exist in the outer Solar System. A super-Earth at 250 AU would cause these objects to librate around ω = 0°±60° for billions of years. There are multiple possible configurations and a low-albedo super-Earth at that distance would have an apparent magnitude below the current all-sky-survey detection limits. This hypothetical super-Earth has been dubbed Planet Nine. Larger, more-distant perturbers would also be too faint to be detected.

As of 2016, 27 known objects have a semi-major axis greater than 150 AU, a perihelion beyond Neptune, an argument of perihelion of 340°±55°, and an observation arc of more than 1 year. 2013 SY99, 2014 ST373, 2015 FJ345, 2004 XR190, 2014 FC72, and 2014 FZ71 are near the limit of perihelion of 50 AU, but are not considered sednoids.

On 1 October 2018, Leleākūhonua, then known as 2015 TG₃₈₇, was announced with perihelion of 65 AU and a semimajor axis of 1094 AU. With an aphelion over 2100 AU, it brings the object further out than Sedna.

In late 2015, V774104 was announced at the Division for Planetary Science conference as a further candidate sednoid, but its observation arc was too short to know whether its perihelion was even outside Neptune's influence. The talk about V774104 was probably meant to refer to Leleākūhonua (2015 TG₃₈₇) even though V774104 is the internal designation for non-sednoid 2015 TH367.

Sednoids might constitute a proper dynamical class, but they may have a heterogeneous origin; the spectral slope of 2012 VP₁₁₃ is very different from that of 90377 Sedna.

Malena Rice and Gregory Laughlin applied a targeted shift-stacking search algorithm to analyze data from TESS sectors 18 and 19 looking for candidate outer solar system objects. Their search recovered known objects like Sedna and produced 17 new outer Solar system body candidates located at geocentric distances in the range 80–200 AU, that need follow-up observations with ground-based telescope resources for confirmation. Early results from a survey with WHT aimed at recovering these distant TNO candidates have failed to confirm two of them.

Theoretical population

Each of the proposed mechanisms for Sedna's extreme orbit would leave a distinct mark on the structure and dynamics of any wider population. If a trans-Neptunian planet were responsible, all such objects would share roughly the same perihelion (≈80 AU). If Sedna had been captured from another planetary system that rotated in the same direction as the Solar System, then all of its population would have orbits on relatively low inclinations and have semi-major axes ranging from 100–500 AU. If it rotated in the opposite direction, then two populations would form, one with low and one with high inclinations. The perturbations from passing stars would produce a wide variety of perihelia and inclinations, each dependent on the number and angle of such encounters.

Acquiring a larger sample of such objects would therefore help in determining which scenario is most likely. "I call Sedna a fossil record of the earliest Solar System", said Brown in 2006. "Eventually, when other fossil records are found, Sedna will help tell us how the Sun formed and the number of stars that were close to the Sun when it formed." A 2007–2008 survey by Brown, Rabinowitz and Schwamb attempted to locate another member of Sedna's hypothetical population. Although the survey was sensitive to movement out to 1,000 AU and discovered the likely dwarf planet Gonggong, it detected no new sednoids. Subsequent simulations incorporating the new data suggested about 40 Sedna-sized objects probably exist in this region, with the brightest being about Eris's magnitude (−1.0).

Following the discovery of Leleākūhonua, Sheppard et al. concluded that it implies a population of about 2 million Inner Oort Cloud objects larger than 40 km, with a total mass in the range of 1×10²² kg, about the mass of Pluto and several times the mass of the asteroid belt.

Planetary-mass moon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary-mass_moon

Solar System

Planetary-mass moons larger than Pluto, the largest Solar dwarf planet.

A planetary-mass moon is a planetary-mass object that is also a natural satellite. They are large and ellipsoidal (sometimes spherical) in shape. Two moons in the Solar System are larger than the planet Mercury (though less massive): Ganymede and Titan, and seven are larger and more massive than the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris.

The concept of satellite planets – the idea that planetary-mass objects, including planetary-mass moons, are planets – is used by some planetary scientists, such as Alan Stern, who are more concerned with whether a celestial body has planetary geology (that is, whether it is a planetary body) than its solar or non-solar orbit (planetary dynamics). This conceptualization of planets as three classes of objects (classical planets, dwarf planets and satellite planets) has not been accepted by the International Astronomical Union (the IAU). In addition, the IAU definition of 'hydrostatic equilibrium' is quite restrictive – that the object's mass is sufficient for gravity to overcome rigid-body forces to become plastic. In contrast, planetary-mass moons may be in hydrostatic equilibrium due to tidal or radiogenic heating, in some cases forming a subsurface ocean.

Early history

The distinction between a satellite and a classical planet was not recognized until after the heliocentric model of the Solar System was established. When in 1610 Galileo discovered the first satellites of another planet (the four Galilean moons of Jupiter), he referred to them as "four planets flying around the star of Jupiter at unequal intervals and periods with wonderful swiftness." Similarly, Christiaan Huygens, upon discovering Saturn's largest moon Titan in 1655, employed the terms "planeta" (planet), "Stella" (star), "luna" (moon), and the more modern "satellite" (attendant) to describe it. Giovanni Cassini, in announcing his discovery of Saturn's moons Iapetus and Rhea in 1671 and 1672, described them as Nouvelles Planetes autour de Saturne ("New planets around Saturn"). However, when the Journal de Scavans reported Cassini's discovery of two new Saturnian moons (Tethys and Dione) in 1686, it referred to them strictly as "satellites", though sometimes to Saturn as the "primary planet". When William Herschel announced his discovery of two objects in orbit around Uranus (Titania and Oberon) in 1787, he referred to them as "satellites" and "secondary planets". All subsequent reports of natural satellite discoveries used the term "satellite" exclusively, though the 1868 book Smith's Illustrated Astronomy referred to satellites as "secondary planets".

Modern concept

In the modern era, Alan Stern considers satellite planets to be one of three categories of planets, along with dwarf planets and classical planets. The term planemo ("planetary-mass object") covers all three populations. Stern's and the IAU's definition of 'planet' depends on hydrostatic equilibrium – on the body's mass being sufficient to render it plastic, so that it relaxes into an ellipsoid under its own gravity. The IAU definition specifies that the mass is great enough to overcome 'rigid-body forces', and it does not address objects that may be in hydrostatic equilibrium due to a subsurface ocean or (in the case of Io) due to magma caused by tidal heating. Many of the larger icy moons could have subsurface oceans.

The seven largest moons are more massive than the dwarf planet Pluto, which is known to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. (They are also known to be more massive than Eris, a dwarf planet even more massive than Pluto.) These seven are Earth's Moon, the four Galilean moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto), and the largest moons of Saturn (Titan) and of Neptune (Triton). Ganymede and Titan are additionally larger than the planet Mercury, and Callisto is almost as large. All of these moons are ellipsoidal. That said, the two moons larger than Mercury have less than half its mass, and it is mass, along with composition and internal temperature, that determine whether a body is plastic enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. Io, Europa, Ganymede, Titan, and Triton are generally believed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, but Earth's Moon is known not to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, and the situation for Callisto is unclear.

Another dozen moons are ellipsoidal as well, indicating that they achieved equilibrium at some point in their histories. However, it has been shown that some of these moons are no longer in equilibrium, due to them becoming increasingly rigid as they cooled over time. Dysnomia's shape is not known, but it appears to be dense enough that it must have collapsed to form a solid body.

Neptune's second-largest moon Proteus has occasionally been included by authors discussing or advocating geophysical conceptions of the 'planet'. It is larger than Mimas but is quite far from being round.

Current equilibrium moons

Determining whether a moon is currently in hydrostatic equilibrium requires close observation, and is easier to disprove than to prove.

Earth's entirely rocky moon solidified out of equilibrium billions of years ago, but most of the other six moons larger than Pluto, four of which are predominantly icy, are assumed to still be in equilibrium. (Ice has less tensile strength than rock, and is deformed at lower pressures and temperatures than rock.) The evidence is perhaps strongest for Ganymede, which has a magnetic field that indicates the fluid movement of electrically conducting material in its interior, though whether that fluid is a metallic core or a subsurface ocean is unknown. One of the mid-sized moons of Saturn (Rhea) may also be in equilibrium, as may a couple of the moons of Uranus (Titania and Oberon). However, the other ellipsoidal moons of Saturn (Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Iapetus) are no longer in equilibrium. In addition to not being in equilibrium, Mimas and Tethys have very low densities and it has been suggested that they may have non-negligible internal porosity, in which case they would not be satellite planets. The situation for Uranus's three smaller ellipsoidal moons (Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda) is unclear, as is that of Pluto's moon Charon.

The TNO moons Eris I Dysnomia, Orcus I Vanth, and possibly Varda I Ilmarë are at least the size of Mimas, the smallest ellipsoidal moon of Mimas. However, trans-Neptunian objects appear to become solid bodies at a larger size (around 900–1000 km diameter) than the moons of Saturn and Uranus (around 400 km diameter). Both Dysnomia and Vanth are dark bodies smaller than 900–1000 km, and Dysnomia is known to be low-density, suggesting that it cannot be solid. Consequently, these bodies have been excluded.

List

– believed to be in equilibrium

– confirmed not to be in equilibrium

– uncertain evidence

List of ellipsoidal moons

Moon		Image	Radius		Mass		Density	Surface gravity	Year of discovery	Hydrostatic equilibrium?
Name	Designation		(km)	(R☾)	(1021 kg)	(M☾)	(g/cm3)	(g)
Ganymede	Jupiter III		2634.1±0.3	156.4%	148.2	201.8%	1.942±0.005	0.146	1610
Titan	Saturn VI		2574.7±0.1	148.2%	134.5	183.2%	1.882±0.001	0.138	1655
Callisto	Jupiter IV		2410.3±1.5	138.8%	107.6	146.6%	1.834±0.003	0.126	1610
Io	Jupiter I		1821.6±0.5	104.9%	89.3	121.7%	3.528±0.006	0.183	1610
Moon	Earth I		1737.05	100%	73.4	100%	3.344±0.005	0.165	Prehistoric
Europa	Jupiter II		1560.8±0.5	89.9%	48.0	65.4%	3.013±0.005	0.134	1610
Triton	Neptune I		1353.4±0.9	79.9%	21.4	29.1%	2.059±0.005	0.080	1846
Titania	Uranus III		788.9±1.8	45.4%	3.40±0.06	4.6%	1.66±0.04	0.040	1787
Rhea	Saturn V		764.3±1.0	44.0%	2.31	3.1%	1.233±0.005	0.027	1672
Oberon	Uranus IV		761.4±2.6	43.8%	3.08±0.09	4.2%	1.56±0.06	0.036	1787
Iapetus	Saturn VIII		735.6±1.5	42.3%	1.81	2.5%	1.083±0.007	0.022	1671
Charon	Pluto I		603.6±1.4	34.7%	1.53	2.1%	1.664±0.012	0.029	1978
Umbriel	Uranus II		584.7±2.8	33.7%	1.28±0.03	1.7%	1.46±0.09	0.023	1851
Ariel	Uranus I		578.9±0.6	33.3%	1.25±0.02	1.7%	1.59±0.09	0.028	1851
Dione	Saturn IV		561.4±0.4	32.3%	1.10	1.5%	1.476±0.004	0.024	1684
Tethys	Saturn III		533.0±0.7	30.7%	0.617	0.84%	0.973±0.004	0.015	1684
Enceladus	Saturn II		252.1±0.2	14.5%	0.108	0.15%	1.608±0.003	0.011	1789
Miranda	Uranus V		235.8±0.7	13.6%	0.064±0.003	0.09%	1.21±0.11	0.008	1948
Mimas	Saturn I		198.2±0.4	11.4%	0.038	0.05%	1.150±0.004	0.006	1789

(Saturn VII is Hyperion, which is not gravitationally rounded; it is smaller than Mimas.)

Atmospheres

Titan has a denser atmosphere (1.4 bar) than Earth; it is the only known moon with a significant atmosphere. Triton (14 μbar), Io (1.9 nbar), and Callisto (26 pbar) have very thin atmospheres, but still enough to have collisions between atmospheric molecules. Other planetary-mass moons only have exospheres at most. Exospheres have been detected around Earth's Moon, Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus, Dione, and Rhea. An exosphere around Titania is a possibility, though it has not been confirmed.

Whiteness theory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteness_theory

Whiteness theory is a field under Whiteness studies, that studies what White identity means in terms of social, political, racial, economic, culture, etc. Whiteness Theory also looks at how Whiteness is centric in society and culture, and in creating a potential blindness to privileges associated with White identity that excludes and harms the racial other.

Whiteness theory is an offshoot of critical race theory that sees race as a social construct. It posits that practice of Whiteness are visible systems of whiteness that white people use to maintain power to benefit only white people. Critical Whiteness Theory positions Whiteness as the default of North American and European cultures, and as a result of this default, majority of white people are allegedly blind to the advantages and disadvantages of being White due to the dominant cultural and social processes created through the ongoing and historical performativity of whiteness. Stemming from the lack of cultural awareness, humanity, and empathy with racial others as a result of being White, Whiteness Theory looks at the social, power, and economic challenges that arise from disregard or denial of white privilege, and the use of strategies of whiteness to reassert white space, also known as white degeneracy.

History of Whiteness

North America

Whiteness as a social identity formed in the colonial and post-colonial era. In the colonial era social class was more important than race among white people, however during the post-colonial era, social changes gave non-whites an opportunity to engage freely in the economy and those changes economically threatened lower and middle class white people. Racism and racialization where required tools for distinguishing oneself from non-whites, and preventing non-whites from utilizing their freedom for sustainable growth. The opportunism for gaining an economical advantage motivated the lower and middle class white people to reproduce what whiteness can be in order to have a privileged lifestyle, and it was augmented and legitimized by the surviving plantation bourgeoisie class through social and psychological courtesies for further protecting their own privileges. White race solidarity in upholding whiteness through centuries is one of the strongest and ever growing class collaborationism seen in North America.

Pillars of Whiteness theory

Whiteness as default

Whiteness is a socially constructed concept, identified as the normal and centric racial identity. As Whiteness is the standard to which racial minorities are compared, Whiteness is understood as the default standard. Whiteness Theory establishes Whiteness as default, through which social, political, and economic complications arise from Whiteness and its creation of color blindness. The ideologies, social norms, and behaviors associated with white culture are the comparative standard to which all races are objectified to.

The defaulting of Whiteness establishes a reality in which White people, as victims of their race as centric, do not experience the adversity of those with minority identification. An otherization of minorities can occur with Whiteness as a default, where Whiteness Theory identifies Whiteness as invisible to those who possess it, resulting in both intended and unintended otherization. Whiteness as default presents socioeconomic privileges and advantages over racial minorities, which also might go unrecognized by White people that are not objectified by some other standard of adversity.

Whiteness as centric

As the majority of Americans are White, Whiteness is considered the default race of the United States, the existing cultural norms of Whiteness are classified as the norms of American culture. Such classifications include stereotypical expectancies of behavior, in which a binary system is created that classifies a person's culture as either "White" or "other." Majority racial status plays a major role for those of white identity creating cultural "norms," as one's behaviors and expectations of how a culture should live and interact is more easily reinforced by association with the majority. Lack of awareness parallels the centric nature of Whiteness as majority through self-imposed color blindness, existing through the reality of White privilege.

Whiteness theory studies the way that White identity passively creates the otherization of color. Color is a construct that can be objectified, made from the existence of Whiteness as majority and centric. Such a perception Whiteness as "normal" leads to an underrepresentation and misrepresentation of minority individuals.

White identity

The idea of Whiteness as "normal" reinforces the idea of racial marginalization, through which an identity of Whiteness may be created through the antithesis of subjugated "otherized" cultures. Much of White identity is formulated around the absence of an identity. Because there is no association towards being objectified by social, racial, economic, or judicial systems for the middle-class White identifiers, White identity for an individual may be intentionally crafted to suit the wants and needs of the individual. Such a choice of "coloring in" one's Whiteness is a reflection of the privileges of Whiteness and a lack of diverse community association.

The spheres of privilege and discrimination possibilities based on identity, notably citing whiteness as one of the platforms of dominance.

White privilege

In the United States, White privilege is theorized to exist due to the hierarchy of power distribution, where White men were granted institutional power over minorities in the establishment of the country's political, social, and economic systems. White privilege resides in the idea that White people inherit a color blindness due to their majority status, refuting the existence of racism and racial privilege because of a lack of association with those realities. The privileges of being in the majority are unknown by the majority, paradoxically, because they are the majority and are not subjected to the social trials of being a minority. White people have received a more sympathetic media treatment than black people, for example having been portrayed as mentally ill, after they had committed a serious crime such as a mass shooting.

Lack of discrimination is an underlying principle of White privilege, as the privileges available to the White majority are not as readily enjoyed by those of minority status. Such privileges include, but are not limited to: owning/renting of property, equal racial representation in law and society, unbiased education, assumption of intellectual, social, or financial capability, unbiased credibility. Privilege is multi-faceted in its existence; each of these realities and countless others are the subject of White privilege, as discrimination is faced by minority subjects while trying to enjoy such realities.

White bias

White bias is in reference to majority stronghold that White people possess. Those of a particular racial identity (whiteness) have selective preference of granting power and privileges to those of the same ethnicity, referred to as ingroup bias. Such strongholds may be categorically associated to the social, educational, economic, political, racial, and cultural privileges associated by the majority White. Institutionally power is granted hierarchically, and in majority, to those who that associate most with the power holders. Racial bias exists as a barrier to entry for many minority power seekers, where a gatekeeping effect is created by those in the majority who are reluctant to pass power onto the minority, whether through qualification-based or discrimination-based motives.

Socially, institutional slavery, then racism has played a major role in the discrimination of not only African-Americans, but as well other minority affiliations as suboptimal. Economically, access to higher-paying jobs and wage gap discrimination are an ongoing discourse demanding institutional change, both as a result of White bias. Politically, racial bias is seen with the highly sought after Presidential office, where America's first black president Barack Obama was not elected until 2008, being preceded by 43 White presidents by him and being followed by a White president Donald Trump as the 45th.

Critiquing whiteness

Communication research revolving around critical race theory seeks to understand the privileges and associations of whiteness. The critical aspect of research involves the realization of white enrichment, where white people have profited from the injustices done unto minorities (see European colonization of the Americas and slavery) both knowingly and unknowingly. Systems in the United States more often than not create privileged realities where white people may succeed more than those of minority identity, also allowing those of white identity to more easily change and manipulate the system to their favor.

A component of critical whiteness theory seeks to understand how white people acknowledge their privileges, as well as the corresponding positive or negative behaviors through their acknowledgements. Unique qualitative research is derived from how normative whiteness is in our culture, associated with how color blindness and privilege blindness affect interracial contexts of communication, as well as the white perception of injustices done unto minorities in America.

Whiteness theory in communication studies

The tenets of white privilege are incorporated into whiteness theory to understand the respective communicative possibilities of each tenet. Studying how white privilege is perceived by white people, how well white people perceive white privilege, how white people think their white privilege affects their identity, how white identity is derived from and conflicts with other racial identities, and how white privilege is perceived by minorities are all a limited set of possibilities created by whiteness theory. These theoretical studies can be manipulated by the following variables of whiteness theory:

• Centric whiteness
• Whiteness as the default
• Whiteness as normative
• Whiteness and rhetoric
• White identity
• White racial culture
• White bias
• White interaction with minorities
• Whiteness and inequality
• White cultural cannibalism
• Whiteness and education
• Whiteness and politics
• Whiteness and popular culture
• Whiteness and gender

Whiteness theory in audio-visual studies

Spike Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing explores Whiteness theory through the social, economic, racial and cultural identities of the white characters Sal, Vito and Pino. The film follows another day in the life of Mookie, an African-American man working for Sal's Famous Pizzeria, and the racial tensions that arise between Sal and Mookie's friend Buggin’ Out. Sal, Vito and Pino are an Italian-American family who own a pizzeria in a predominantly black neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York, USA. The pizzeria is thus marked as a ‘white spot’ amongst black America, representing what colonised America has become; White American's are working class citizens who capitalise on Black America. This is exemplified through Pino's behaviour toward the African-American customers of the pizzeria through micro-aggressions and slurring of racist remarks while deindividuating Mookie's negative behaviour to be typical of his race, “How come niggers are so stupid?”. As Hughey suggests a feeling of threat to the white normality, Pino attempts to exert his white privilege through his actions. For example, Pino explains that he is fed up with being around black people in this neighbourhood and suggests to his father that they sell Sal's Famous Pizzeria and move to their own neighbourhood instead. Whiteness is also shown through Sal's ‘Wall of Fame’ in his pizzeria which only showcases famous Italian-American individuals. When Buggin’ Out calls for the representation of African-Americans to be included on the wall alongside the Italian-Americans, Sal refuses by replying, “Only Italian-American’s up on the wall”. Sal sees his own cultural and racial identity to be central to his view of American representation and thus is an example of his Whiteness. Another example of Whiteness in the film is when a white man's car is soaked by the suburb's citizens enjoying the water from the fire hydrant on the street. The Police ask the man to describe the men who soaked his car and he says, “Mo and Jo Black…Yeah, they were brothers”. This is an example of what Memmi describes as the ‘mark of plural’, where these two individuals are homogenously deindividualized and thus marked as raced rather than as individuals.

Whiteness theory is further explored in the 2006 film Blood Diamond by Edward Zwick. The film follows Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler whose ticket out of Africa is a pink diamond found and hidden by a local African fisherman, Solomon Vandy. Danny Archer's Whiteness prevails throughout the film. In one scene, Danny pleads to allow Solomon to help him find his family, saying that without the help of himself and the other white people that he knows, Solomon is, “…just another black man in Africa”. On several occasions Danny uses the term T.I.A. (This is Africa) when speaking to white foreigners. It is clear here that the use of this term by a white man in a black country details supposed inherent raced characteristics of Africa that are different to that of the white race. Hughey's notion of the White Saviour is perfectly depicted in this film also. Not only does Danny Archer dedicate his time and resources to help Solomon Vandy find the diamond and thus his family, he asks for the help of other white characters such as Maddy Bowen which ultimately result in Danny Archer's sacrifice of his own life and the money from the pink diamond to save Solomon Vandy and his family from definitive death.