SOC 210 Lesson 11

How do sociologists define race?

a social category based on real or perceived biological differences

Which of the following is NOT an example of discrimination?

believing that African Americans are better dancers than white people

Many immigrants to the United States have gotten in trouble for keeping livestock—especially chickens, goats, and pigs—in urban areas. Their neighbors feel it's okay to own a 150-pound mastiff but "unsanitary" to have a 50-pound goat that gives milk. In this case, what is driving racism?

negative view of a group's cultural characteristics

In the novel The Human Stain by Philip Roth, a professor at a college in the Northeast is forced into early retirement after he is accused of racism. The charge turns out to be ironic when the reader learns that the professor has a secret: he was born to African American parents and has been covering up his heritage and living as a white man his whole adult life. What is this an example of?

passing

Rather than seeing racism as a product of class differences, recent theorists like Tomás Almaguer argue that:

racist beliefs can become part of economic life.

In terms of health and life expectancy, what is "the great equalizer"?

smoking

A little girl notices that, whenever both of her parents are in the car, her father is always driving. From this she deduces that women should be passive and men should be active. What is this process called?

social learning

What racial issue does functionalism help to explain?

the assimilation of European ethnic groups into larger society

Which of the following best defines homophobia?

the dread of being in close quarters with homosexuals

According to Talcott Parsons and other functionalists, which role are women better suited for?

the expressive role

How do teachers treat boys and girls differently?

Boys are more likely than girls to be punished for misbehaving.

You observe children on a school playground and find some girls playing sports with boys but almost no boys playing jump rope with girls. Why?

Children are mocked for crossing gender lines, and boys are mocked more than girls.

Instead of saying "she" and "he," some writers use new, "invented" pronouns like "hir" and "ze" that refer to a person of either gender. Why would these writers want new pronouns?

New pronouns reform sexist language to make it more gender neutral.

How do most sociologists differentiate between sex and gender?

Sex is biological; gender is social.

What sort of sex role behavior is portrayed by the media?

The media typically portray extreme gender stereotypes.

Why are doctors and parents so quick to seek a surgical "fix" for babies born intersexed?

The prospect of an ambiguously gendered person seems threatening and disturbing.

Why do men usually make more money than women?

The values and norms of contemporary society encourage men to make more money.

Why don't girls, who tend to get better grades than boys, translate their advantage into material success after graduation?

They are typically credited for hard work rather than intellectual ability.

Some contemporary feminists have accused second-wave feminists of being essentialists. They say that women's groups, slogans like "I am woman, hear me roar," and quotes like Germaine Greer's "I do think women could make politics irrelevant by a kind of spontaneous cooperative action" repeat the essentialist logic that created patriarchy in the first place. How are these things essentialist?

They treat gender as an unambiguous two-category system.

How do sociologists define ethnicity?

a group with a shared ancestry or shared cultural heritage

What is it called when a minority group is absorbed into the dominant group?

assimilation

Which of the following factors make someone most likely to drop out of high school?

coming from a non-English-speaking background

Why are there differences in life expectancies for people of different races?

disparities in access to health care

The exploitation of a minority group within the dominant group's political borders is called:

internal colonialism

Societies that encourage racial and ethnic diversity have embraced the value of:

pluralism

The belief that all Irish are drunks is an example of:

prejudice

Which group argues that, as a result of feminism, men suffer discrimination?

the men's rights movement

What group of people is challenging contemporary society to broaden its definitions of sex and gender?

transgendered people