Race and Ethnic Relations Final

Part 2 of the video series, "The story we tell," opens with what key phrase from the Declaration of Independence, and what was the problem with this phrase?

"All men are created equal" The problem is that Thomas Jefferson wrote this phrase yet he owned slaves. Whites didn't see African Americans as equal because they were slaves so they were not included in the category of men that are created equal.

What are the four main aspects of The Latino Threat?

1. Elements that make up this narrative and how much of it is a matter of social definition such as race 2. Factual challenge to this narrative as evidence- such as birth rates and religion 3. Role of media spectacles- such as protests 4.Negative consequences are not only for Latinos but also for our society as a whole

What are the five sources of The Latino Threat Narrative?

1. Reproductive Threat 2. Don't want to learn English 3. Unwilling to integrate into society 4. Unchanging and immutable in terms of culture 5. They are a part of the conspiracy to take over the SW U.S.

Give one other argument that Wise presented to make the case that Obama's victory was not necessarily a victory over racism.

A lot of people that voted for him still think in terms of racist stereotypes Also, a clear majority of white males voted against him

In commenting on the work of Dr. Richard Lewintin regarding genetic variability among races, it was pointed out that there is more genetic variability among people in _________ than anywhere else on earth.

Africa

In the opening of Chapter 1, Born to Belonging, Wise contends that his life and all of our lives begins when?

Before birth with the lives of our family members

Harvard sociologist, Devah Pager, conducted a study on the difficulties of finding a job with and without a criminal record. Her most startling finding which compared white and black men was what?

Black men without a criminal record have a harder time of finding a job then white males with a criminal record.

After the Fair Housing Act of 1968, blacks began moving into white neighborhoods, which lead to "white flight" that was aided and abetted by the real estate tactic known as ________.

Blockbusting

Although Wise's focus is clearly on "white privilege" as an overriding advantage for white people, he does recognize that there are other forms of privilege that convey advantages to certain groups. Name two such forms of privilege

Christian privilege Male privilege

Rather than viewing reparations as a simple payment to make amends for past exploitation, how does Coates see this issue for reparations?

Coates sees a simple payment as hush money. He wants reparation to create a just society where racism is not an issue and the full responsibility for our collective history and its consequences.

According to Bonilla-Silva, how can we explain "the curious enigma of racism without racists?"

Colorblind racism, which means that whites aren't members of white supremacy groups and claim to be racist. They still play into racism because they still let it happen without even knowing it or paying attention to the racism that is occurring.

In the video program, Wise made several observations about disparities or inequalities between blacks and whites that persist even with a black president. Although the wealth gap is pretty extreme, what was the last disparity he highlighted, which he suggested was the most extreme?

Criminal justice- mass incarceration

"Blaming the victim" is a part of which of the four sources of racism and how does this phrase relate to this particular source?

Discrimination because it may reinforce a stereotype

What happened during the 1980 Congressional Study on Japanese Internment?

During debate of the bill, Jesse Helms argued against the study until the Japanese government pays back the families of those lost in Pearl Harbor.

Which one of the four ways of overcoming prejudice is most closely associated with this class?

Empathy

In what way is ethnocentrism different from racism?

Ethnocentrism is based upon cultural difference Racism is based upon physical differences.

Even after the fall of the South African apartheid regime, George Frederickson in Racism: A Short History, contends that racism can persist even in the absence of what?

Even in the absence of a government regime that promotes racism through laws and civil practices

In Section IV: "The Crime-Stained Blackness of the Negro," Coates chronicles the longstanding association of blacks with criminality. How was this evident in the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914? And how was this even reflected in how the FBI regarded Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Harrison Narcotics Act made cocaine and heroin illegal. Blacks are the one group that is most associated with heroin and cocaine. This act increased the criminality of African Americans by making those drugs illegal. J. Edgar Hoover had the FBI spy on Martin Luther King by having surveillance on him and labeling him a dangerous immoral person even though he never did anything that is criminal or grounds for surveillance.

Another point I stressed in commenting on the video program, "White Like Me," had to do with the work of Princeton University researcher, Martin Gilens, who demonstrated what about the relation between media images and attitudes toward welfare?

He demonstrated the welfare stereotype, which the media portrays as African Americans but in a negative light while white people that were poor during the Great Depression were seen as downtrodden an the media was sympathetic to them Blacks weren't deserving of welfare.

In reflecting on his heritage of both his mother and father's side of the family. Wise notes how both benefitted from their whiteness. Focusing on either his mother's side or his father's side, identify two points, which illustrate their "white privilege."

His mother's side- ancestors go back to early settlers and they received land through the head right system Also, her family fought in Revolutionary War and got land Also, she was able to take out a second mortgage so he could go to Tulane

What prediction did Frederick Hoffman make in his 1985 book, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro? And what was the big flaw in his argument?

Hoffman predicted that African Americans would die out over time based upon death rates. The big flaw is that he based it upon race when it is obvious that the death rates are so high because of the social and environmental factors of poverty.

How did race theory around the turn of the 20th century apply specifically to Caucasians?

Identifying some 35 different white races

Wise presents a compelling analogy at the end of Chapter 1 about someone who becomes the CEO of a company to make what point about how we should deal with the legacy of white privilege and black oppression?

If a new CEO comes into a company and only wants to look at the profits and earnings while ignoring debts and failures, it is similar to ignoring black oppression in our past. We must learn from our failures in order to make the company/country better off for the future generations of minorities. CEO has to accept the debts just like Americans have to accept the fact that we have white privilege and black oppression and that we have debts owed to those that were oppressed.

When some of the problems Moynihan predicted the black family would experience started to become more widespread in the 1970s, basically what approach did we take to address those problems?

Instead of state action, we used the criminal justice system through mass incarceration to address these problems.

What is the Chinese Exclusion Act?

It is the first act where a specific group was barred from the country.

Who is John Huang and what happened in regards to him and the 1996 election?

John Huang is from Taiwan and he funneled money to Bill Clinton. People thought that Huang was working for the Chinese government even though Taiwan is the sworn enemy of China.

Ta-Nehisi Coates describes 1920s Jim Crow Mississippi as a _________ in which black people were robbed of the vote, their lives (lynching), and property.

Kleptocracy

In the context of illustrating which one of the four ways of overcoming prejudice did I quote the passage from Dr. King's book, Stride Toward Freedom?

Law and the role of government

What does Frank Wu believe about laws?

Laws are muscles that need to be exercised to stay strong or else they wither away

In "The Case for Reparations," Coates quotes a passage from Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro's book, Black Wealth, White Wealth (which I also quoted in class lecture). Basically, how do these authors characterize the effects of the government sanctioned housing discrimination of the 1930s-1960s?

Locked out of the greatest mass based wealth accumulation- housing boom Locked in to lower inner city communities

Coates opens section VII: "Our Value System Became Surviving Versus Living," with what I referred to in class lecture as a "very valuable sociological observation." What was this point?

Makes good point that good family by itself will not be enough to make sure kids will not get in trouble.

In arguing that the election of Barack Obama as President did not mean that America was now a "post-racial" society, Tim Wise used some other examples to make his case that such an "argument by exception" is really illogical. Identify and describe one other example.

Middle East and South American countries elect women to high offices yet they still have sexist policies. Examples: Bhutto, Oprah, Frederick Douglas

Frank Wu cited W.E.B. DuBois who made a statement about what we must first do in order to become a truly "colorblind" society, or transcend racial difference

Must recognize racism or discrimination

What racist explanation did Jesse Owens' coach give him for why blacks like Owen excelled in track?

Only recently came out of the jungle where they were running for their life.

According to Stephen Jay Gould in "The Geometer of Race," what is the origin of the word Caucasian and what was in the rationale for placing Caucasians at the top of the racial hierarchy?

Origin is Mt. Caucasus. The rationale was based solely on physical beauty- most perfect

Basically, what were the Ozawa and Thind SCOTUS cases about and what was the decision by the court?

Ozawa- wanted to become a naturalized citizen of the United States and in order to be a citizen, according to the 1791 Naturalization Act, the person has to be a white in order to become a U.S. citizen. He tried to prove that he was socially white. The Court rejected this because he is not biologically white. Thind- Indian descent and tried to become a citizen like Ozawa. Tests proved that he is biologically white. The Court said that even though he is biologically white he is not socially white so he was not able to become a naturalized citizen.

Among the examples of white privilege Wise brings out in the video is the passage of the Social Security Act during the Great Depression. In what respect was Social Security originally racially biased?

People that were domestic or agricultural workers were denied from receiving Social Security. African Americans made up the majority of domestic and agricultural workers therefore Social Security was racially biased.

The Ozawa and Thid cases illustrate what overriding point about the concept of race?

Race is a method of arbitrary social definition

What was my response to the concluding statement in Part 1 of the video series, that: "Race is a human invention; we made it, so we should be able to unmake it?" And why, or on what basis, did I respond in this way?

Race is a social problem that has been around for majority of the written history of the world. Slavery was common in other countries, not just America. Even though it is a human invention, it is very hard to unmake history and forget about the discrimination or differing races. You responded this way because of the difficult nature of race.

Identify any of the two ways that Eduardo Bonilla-Silva characterized white attitudes about the existence of racism today in Racism without Racists

Racism is marginal and Minorities "play the race card" too often

Although slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War, what remained (or was not abolished)? And in one of the passages from Douglas Blackmon's book, Slavery By Another Name, how did Dr. King put this same point?

Racism still remained even though slavery was abolished. Dr. King talked about how the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves but not the Negro.

Harvard law professor, Charles Ogletree was quoted in the video saying that: "Our goal should not be to become post-racial, but rather post-______."

Racist

Clyde Ross gets a final word near the end of Coates' article, "The Case for Reparations," in which he said what which bolsters the case for reparations?

Reason why they are so far behind now is not because of now but because of then or the past.

Coates cites an example of former slave, Belinda Royall, who in 1783 successfully petitioned the state of Massachusetts for what?

Reparations

Echoing the theme of the video series we saw at the beginning of the semester, early theme of the video series we saw, Tim Wise observes in the preface to White Like Me, that: "Race may be a _________ fiction... but it is a ________ fact that none of us can escape no matter how much or how little we may speak of it."

Scientific/ biological Social

What did Mai Ngai say about illegal immigrants?

She noted that illegal alien started to become associated with Mexicans after the 1924 immigration law that set quotas on immigrants.

In both the book and video, Tim Wise references the work of Claude Steele who developed what concept to explain the impact of negative stereotypes on people of color?

Stereotype threat which is when a stigmatized group underperforms in fear of living up to the negative viewpoint.

In the video program, in addition to making the point that only a small fraction of scholarship money is reserved for students of color, what other point did Tim Wise make in response to white students' complaints about affirmative action in college admissions?

Students applying to college that had parents that attended the same college have an advantage and will probably get into the institution even if they have low test scores and grades.

In the opening of Coates' article, "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration," he talks about the Moynihan report on the black family in 1965. What does Coates argue was the aim of this report and how was it misinterpreted?

The aim of this report was to have the state acknowledge the centuries of discrimination and to help out the black family but instead the U.S. gets law enforcement to try to fix this issue. It is misrepresented because the critics accused Moynihan of being racist because the article brings out the problems of the black family.

In the beginning of Part 1 of the video series, Alan Goodman suggested that believing in race, as a valid biological distinction among human beings is similar to what earlier discredited belief?

The belief that the earth is flat

The Population Bulletin presents statistics to document and update what statistic that was presented in Part 3 of the video series?

The handout showed that African Americans own 1/18th of the wealth that whites have and in part 3 it was 1/8th.

What is the sixth aspect of the Latino Threat Narrative according to Unz?

The sixth aspect is that Latinos are criminals

How is Jim Brown's criticism of John Entine's argument in Taboo similar to the criticism of The Bell Curve, as I noted in my follow-up comments on Part 1 of the video series?

They both talked about how race is not biological instead it is social. There is no scientific or biological way to distinguish different races.

What is the Hmong?

They were a group of Vietnamese people that the CIA recruited to help defeat Vietnam. After the CIA left they were left destitute and reliant on welfare.

Race theories were especially important to what segment of the white population?

They were most important to poor whites that wanted to feel superior to African Americans because they are at the bottom of American society due to their socioeconomic status.

Part 3 of the video series opened with the paradoxical assertion that "race is an illusion and yet profoundly real." In what respect is this true, as demonstrated by the video series as a whole?

This is true because race is an illusion biologically yet real socially

Racially, how did early white leaders in America regard Native Americans? Briefly describe how these views clashed with the way the Cherokees in particular were treated?

Thomas Jefferson believed that Native Americans were very similar to whites and are of the same race, such as brown white men This view clashed with the way the Cherokees were treated because white leaders wanted their land in order to fulfill Manifest Destiny and categorized them as savage. The Cherokees actually were not savage and they decided to become civilized on their own. We removed them from their land through the Trail of Tears.

John Conyers, a Michigan Congressman, has introduced a bill (HR 40) in Congress every year since 1989 to do what?

To study reparations

Identify one of the two points that I made in challenging the legitimacy of the term "reverse discrimination"

Whites are still the majority and majority of white males support affirmative action therefore affirmative action cannot cause "reverse discrimination" because the majority agrees with the practice.

In the follow up on the video program, "White Like Me," I handed out a Xerox copy of the results of a 1995 Washington Post poll on racial attitudes, which is compared to the 1963 Gallup Poll Wise mentioned in the video. What is the basic point of these polls?

Whites have always believed that African Americans are better off then they actually are and that racism is no longer a problem.

Upon re-reading John Howard Griffin's classic book, Black Like Me, as an adult, Wise perceived two obvious problems with Griffin's approach to learning about racism. Identify one of these problems.

You don't have to dye yourself black in order to view white privilege and see that being white in America comes along with advantages that African Americans don't have.

Although there has been a recent revival of interest in Moynihan's 1965 study, The Negro Family, among both liberals and conservatives, Coates argues that Moynihan's current defenders "exhibit a naiveté [or blindness] in defense of their hero" in at least two respects. Identify one of these.

a. Moynihan's report is sexist because his study puts an emphasis on patriarchy and how families are better off with male influence.

What was Dr. Robert Terry's basic conclusion on being white in America in For Whites Only?

a. Whites have more advantages in American society than any other race. They don't realize they have these advantages and never have seen race as an issue because whites really don't have much of a racial identity.