Ethnic Studies 1 (Week 1-6)

Agents of Change documentary: What was the name of the Black student organization at SF state?

Black Student Union

The Mayan civilization were so advanced in astronomy and math, that modern scientists continue to be marveled at the accuracy of their charts tracking celestial movements. Furthermore, they developed the concept of 0 in the year 36 BC.

true

("The Combahee River Collective Statement") The authors states that the psychological toll of being Black women and the challenges this presents in reaching political consciousness can never be underestimated. Further, as Michelle Wallace points out, being on the bottom, Black women have to fight the world. The authors of this statement further this notion and write an important concept: "If Black women were free, it would mean that..." Finish this statement.

...everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all systems of oppression.

"The Story We Tell": By the time the U.S.-Mexican War ended in 1848, the U.S. annexed how much of Mexico's land?

1/3

"The Story We Tell": The ________ was a way to show off U.S. "progress" as the United States entered the 20th century as "the world's most prosperous nation" and its newest empire. Included were human exhibits, displaying "brown" people in their "native habitats," organized "from savagery to civilization." White bodies standing next to dark bodies when taking pictures, proved how "civilized" whites were. An understanding of race was connected to the vision of America's future. This was a way to frame the world - "White people saw their advance as historical, and those not white were considered outside of history, progress, and advancement."

1904 World's Fair

By 1955, indigenous land base shrunk to ____________ % of its original size.

2.3%

Zinn: What did Zinn write was true about the most powerful association of North Eastern tribes, the League of Iroquois?

All of the above: There was no concept of private ownership, and no one was poor; Women were respected, were involved in making important decisions, and families were matrilineal, meaning husbands joined wives families, children were taught to be independent and not submit to overbearing authority

Which of the following statements are true about Indigenous peoples before the arrival of Europeans?

All of the answer choices: Had perfected agriculture, especially corn, which required advanced knowledge and technology, Had established complicated irrigation canals, dams, ceramics, weaving, and made cloth out of cotton, Moundbuilders constructed enormous sculptures out of earth, of large humans, birds, serpents, one being 3.5 miles long and enclosing 100 acres.

Systemic racism encompasses a diverse assortment of racist practices, inequalities, and ideologies. It includes:

All of the answer choices: patterns of unjust impoverishment of nonwhites, vested group interests of whites to maintain racism, routinized discrimination against nonwhites

In The Combahee River Collective Statement, under the section "What We Believe," the authors state...

All of the choices: That the liberation of all people necessitate destruction of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy, They feel solidarity with progressive Black men since situation as Black people necessitate working together to end racial oppression, That they reject pedestals, queenhood, and walking ten paces behind - "To be recognized as human, levelly human, is enough.", and That Black women are inherently valuable

("Segregated by Design") What are some examples of advantages accrued to white families through the wealth they gained from appreciating home equity? None of which accrued to African Americans who were prohibited from buying homes in those suburbs.

All of the choices: They could bequeath wealth to their children, They could send their children to college, They could take care of their parents in old age

("Segregated by Design") Blockbusting tactics included...

All of the choices: hiring African American women to push carriages with their babies through white neighborhoods, Making calls to residents in white neighborhoods, asking to speak to someone with a stereotypical African American name, Hiring African American men to drive cars with their radios blasting through white neighborhoods

Zinn: Funded by the King and Queen of Spain, Columbus intended to set sail to __________ in search of gold.

Asia

("Segregated by Design") The first public housing project developed under the US Housing Authority was in _________, where separate projects were developed for whites, African Americans, and "Hispanics." Projects for African Americans were located in a place that the city plan designated as a "ghetto for African Americans." The design was to move all African Americans to this location, whether in public housing or private housing.

Austin, TX

In Howard Zinn's writing, he emphasized that ___________ was significant because it proved that white servants and black slaves could work together to rebel against the common enemy: the plantation owning class. Therefore, although it was unsuccessful, it led to a development of new laws that defined slavery along distinctly racial lines. Slave codes were used to control Black people, and whites were offered benefits denied to Blacks. That way, whites began to align themselves more along racial lines, rather than class lines.

Bacon's Rebellion

White Like Me - In response to the election of _______, some white Americans called to "Take Our Country Back," implying that non-whites are taking over and that whites are being hurt the most. Wise argues that these protestors are actually crying for an America that is founded on the formal system of white supremacy, which is one explanation for why Trump was elected as the 45th president

Barack Obama

_____________ wrote his observations about the Indigenous populations while he participated in the conquest of Cuba. He was later a critic of Spanish cruelty. He observed that Indian women were free to choose and leave mates as they pleased, and also wrote that the Spanish "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties," and "for fun beheaded the boys." He also wrote that the Indians were so overworked that children died young, "while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months." He wrote of the rapid population decline, noting: "there were 60,000 people living on this island...so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines."

Bartolome de las Casas

___________ have always had a negative relationship to the American political system, determined by their membership in two oppressed racial and sexual castes. As Angela Davis points out, ___________ have always embodied "an adversary stance to white male rule and have actively resisted its inroads upon them."

Black women

In "The Story We Tell," we learn that the __________ was a way to "civilize" the Indians and quell confrontations with Native groups that threatened the stability of the U.S. This was a form of assimilation that pushed the Christian religion and English education along with the development of commercial agriculture among various tribes.

Civilization policy

(Coates) Why types of injustices and cruelties did the Ross family face as sharecroppers in the South?

Clyde Ross's horse was taken from him by a group of white men when he was just a 10-year-old child

(Rothstein) What were some effects of racial segregation in East Palo Alto?

Conditions deteriorated as African Americans couldn't live any where else and had to "double up" in single family homes, and soon a segregated Black high school was created

Asian Americans are the one nonwhite group that doesn't face discrimination

False

(Rothstein) How were African Americans excluded from receiving loans and purchasing homes in Rollingwood, a new Richmond suburb?

Federal officials approved bank loans to finance construction, requiring that NONE of Rollingwood's houses be sold to an African American.

(Rothstein) Where did African American families, who faced a housing shortage, end up living in Richmond?

Former war projects that were supposed to be temporary and in makeshift homes in the unincorporated area of North Richmond.

What do you remember learning about on the early days of European settlement in the Americas and chattel slavery? How does what you read contrast with what you've learned and why is U.S. history, even to this day, presented this way?

From what I remember learning about on the early days of European settlement in the Americas and chattel slavery, was that history books made it so that slavery was brushed off as something positive rather than focusing on the dehumanization that it truly was, and that people who were slaves weren't able to get out of it during this time as it was a part of their inheritance. Contrasting to this, I was able to get a full picture of what it truly looks like, such as in the 1904 World's Fair, where they tried to exhibit what a "civilized" savage would look like compared to one that wasn't. It showed me how truly monstrous and cruel this behavior truly was, and I believe that U.S. History to this day is presented this way in order to help somehow "sugar coat" their actions, or try to present the information in a way that makes the colonizers not seem as bad as they actually were.

(Coates) How did Clyde Ross "purchase" his house in Chicago and what did this mean?

He'd bought the home at an inflated price and "on contract": a predatory agreement that combined all the responsibilities of homeownership with all the disadvantages of renting—while offering the benefits of neither.

White Like Me - What is NOT an example of systematic privileges given to whites that's built into the very foundations of the United States?

Immigration Act of 1965 - ended national quotas for immigration and instead based immigration on family reunification and job skills

"The Story We Tell": Race-based arguments were used to justify the removal of the Cherokees through the ___________.

Indian Removal Act 1830

The concept of reservations came from...

Indigenous nations reserving a land base in exchange for US government protection from settlers and provision of social services

Precious Knowledge, documentary: What was the MAS, or Mexican American/Raza Studies program in Tucson about?

Knowing where you came from, who you are inside" - understand your "cultura"

"The Story We Tell": What did supporters of the war with Mexico argue about Mexican people?

Mexicans were an inferior mongrel race, "mere Indians," "savages"

Copy one to two lines from any of Chinchilla's poem and explain why they stuck out to you or how they relate to the them of "intersectionality."

One of the lines from this poem that stuck out to me was "To no eres lesbiana si te gustan las butchas mujeres masculinas or trans men," (Chinchilla, 2014, 73). which translates to "You are not a lesbian if you like masculine women or trans men." I found that this stuck out to me because it shows how the concept of a person's sexual orientation w/ another's gender identity isn't as easily understood. For example, if a woman is attracted to a woman who embodies masculine traits, doesn't necessarily mean she's attracted to men as well. However, this concept can be seen as confusing for people who don't necessarily understand the different identities that are held in gender identity + sexual orientation asides from heterosexual + girl/boy, as they associate masculine traits with men and feminine traits with women. So, when a woman is to be attracted to someone with "masculine traits," they'll feel as if it doesn't make them a lesbian, but someone who is attracted to a man due to this association of masculine traits with men. However, I believe that this relates to "intersectionality" because it is using the concept of a person's individuality being shaped by two things, their sexual orientation + their gender identity.

("Segregated by Design") How did African American neighborhoods turn into slums?

Overcrowding due to lack of access to housing and expensive mortgage or property tax payments, cities withdrawing public services such as garbage collection and water and sewer services, and the placement of polluting industries and toxic waste plants in African American neighborhoods in order to protect white neighborhoods from deterioration.

("Segregated by Design") What's Rothstein's resolution to remedying the effects of federally backed racial segregation?

Put forth and legislate policies that promote integration, and accept responsibility that such measures that supported racial segregated were unconstitutional.

White Like Me - Which of the following statements is FALSE about welfare and perceptions of welfare and anti-poverty policies?

Recipients are undeserving, lazy, and overwhelmingly Black

("Segregated by Design") The term _________ comes from the federal government's creation of color coded maps of urban areas nationwide, indicating where it was "safe" to insure mortgages. Anywhere that African American lived were colored red, indicating to appraisers that these neighborhoods were too risky for the FHA to insure.

Redlining

Agents of Change documentary: The name of the college president who resisted the Black Student Union's demand for a Black Studies department, the rehiring of professor George Murray, and called in police to suppress student strikers was...

S.I. Hayakawa

Ethnic Studies lecture video: Ethnic Studies started at:

San Francisco State

In "The Story We Tell," how was "science" used to racialize Africans as inferior to whites?

Scientists like Samuel Morton used to measure skull size to show that whites were superior.

What was the "ultimate defense for slavery"?

That Black people were inferior

(Coates) What did the Federal Housing Administration's loan program do for working class white families and how were Black families excluded?

The FHA insured private mortgages, making home purchasing more affordable for working class white families. They also adopted redlining, making sure that no Black family would have access to such loans. This made them easier victims of predatory lending practices.

(Rothstein) This policy or institution challenged housing discrimination

The Fair Housing Act of 1968

"The Story We Tell": Which "exhibit" at the World's Fair allowed the American people to see the people they recently conquered, and demonstrate how "civilized" white people were compared to these people?

The Philippine exposition

("Segregated by Design") The New Deal of the 1930s under President Roosevelt pursued policies that segregated metropolitan areas. What's one policy enacted during this time?

The first civilian public housing program which demolished integrated neighborhoods and replaced them with segregated public housing.

(Rothstein) Blockbusting is

The illegal practice of exploiting "racial prejudice" and panicking white families into selling their homes by warning them of a "Negro invasion" and then selling these homes to desperate African Americans at inflated prices.

Why didn't Friedan's brand of feminism and in general, Western, American white, upper to upper middle class feminism, speak to the author?

The woes of the housewife expressed a certain level of class privilege & that brand of western feminism viewed women of the Middle East as oppressed and needing to be "saved"

When the pilgrims landed in New England, what excuse did they give to take Indian land?

They argued that the area was a "vacuum" and because the Indians didn't do anything with the land, they only had a "natural right" to the land, which didn't hold any legal standing.

(Zinn) Why were enslaved Africans especially vulnerable?

They were ripped from communal life, captured from interior then sold on the coast, then shoved into pens with Africans of other tribes who spoke different languages.

(Coates) What happened to the land owned by Clyde Ross's father in Mississippi?

They were seized by authorities who arbitrarily claimed that he owed back taxes. This was a common practice that one source found over 400 victims and over 20,000 acres of land taken from Black people in the South since before the Civil War

(Zinn) Despite being portrayed as inferior, submissive, and therefore considered "helpless dependents" by planters, enslaved Africans often resisted slavery in the following way(s):

They would run away into the wilderness. They jumped off ships as they left Africa. They organized revolts All of the answer choices:

What does it mean when Martinez writes that white supremacy is historically based?

Three key facts about the birth and growth of the US as a nation is acknowledged: 1) US was created by military conquest - seizing indigenous land through invasion; 2) US economy could not have developed without enslaved African labor 3) the US took over 1/2 of Mexico, allowing it to expand to the pacific and open up to trade with Asia - this expansion continued as US imperialism led to take over of Philippines, Puerto rico, Guam, and Cuba

(Rothstein) How did East Palo Alto became a segregated Black neighborhood?

Through the practice of "blockbusting" and because the FHA and VA refused to insure mortgages for whites in a neighborhood where African Americans were present.

(Zinn) Despite the risk of being brutally murdered or mutilated if caught, enslaved people continued to run away due to one big motivation:

To find family members

According to Smith (2012), genocide, as a pillar of white supremacy, is rooted in colonialism.

True

Many Americans, even those who do not believe they are racially prejudiced, have implicit biases that operate at the level of the subconscious.

True

Martinez argues that white supremacy is a more useful term than racism.

True

White Like Me - Today there are more African Americans under correctional control (in prison or jail, on probation or parole) than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began

True

White Like Me - Why do white Americans have a hard time explaining what it means to be white?

Whiteness isn't something you have to think about, since it's normalized. You're part of the dominant group with privileges so you don't have to think about how you fit in or how your privileges might affect those who don't belong in this group.

(Coates) The Great Migration is

a mass exodus of 6 million African Americans going north, not only for better wages and work, but to flee the terrorism of the South and in order to seek the protection of the law

Columbus's men treated the Indigenous people of the Caribbean...

as objects - they raided villages, raped women, kidnapped people to be slaves, forced many to find gold for them, hunted them down with dogs

What's an example of a strike demand from 1968 at SF state?

creating a school of ethnic studies

(Zinn) Fill in the blank: "Only one fear was greater than the fear of black rebellion in the new American colonies. That was the fear that _____________________ to overthrow the existing order" (37)

discontented whites would join black slaves

How do you know what you know is a/an __________________ question

epistemological

(Rothstein) Why does Rothstein argue that de jure segregation by law and public policy is unconstitutional?

explicit and systematic segregation policies instituted by the US government is a violation of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

In early Virginia, "Not able to enslave the Indians, and not able to live with them, the English decided to ________________ them."

exterminate them

("Segregated by Design") If African Americans purchased homes in a white neighborhood, the property values of home in that neighborhood would decline.

false

(Zinn) Enslaved Africans experienced descent travel conditions in the slave ships. They were fed well and given enough space to move around.

false

Dunbar-Ortiz agrees with the perspective that early "encounters" between Indigenous populations and Europeans consisted of "cultural conflict" and that there were "good and bad on both sides."

false

(Muaddi Darraj) It was the authors' ___________ who first taught her about feminism by telling her she could do anything she wanted and that he would support her. She never felt that her culture stood in the way.

father

Indigenous peoples used _________ to tame the natural landscape, creating pastures and grazing lands to transport and hunt animals such as bison.

fire

Dunbar-Ortiz wrote: "Euro-American colonialism, as aspect of the capitalist economic globalization, had from its beginnings a ________________ tendency."

genocidal

Zinn: Zinn critiques the heroic presentation of Columbus's "encounter" with Indigenous populations, arguing that American historians were motivated by....

ideological interests, which served to justify the genocide against Native Americans.

Fill in the blank: Racially discriminatory actions by individuals, such as a landlord lying about an apartment being taken because the person on the phone has a Spanish accent, constitute ________ racism

individual

Fill in the blank: ______ racism consists of policies, laws, and institutions that reproduce racial inequalities.

institutional

To fully understand the experiences of black and Latina women in a battered women's shelter, we have to look at how race, class and gender play a role in their need for the shelter's services. When we take these factors into account simultaneously, we are engaging in

intersectionality

____________ is both the study of multiple or intersecting social identities that people carry with them. AND examines the intersecting structures of power (such as white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism) that limit, marginalize, or oppress people based on race, class, gender, gender identity, immigration status, sexual orientation, language, religion, ability, and other notable markers of difference

intersectionality

According to Omi and Winant, a racial project defined as racist when

it reproduces structures of domination and hegemony

Ethnic Studies lecture video: Ethnic Studies is NOT

learning about different foods and dances

Joe Feagin explains that systemic racism exists because of:

the history of the United States as a slaveholding nation.

Fill in the blanks(2): Racism encompasses both racial ________, the belief that people belong to distinct races with innate hierarchical differences that can be measured and judged, and racial _______, the practice of treating people differently on the basis of their race.

prejudice, discrimination

Racial discrimination is frowned upon in the United States. However, individual racism persists through

racial microaggressions

Dunbar-Ortiz argues that US policies and actions toward Indigenous people must be understood through the framework of ___________________: "the founding of a state based on the ideology of white supremacy, the widespread practice of African slavery, and a policy of genocide and land theft."

settler colonialism

(Zinn) For Black folks, _______ were enforced which tied slavery to race. For whites, they were offered benefits that were denied to blacks: 1705 law made masters provide indentured servants with 10 bushels of corn, 30 shillings, and a gun upon the end of their contract plus 50 acres of land.

slave codes

Zinn: Upon his second voyage to the Americas, Howard Zinn wrote that the two main objectives for Christopher Columbus were...

slaves and gold

Zinn argued that American slavery was "the most cruel form of slavery in history" because...

slaves were dehumanized: slavery was lifelong, morally crippling, and ripped families apart

White Like Me - During the height of segregation in 1962 and 1963, a Gallup Poll found that most white Americans believed

that Black Americans were treated equally and had the same opportunities as whites when it came to education.

Agents of Change documentary: Once the BSU organized 400 Black students to be admitted to SF state, they started reaching out to other ethnic minority groups to help them organize and demand the same for their communities. What was the name of the coalition between these various students of color organizations?

the Third World Liberation Front

("The Combahee River Collective Statement") At the very end of the statement, the authors write that they don't believe the ends justifies the means. They don't believe in "messing over people" in the name of politics. They also believe in...

the collective process and nonhierarchical distribution of power

The first European settlers did not identify as white. Instead, they called themselves English, Irish, French, and so forth. Some of them worked side-by-side with enslaved Africans. The process of dividing discontented whites, who were feeling exploited by the ruling elite planters, from enslaved Africans along a color line in order to break up a class-based rebellion is what Martinez calls _____________. These settlers became "white" and were given privileges not reserved for Africans (soon Blacks), such as being allowed to join a militia, carrying guns, acquiring land, etc. Martinez writes, "Thus whiteness was born as a racist concept to prevent lower-class whites from joining a people of color, especially Blacks, against their class enemies" (p.73).

the origins of whiteness

Precious Knowledge, documentary: How did Latino students in the 60's call attention to their inadequate education and mistreatment in schools?

they organized a walkout

Zinn: Upon "encountering" the Arawak people from an island in the region now known as the Bahamas, what did Columbus notice that had dire consequences for the Arawaks?

tiny gold ornaments in their ears

Agents of Change documentary: Why did students start demanding a Black Studies department and soon a College of Ethnic Studies?

to learn about themselves so that they could be full participants in the world

"The Story We Tell": Filipinos resisted U.S. imperialism after the U.S. "took possession" of the Philippines after winning the war with the Spanish in 1898.

true

("Segregated by Design") White middle class families could buy property with no down payments if they were veterans and low-interest mortgages, while middle class African Americans had to make substantial down payments and get uninsured mortgages with higher interest rates. In many cases, African Americans couldn't get mortgages at all because the federal government wouldn't insure them.

true

(Muaddi-Darraj) Although American and western feminists think all Arab Muslim women are oppressed, some Muslim women see no contradiction between Islam and feminism. For example, Palestinian women belonging to a group called Muslim Sisters in the West Bank believed that Islam gave them full rights as women, but that religion was corrupted by men to suit their patriarchal agenda. The author critiques Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiments which makes it difficult for Westerners to understand the desire of an Arab Muslim woman to retain both their religion and sense of feminism.

true

Cortés turned Aztec against Aztec and used deliberate strategy to overthrow the Aztec civilization.

true

In terms of Indigenous governance, decision making was by consensus, not majority rule.

true

The people of the Americas were not "new" in any way. The Indigenous people of the Americas cultivated corn 10,000 years ago, were a part of 3 out 7 of the world's agricultural centers, set up complex irrigation systems, and proliferated due to thousands of years of trade and cultural exchange all across the continents.

true

Zinn notes that African civilization was advanced, including use of technology and iron, large developed urban centers, cultural and artistic achievements, broad streets, and feudal systems that respected tribal life.

true

Chinchilla's poem, "24th and Mission Border Transmission" is about...

violence against women - from SF to the border