Deck 1: Why Race, Class, and Gender Still Matter

Question 1

From the author's viewpoint, which "assault with intent to hurt" caused the most lasting damage to its intended victim?

A) the spraying of mace
B) the hurling of the quarter
C) the use of racial labels
D) the court proceedings

Answer 1

C

Question 2

In Lorde's article, she argues that the need for unity is often misrepresented as a need for_____.

A) oppression
B) equality
C) homogeneity
D) heterogeneity

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Hawaiian language shows possession in two ways: through the use of an "a" possessive, which indicates_____, and through the use of an "o" possessive, which denotes_____.

A) civilized status; less developed status
B) inherent status; acquired status
C) acquired status; inherent status
D) less developed status; civilized status

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Lorde says that_____is the most economical art form.

A) painting
B) photography
C) poetry
D) prose

Question 5

According to the article, the first step in the colonizing process is_____.

A) learning the native language of the people
B) the deculturation of a people
C) infanticide
D) assimilation of the colonizers to the native culture

Question 6

What excuses are often used as to why literature by women of Color is often NOT taught in college classes?

A) They can only be taught by women of Color
B) They are too difficult to understand
C) The experiences presented are "too different"
D) All of these choices are correct

Question 7

According to Lorde, we tend to speak not of human difference, but human_____.

A) aggression
B) frustration
C) similarity
D) deviance

Question 8

According to Lorde,_____are tricked into joining the oppressor by believing they can share power.

A) White women
B) Black women
C) Jewish women
D) Hispanic women

Question 9

According to Hawley and Flint, the_____caricature is harmful because it both dehumanizes and suggests that, even as a spiritual being, a Black person's purpose is to serve White people.

A) "Bold Brother"
B) "Noble Savage"
C) "Magical Negro"
D) "Sorrowful Sister"

Question 10

What hurt Carlos more than the mace or the night he spent in the juvenile detention center?

A) racist labels
B) a police beating
C) the reactions of his parents
D) his conscience

Question 11

According to the author, what made the incident at the traffic light racist?

A) the angry gestures of the white passenger
B) the fact that the author and his friends were Filipino
C) the use of mace
D) the particular labels the white men used to describe Carlos and his friend

Question 12

Trask would argue that historians have engaged in_____thinking, by judging Hawaiian culture to the standards of their own culture.

A) feudalistic
B) civilized
C) ethnocentric
D) possessive

Question 13

What kind of racism does the author identify as most prominent in this story?

A) covert
B) institutionalized
C) overt
D) structural

Question 14

After high school Carlos_____.

A) became a career criminal
B) went to college at Berkeley
C) attacked the white men who had maced him
D) we don't know from the article what he did

Question 15

By claiming that Hawaiians lived under feudalism, Whites_____.

A) alienated the Hawaiian people from the land
B) instituted land tenure changes in line with current notions of private property
C) degraded a successful system of shared land use
D) all of these answers are correct

Question 16

According to Hawley and Flint,_____depictions of Black masculinity have been used to justify state-sanctioned violence against Black men and boys.

A) alternative
B) animalistic
C) anatomical
D) anachronistic

Question 17

Historians claim that Hawaiian land tenure was based on "feudalism." Trask would argue that the historians' claims are_____.

Question 18

According to Hawley and Flint, Black boys and youth become targets of violence because they are_____.

A) less mature than their White peers
B) more likely than White peers to own firearms
C) less likely than White peers to be viewed as children
D) more likely than White peers to practice traditional spirituality

Question 19

The author tried to channel his anger by_____.

A) writing about it
B) fighting back with violence
C) hating white people
D) dropping out of school and joining a gang

Question 20

The author believes the police questioned him and Carlos about possible gang membership because_____.

A) the police thought the white men who attacked Carlos and his friend might have been in a gang
B) the police saw gang insignias tattooed on the boys' bodies
C) among the hundreds of thousands of Filipino youth living in Palo Alto at that time many thousands were known to be in gangs
D) the police made a racist assumption that young Asian men are likely to be gang members

Question 21

As trauma chaplains, Hawley and Flint have observed that_____.

A) Black pain and grief often go unrecognized and unacknowledged in hospitals
B) Black men are stoic patients who do not wish to receive chaplaincy services
C) Black health care is at least as effective as that received by White Americans
D) health care workers stereotype Black patients as more susceptible to pain

Question 22

Briefly summarize what Trask meant when she wrote: "I was reading the West's view of itself through the degradation of my own past." Provide at least three examples that she uses to base this conclusion.

Question 23

What examples of the "Magical Negro" portrayal can you think of in films or literature? How can depicting a black man as having supernatural power or primordial goodness be harmful?

Question 24

How do the killings of Michael Brown, Emmett Till, and Tamir Rice illustrate the importance of understanding race, gender, and age as intersecting systems of power and domination?

Question 25

How does Audre Lorde perceive the intersection between being Black and a lesbian? What are solutions proposed?

Question 26

How do Hawley and Flint connect Darren Wilson's grand jury testimony to historic justifications for Black enslavement? What underlying message about Black men do these have in common?

Question 27

Hawley and Flint argue that when Black male bodies are constructed in the American psyche as problems to be solved, they_____.

A) become invisible
B) invite violence
C) represent spirituality
D) inspire justice

Question 28

What are the reasons argued that literature by women of Color is not taught in college classes? What do you think could be some solutions to make it possible?

Question 29

Discuss the choices that Jeremiah and Carlos made in dealing with their anger, and compare the consequences of their different choices.

Question 30

How did the land tenure changes instituted by Westerners affect Hawaiians?

Question 31

We see in this story several angry young men. Discuss how each man handles his anger. What does each man do? What are the consequences of how each man deals with his angry feelings? How is race related to the consequences each man gets for the way he handled his anger in this true story?

Question 32

Discuss the reaction of police officers after the men were maced. Consider any differences that might have been evident in their reactions if Jeremiah and Carlos had sprayed mace in to the faces of the white men, instead of being the ones attacked with mace. Would the police officers likely have asked if the white men were gang members? Would they still have considered the possibility that the Filipino men were gang members? What evidence do you find in this story to support your answer?

Question 33

Why did the author call the incident he relates "the most painful and shocking event" of his life? Discuss why it was so painful. Consider what made it shocking to him.

Question 34

Is the failure of historians to learn the Hawaiian language the result of ignorance or ethnocentric bias? Please explain your answer.

Question 35

Why is language so important to understanding a people's culture and heritage?

Question 36

What are differences discussed by Lorde that are faced by White women when compared to women of Color?

Question 37

What does Lorde argue as being the importance of poetry? How is it seen as a different art form?