Deck 5: Housing

Question 1

What was the function of the Mexican Repatriation Programs?

A) a policy to formally approve U.S. citizenship for Mexican immigrants
B) a program by the U.S. government to promote immigration from Mexico
C) a program where thousands of Mexican families were rounded up and sent by train back to Mexico
D) a work for education program where adult workers in the United States could earn education credits for their children
E) none of these

Answer 1

a program where thousands of Mexican families were rounded up and sent by train back to Mexico

Question 2

What events during the early portion of the twentieth century in the United States are referred to as the "Great Migration"?

A) a large influx of Chinese immigrants from San Francisco to Los Angeles
B) movement of African Americans from southern to northern U.S. cities
C) a large portion of Jewish Americans moving into suburbs around major cities
D) movement of Mexicans into border towns in southern Texas
E) none of these

Answer 2

movement of African Americans from southern to northern U.S. cities

Question 3

In 1951, what percentage of new homes constructed in the city of Detroit were open to nonwhites?

A) 50%
B) 35%
C) 25%
D) 15%
E) 1%

Answer 3

1%

Question 4

Between 1934 and 1962, the FHA and Veterans Administration financed more than $120 billion worth of new housing; what percentage of this real estate was available to nonwhite families?

A) 2%
B) 15%
C) 32%
D) 55%
E) 72%

Question 5

What term is used to refer to the practice of drawing a border around nonwhite neighborhoods on a city map and designating them as too risky for loans or subsidies?

A) covenants
B) colonias
C) redlining
D) gentrification
E) marginality

Question 6

Razing entire nonwhite neighborhoods by the U.S. government for the purpose of building and profiting for another group or individual is officially referred to as:

A) infrastructure.
B) repatriation.
C) gentrification.
D) urban renewal.
E) none of these

Question 7

During urban renewal projects in the mid-twentieth century, slum dwellers that were displaced did which of the following?

A) moved into better apartments via government help
B) found jobs with the help of shelters and government aid
C) received better apartment buildings through the renewal effort
D) found construction jobs helping to build newer, better homes
E) moved to other racial slums, worsening the already poor living conditions

Question 8

When some nonwhite families began moving out of slum areas and into neighborhoods traditionally reserved for white people thanks to the Civil Rights Movement, many whites thought:

A) nonwhites would bring drugs into their neighborhoods
B) nonwhites would bring sexual immorality to their neighborhoods
C) nonwhites would bring crime into their neighborhoods
D) nonwhites would cause property values to plummet
E) all of these

Question 9

White flight, spurred on by deindustrialization, began when?

A) 1930s
B) 1940s
C) 1950s
D) 1960s
E) 1970s

Question 10

Which one of the following was a tactic utilized under the broad category of "white fight"?

A) intimidation tactics
B) protests against nonwhites
C) violence against nonwhite families
D) erecting neighborhood homeowner associations
E) all of these

Question 11

Which of the following is a practice used by realtors to discriminate against nonwhite potential homebuyers?

A) the apartment or home featured in advertisement had "just been sold"
B) only shown a little over half of homes out of every 100 shown to whites
C) steer buyers away from homes in majority white neighborhoods
D) advertise homes in nonwhite areas at much lower costs than white neighborhoods
E) all of these

Question 12

On average, black and Hispanic individuals who look for housing end up paying how much ofa "discrimination tax"on top of the purchase price when all tools of discrimination are added up?

A) $52
B) $117
C) $350
D) $1,692
E) $3,000

Question 13

Roughly how much of all property tax revenue is used for public elementary and secondary education?

A) about ten percent
B) about one-quarter
C) about half
D) about three-quarters
E) all

Question 14

While we like to think that all school children need only worry about studying hard and getting good grades, many students in racially isolated neighborhoods must first deal with which of the following before attempting high scholastic achievement?

A) staying personally safe and healthy for themselves and family
B) avoiding street crime
C) avoiding involvement with street gangs
D) navigating the drug scene
E) all of these

Question 15

Which of the following believes that new immigrants self-segregate in enclaves and rely on the enclave economy for their start?

A) spatial assimilation thesis
B) ethnic community thesis
C) racial segregationist theory
D) gentrification
E) none of these

Question 16

Which of the following believes immigrants seek out ethnic enclaves so they can live near others who enjoy the same language, holidays, food, and culture even though they could live somewhere else?

A) spatial assimilation thesis
B) ethnic community thesis
C) racial segregationist theory
D) gentrification
E) none of these

Question 17

Which group does your textbook mention as having filled the niche left open by former Jewish shopkeepers, especially in the black ghetto?

A) African Americans
B) Iranians
C) Koreans
D) Mexicans
E) Italians

Question 18

Which of the following refers to the process of affluent individuals moving into an area populated by poorer residents and raising property values and taxes and the original residents can no longer afford to live there?

A) spatial assimilation thesis
B) ethnic community thesis
C) racial segregationist theory
D) gentrification
E) none of these

Question 19

Which of the following is a social mechanism driving the process of gentrification?

A) the steady course of the housing market
B) campaigns to lure people out to the suburbs
C) change in dynamics of racial segregation
D) living in the city viewed not as a culturally significant part of one's life
E) all of these

Question 20

Which of the following is the defining characteristic of the ghetto in the United States?

A) amputation from America's economic prosperity
B) amputation from America's national security
C) amputation from America's collective imagination and memory
D) amputation from America's welfare state services
E) all of these

Question 21

Development of suburbs was fueled by which of the following?

A) desire for racial integration
B) increase in inner-city property values
C) fear of violent crime
D) a desire to live next to a mall
E) desire to build interracial utopia

Question 22

The term "settled America"is an appropriate term to refer to the country's beginnings as an empty landmass waiting to be settled and developed.

Question 23

The United States was more racially segregated at the conclusion of the Civil War than it is today.

Question 24

The rise of industrialization attracted thousands of people including immigrants, whites, Asians, and blacks to large cities.

Question 25

By the 1920s, immigrants living in Little Italy, Hungarian town, and the Norwegian village were considered nonwhite and outside the mainstream.

Question 26

During the early portions of the twentieth century, the U.S. government endorsed Mexican migration and factory employers actively recruited Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants.

Question 27

By the end of the 1930s, roughly 2 million people of Mexican heritage were forcibly removed from the United States by the U.S. government.

Question 28

By 1990, more than 60% of American Indians were residing in cities instead of reservations.

Question 29

Between 1953 and 1973, over one hundred tribes were terminated by state governments after the federal government relinquished responsibilities to Indian country.

Question 30

The North's antislavery sentiments during the Civil War translated into pro-integrationist feelings after the Confederacy fell.

Question 31

Tensions between blacks and whites heated up, at times exploding into racial uprisings during the first half of the twentieth century.

Question 32

Covenants were once included in property deeds to restrict ownership to certain religious and racial groups; thankfully they are no longer used today.

Question 33

Some citizens viewed highway development through cities and towns as "a handy device for razing slums."

Question 34

It can broadly be said that whites reacted to the racial integration of their neighborhoods by either fleeing or fighting.

Question 35

Youth played a key role in upholding white supremacy through neighborhood-based violence.

Question 36

Compared to other whites, those belonging to Jewish communities were far less likely actively to resist nonwhite "intrusion."

Question 37

Today, most Americans live in racially segregated neighborhoods.

Question 38

Blacks are twice as likely to be isolated from other racial groups.

Question 39

Dark-skinned Hispanics and light-skinned Hispanics are evenly segregated according to researchers.

Question 40

All racial segregation can be explained by economic inequalities.

Question 41

The most affluent of African Americans are more segregated than the poorest Hispanics in the United States.

Question 42

African Americans are strong proponents of segregation while whites are advocates of integration.

Question 43

Sociology teaches us that personal choice does not exist in a vacuum somehow unaffected by historical and social forces.

Question 44

Explain how Pierre Bourdieu's quotes "objective divisions of the social world"and "the principles of vision and division that agents apply to them"apply to our discussion of race and housing in this chapter.

Question 45

Explain what the authors of the Kerner Commission meant in their 1968 report on race riots when they wrote, "…white institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it."

Question 46

Answer the question posed by your textbook: should the residents of Skull Valley reservation take thedeal proposed by Private Fuel Storage? In addition, answer the sociological question: what past and present economic, social, and political forces combined to produce this deal in the first place?

Question 47

Define the term "environmental racism"and explain who benefits from it. Be sure to provide specific details from your own personal experience.

Question 48

Explain how the concepts Mexican Repatriation Program, tribal termination, and the Great Migration fit into the broader events of industrialization and the Great Depression.

Question 49

Define and discuss the specifics surrounding "white fight"and "white flight."Include any personal experiences applicable as support for your definitions.

Question 50

Define the spatial assimilation thesis and the ethnic community thesis. If you were (or have been) in the situation of an immigrant, which of the theses would your experience have fallen into? Why?

Question 51

Define the term "gentrification."Explain how some would see it as a positive in a community while others a negative. Have you personally experienced or participated in gentrification? If so, use this experience to support your answer.

Question 52

Explain how the term "advanced marginality"plays into the reality of the ghetto in the United States. Discuss the importance "collective imagination and memory"has for eliminating the ghetto in the future of our society.

Question 53

Define gated communities. Discuss what purpose a gated community serves in contemporary society. If you have personal experiences living or visiting a gated community, use it to support your discussion. Does distance from neighboring communities have any bearing on whether a gate is needed or not?