Deck 1: Race in the Twenty-First Century

Question 1

Which of the following developments would give most Americans a good reason to be optimistic regarding race?

A) the Hispanic middle class has grown
B) American Indian nations' effective economic development strategies
C) Asian Americans acquiring positions of influence in politics and business
D) the election of Barack Obama
E) all of these

Answer 1

all of these

Question 2

How many incidents of hate-crime did the FBI tally in 2004?

A) 1,649
B) 3,649
C) 7,649
D) 11,649
E) 24,649

Answer 2

7,649

Question 3

Which of the following offenses are reported as part of hate-crime incidents tallied by the FBI?

A) intimidation
B) destruction of property
C) rape
D) burglary
E) all of these

Answer 3

all of these

Question 4

Which of the following groups of Americans were the poorest in the nation with poverty rates of 25%?

A) African Americans
B) Japanese Americans
C) Armenian Americans
D) Mexican Americans
E) Chinese Americans

Question 5

How many times more likely are African Americans to be incarcerated than whites?

A) two times
B) three times
C) five times
D) six times
E) eight times

Question 6

Which of the following diseases does the textbook use as an example to show that racism is still prevalent in the United States?

A) tuberculosis
B) cancer
C) polio
D) measles
E) smallpox

Question 7

In which of the following areas of everyday life does race play a part?

A) it structures the inner workings of our prisons
B) we witness its effects on our art
C) our intimate relationships are influenced by race
D) in the way we understand our own identities
E) all of these

Question 8

Which of the following sociologists spoke of the importance of history in understanding present-day society? He wrote, "[I]n each one of us, in differing degrees, is contained the person we were yesterday…[T]he present is necessarily insignificant when compared with the long period of the past because of which we have emerged in the form we have today."

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) W.E.B. Dubois
E) Robert Merton

Question 9

While only 25% of white households possess absolutely no net financial assets, what percentage of African American households are in a similar pinch?

A) 21%
B) 31%
C) 41%
D) 51%
E) 61%

Question 10

What is the difference in genetic variation comparing within traditionally defined racial groups and between them?

A) within groups has 8.6 times more variation
B) the variation is equal
C) between groups has 8.6 times more variation
D) within groups has 4.6 times more variation
E) between groups has 5.6 times more variation

Question 11

A social and symbolic hierarchical system of classification and separation that organizes people into rigid groups characterized by inner-group marriage, heredity, lifestyle, and occupation is referred to as a:

A) monarchy.
B) totalitarian system.
C) feudal system.
D) caste system.
E) none of these

Question 12

Which social scientist correctly observed that we "do not perceive racial differences…[but] phenotypical differences of colour, hair form, underlying bone structure and so on"?

A) Emile Durkheim
B) Robert Merton
C) W.E.B. Dubois
D) Michael Banton
E) Talcott Parsons

Question 13

What area do people who believe there are certain races that are naturally different than others often and usually point to as an example?

A) money skills
B) IQ
C) potential for violence
D) manual dexterity
E) potential to apply scientific principles

Question 14

Which of the following characteristics were used to describe Jewish basketball players during the early part of the twentieth century?

A) superior balance
B) greater speed
C) scheming mind
D) flashy trickiness
E) all of these

Question 15

The claims regarding race-based high athletic ability with low cognitive skills is considered a:

A) positive correlation.
B) inverse correlation.
C) negative correlation.
D) double-negative correlation.
E) correlation of equality.

Question 16

When was the intelligence quotient test first developed by Alfred Binet to locate children with special needs?

A) 1965
B) 1942
C) 1932
D) 1917
E) 1905

Question 17

Which of the following was a criticism from intellectuals following the publication of the book The Bell Curve in 1994?

A) IQ cannot be extracted and measured as a single number
B) IQ is genetically based and immutable
C) the authors hid results which contradicted their central claims
D) IQ differences cease to matter once social and historical facts are considered
E) all of these

Question 18

Which of the following is an example of biological determinism demonstrated during the twentieth century?

A) the use of the IQ test after World War I
B) Arthur Jensen's 1969 article emphasizing innate IQ differences between blacks and whites
C) The Bell Curve published in 1994
D) none of these
E) all of these

Question 19

According to Stephen Jay Gould, with which of the following occurrences does biological determinism correlate?

A) episodes of political retrenchment
B) campaigns to reduce government spending on social programs
C) times of fear from ruling elites
D) when disadvantaged groups threaten to usurp power
E) all of these

Question 20

Which great American novelist observed that "Color is not a human or personal reality; it is a political reality"?

A) Jack London
B) James Baldwin
C) Mark Twain
D) F.Scott Fitzgerald
E) Toni Morrison

Question 21

What term do we use to refer to a "symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is misrecognized as a natural category?

A) nationality
B) ethnicity
C) race
D) caste
E) none of these

Question 22

Which of the following terms would be considered a homogenizing heading?

A) Choctaws
B) Iroquois
C) Dakotas
D) Native Americans
E) Crows

Question 23

To say that nothing has improved regarding race in America would be accurate.

Question 24

The number of hate-crime incidents tallied by the FBI is probably an underestimate since this number is only for those incidents reported.

Question 25

More than half of the 80,000 hate crimes the FBI documented between 1995 and 2004 were motivated by racial hatred.

Question 26

Half of whites surveyed believe the average African American and the average white person are equally well-off.

Question 27

Researchers have found that mass incarceration does little to lower crime rates.

Question 28

Twenty-first century patterns of racial stigmatization, exclusion, and repression resemble those of the twentieth century.

Question 29

Today's racism is always obvious.

Question 30

The accruing afflictions or affluence of our mothers and fathers are visited upon us, sons and daughters.

Question 31

Your level of wealth is primarily dictated by the wealth of your parents.

Question 32

Race is a biological concept.

Question 33

As a species, humans have dramatically low levels of genetic variation.

Question 34

Race exists on the genetic level.

Question 35

Dozens of doctors have lost patients for falsely assuming a dying patient is more likely to find a donor among those of the same race.

Question 36

Scientists who have found different distributions of genetic sequences across racial groups provide solid evidence for a genetic foundation of racial variation.

Question 37

In the 1920s and 1930s, basketball was thought of as an African American game.

Question 38

Basketball is traditionally an accessible and inexpensive recreational activity for the inner-city poor.

Question 39

Blacks are naturally superior athletes.

Question 40

After watching Wayne Gretzy, Matt Cullen, or Jagr Jaromir perform their magic on the ice rink, it is safe to conclude that all white people are good at hockey.

Question 41

The idea that IQ was dictated by heredity came to prominence in America at the conclusion of World War I.

Question 42

Biological determinism is an example of good science.

Question 43

A race-based classification system, such as the one used by the U.S. Census Bureau, is referred to as a racial taxonomy.

Question 44

The refusal to recognize race only exacerbates racial inequalities by rendering antiracist programs impossible.

Question 45

Discuss why U.S. naturalization rates differ from those of Canada. What consequences do you feel might occur in the future if these rates continue to differ?

Question 46

Provide an example of symbolic violence communicated through media against Americans of color.

Question 47

Choose three examples from your own life as examples of the unspoken "normalcy"of white culture that you confront on a daily basis.

Question 48

Define the sociological imagination and provide "The Three R's"your textbook's authors feel are crucial to developing a keen sociological imagination. Provide one example for each of the three R's.

Question 49

Discuss the ways perceived physical differences, athletic ability, and IQ scores play into the concept of biological determinism. Provide concrete examples for each and don't forget to also define biological determinism within your answer.

Question 50

Define both ethnicity and nationality. Discuss in what ways these two concepts can connect within our day to day lives and sense of identity.

Question 51

Discuss the interplay between phenotype, ancestry, and the social and historical contexts of race in the United States. Include your own family's experience as an example where appropriate.

Question 52

Define and provide an example for each of the five fallacies regarding race. Which of the five do you feel you or your family have committed most often?

Question 53

Compare and contrast institutional racism with interpersonal racism. What role does symbolic violence play within these types of racism?

Question 54

Explain the concepts of white privilege, color-blindness, and white antiracists. What role does Charles Sumner and Bill Moore play when discussing these concepts?