Deck 11: Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

Scapegoat theory holds that the most powerful people in a society are the most likely to hold prejudices.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Some "white" people actually have darker skin than some "black" people.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Culture theory states that prejudice remains widespread despite the fact that our culture defines any and all prejudice as wrong.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Being Greek,Italian,or Vietnamese involves a distinct ethnicity.

Question 5

In most cases,race and ethnicity refer to the same thing.

Question 6

All members of a minority category are disadvantaged.

Question 7

Prejudice is a rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people.

Question 8

Scientific research shows that there are three biologically pure races.

Question 9

Ethnicity is harder to change than racial identity.

Question 10

Half of the states in the United States now have a "minority majority."

Question 11

Prejudice and discrimination are found in not just individuals,but in the operation of society's institutions.

Question 12

Sociologically speaking,a minority is any category that is numerically less than half of a society's population.

Question 13

Although based on physical traits like skin color,the concept of "race" is constructed by society.

Question 14

All members of a minority typically share a distinct identity.

Question 15

Theodor Adorno linked extreme prejudice to a certain personality type.

Question 16

Today,more people are willing to define themselves as multiracial.

Question 17

Thomas Sowell demonstrated the importance of culture in shaping the IQ test performance for various categories of the U.S.population.

Question 18

Prejudice and discrimination can be either positive or negative.

Question 19

Discrimination is an unfair belief about an entire category of people.

Question 20

Research with the social distance scale among U.S.college students shows increasing social acceptance of people of various racial and ethnic categories over time.

Question 21

Of all categories of Asian Americans,Japanese Americans have the highest average income.

Question 22

Annual immigration to the United States has remained steady from the 1930s until today.

Question 23

Pluralism is the idea that all people should live with their own kind.

Question 24

Racial segregation has existed,but it has never been legal in the United States.

Question 25

Segregation refers to the physical and social separation of categories of people.

Question 26

Native Americans immigrated to the United States about the time Christopher Columbus came to the Americas.

Question 27

Among Asian Americans,over half of men and women have completed four years of college.

Question 28

Assimilation refers to everyone shedding all their traditions and "melting" into a new population with a new way of life.

Question 29

The largest Hispanic minority,in terms of population,is Cuban Americans.

Question 30

Arab Americans come from more than twenty different nations in Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Question 31

White ethnics are non-WASPs of European ancestry.

Question 32

People of Chinese ancestry were the first Asian Americans to come to the United States and they remain the largest in terms of population.

Question 33

More than one-third of African Americans earn $48,000 or more each year.

Question 34

On average,owning and operating gambling casinos have enabled Native Americans to achieve well above-average income in the United States.

Question 35

The U.S.Supreme Court outlawed slavery in the Dred Scott case of 1857.

Question 36

Prejudice and discrimination can reinforce one another.

Question 37

In the introduction to thisCHAPTER,the story about the sociology class at New York's Bronx Community College suggests

A)race is a simple matter of color.
B)people often confuse "race" and "ethnicity."
C)race is not important to most people in the United States.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 38

WASPs have been the dominant category of the U.S.population through most of this nation's history.

Question 39

Human beings are all members of

A)a single biological species.
B)various species,depending on color.
C)various species,depending on cultural background.
D)various species,depending on where in the world they live.

Question 40

Today's immigrants to the United States are more likely to come from Latin America than from Europe.

Question 41

According to Theodor Adorno's authoritarian personality theory,prejudiced people

A)view society as naturally hierarchical.
B)reject ethnocentrism.
C)do not view actions as either right or wrong.
D)reject all conventional cultural values.

Question 42

Authoritarian personality theory states that extreme prejudice is

A)built into culture itself.
B)a personality trait of certain individuals.
C)found among poor and disadvantaged people.
D)found among most people in all societies.

Question 43

Race refers to _____ considered important by a society;ethnicity refers to _____.

A)cultural traits;biological traits
B)biological traits;cultural traits
C)differences;what we have in common
D)what we have in common;differences

Question 44

A family leaves Russia and takes up residence in the United States,where they gradually lose cultural traditions.Doing so,these people have modified their

A)race.
B)ethnicity.
C)ancestry.
D)religion.

Question 45

Which of the following concepts refers to a shared cultural heritage?

A)race
B)minority
C)ethnicity
D)stereotype

Question 46

In which of the following clusters of states do we find the least racial and ethnic diversity?

A)Texas and New Mexico
B)Maine,Vermont,and New Hampshire
C)North Carolina and South Carolina
D)Ohio,Indiana,and Illinois

Question 47

According to the most recent data,African Americans accounted for about what percentage of the U.S.population?

A)43 percent
B)33 percent
C)23 percent
D)13 percent

Question 48

Typically,people who live in _____ perceive fewer racial categories than people who live in _____.

A)the United States;Brazil
B)Brazil;the United States
C)the Northeast;the Midwest
D)the West;the Northeast

Question 49

Sociologists define the concept of "race" as

A)people who fall into any minority category.
B)a person's skin color.
C)a cultural heritage shared by a category of people.
D)a socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.

Question 50

Based on research using the social distance scale,you can correctly say that U.S.college students today

A)are less prejudiced than students were fifty years ago.
B)see less difference between minority categories than students did fifty years ago.
C)express greater prejudice toward Arabs than African Americans.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 51

Scapegoat theory states that prejudice is created by

A)cultural beliefs.
B)high levels of immigration.
C)frustration among disadvantaged people.
D)people with rigid personalities.

Question 52

You are expressing a "stereotype" if you

A)make any generalization about anyone.
B)apply a simplified description to every person in some category.
C)hold an opinion about someone based on personal experience.
D)treat everybody in an unkind way.

Question 53

Which of the following concepts refers to a category of people,distinguished by physical or cultural traits,who are socially disadvantaged?

A)minority
B)ethnic category
C)racial category
D)out-group

Question 54

Which of the following is the largest minority category within the U.S.population?

A)people of Asian descent
B)people of African descent
C)people of Hispanic descent
D)people of Native American descent

Question 55

In the United States,minorities typically have less

A)income.
B)occupational prestige.
C)schooling.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 56

A minority is defined as a category of people who are

A)small in numbers and disadvantaged.
B)less than half the society's total population.
C)set apart by that society and experience subordination (disadvantage).
D)born in some other country.

Question 57

Thomas Sowell studied the intelligence test scores of various categories of people and concluded that

A)people's culture explains the variation in intelligence test scores.
B)all individuals have the same intelligence.
C)all categories of people have the same average test performance.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 58

Four states currently have a "minority majority." Which are they?

A)Texas,New Mexico,California,and Hawaii
B)South Carolina,New York,Florida,and California
C)New Jersey,Georgia,Mississippi,and California
D)Louisiana,Alabama,Arizona,and California

Question 59

Why do sociologists consider the "scientific" racial types of Caucasian,Mongoloid,and Negroid to be misleading and even harmful?

A)Every society's population contains a lot of genetic mixture.
B)Various racial categories are genetically very much alike.
C)The skin color of Caucasian people ranges from very light to very dark.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 60

Which of the following statements about prejudice is true?

A)Prejudice involves prejudgments.
B)Prejudice treats everyone in some category the same way.
C)Prejudice can be positive or negative.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 61

The overall social standing of Native Americans is

A)above the national average.
B)about the national average.
C)below the national average.
D)mixed,with families found equally at all class levels.

Question 62

Conflict theory states that prejudice is

A)a tool used by powerful people to oppress others.
B)built in to culture itself.
C)common among immigrants.
D)common among certain people with rigid personalities.

Question 63

While prejudice is a matter of _____,discrimination is a matter of _____.

A)biology;culture
B)attitude;action
C)choice;social structure
D)abnormality;what a society considers normal

Question 64

The United States is NOT truly pluralistic because

A)some people live in "ethnic enclaves."
B)many people value ethnic diversity.
C)racial and ethnic categories do not have equal social standing.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 65

The idea that prejudice and discrimination form a vicious circle means that

A)prejudice is more common than actual discrimination.
B)it is easy to prove that most stereotypes are wrong.
C)most people do not act on their prejudices.
D)prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other.

Question 66

The adoption of the English language by Mexican immigrants in the United States is an example of

A)genocide.
B)segregation.
C)assimilation.
D)pluralism.

Question 67

Assimilation refers to the process by which

A)people become more tolerant of minorities.
B)minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant culture.
C)all minority categories become more equal in social standing.
D)people regain their lost cultural heritage.

Question 68

Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton documented which of the following patterns in U.S.inner cities?

A)hypersegregation
B)the absence of racial segregation
C)de jure segregation
D)declining segregation

Question 69

A good example of the culture theory of prejudice is

A)Theodor Adorno's research on prejudiced people.
B)Bogardus's research on social distance.
C)W.I.Thomas's vicious cycle theory.
D)All of these responses are correct.

Question 70

Native Americans gained the right to U.S.citizenship in

A)1865.
B)1924.
C)1965.
D)1990.

Question 71

The Matsui family came to the United States from Japan thirty years ago.They now speak English at home and the Matsui children date non-Japanese students at college.This family's story BEST illustrates which of the following concepts?

A)pluralism
B)segregation
C)assimilation
D)miscegenation

Question 72

Institutional prejudice and discrimination refers to the fact that

A)some people hold rigid and unfair attitudes.
B)bias was less pronounced in this nation's history.
C)bias is built into the operation of social institutions.
D)many people still hold prejudiced opinions.

Question 73

Which of the following concepts refers to the physical and social separation of categories of people?

A)pluralism
B)assimilation
C)segregation
D)miscegenation

Question 74

When the first Europeans arrived in the Americas in the fifteenth century,Native Americans

A)followed shortly thereafter.
B)had migrated to North America from Asia a century before.
C)came with them from Europe.
D)had inhabited this land for 15,000 years.

Question 75

The claim that defining members of some minority as inferior will make them inferior is one application of

A)social distance research.
B)the iron law of oligarchy.
C)the Thomas theorem.
D)authoritarian personality theory.

Question 76

The killing of people in the Darfur region of Africa is a recent example of

A)assimilation.
B)genocide.
C)miscegenation.
D)hypersegregation.

Question 77

The ancestors of which of the following first settled in the Western Hemisphere?

A)WASPs
B)European Americans
C)African Americans
D)Native Americans

Question 78

Which of the following concepts refers to biological reproduction by people of different racial categories?

A)assimilation
B)racial typology
C)pluralism
D)miscegenation

Question 79

Which of the following concepts refers to a state in which racial and ethnic minorities are distinct,but have more or less equal social standing?

A)genocide
B)segregation
C)assimilation
D)pluralism

Question 80

In the United States during the 1930s and 1940s,the existence of the "Negro Leagues," sports teams with all African-American players,is an example of

A)assimilation.
B)segregation.
C)pluralism.
D)miscegenation.