Deck 2: Roots: Making Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

What do you think has been the ongoing historical influence of the rise of merchant capitalism in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

Answer 1

The rise of merchant capitalism in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had a significant and ongoing historical influence on the country and beyond. This period saw the emergence of a new economic system based on trade, investment, and the accumulation of wealth, which had a profound impact on the development of England as a global economic power.

One of the most significant influences of merchant capitalism was the transformation of England's economy from a predominantly agrarian society to one driven by commerce and industry. This shift led to the growth of urban centers, the expansion of trade networks, and the development of new industries, laying the foundation for the Industrial Revolution in the following centuries.

The rise of merchant capitalism also had a profound impact on the political and social structure of England. The wealth and influence amassed by merchant capitalists challenged the traditional power of the aristocracy and monarchy, leading to shifts in political power and the eventual rise of parliamentary democracy. Additionally, the growth of a merchant class created new opportunities for social mobility and the accumulation of wealth, leading to changes in social hierarchies and the emergence of a more fluid class system.

Furthermore, the influence of merchant capitalism extended beyond England, as the country became a dominant force in global trade and colonial expansion. The wealth generated by merchant capitalists fueled England's imperial ambitions, leading to the establishment of colonies and trading posts around the world, which in turn had a lasting impact on global economic and political systems.

In conclusion, the rise of merchant capitalism in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had a far-reaching and ongoing historical influence, shaping the country's economy, politics, and global influence for centuries to come.

Question 2

In what ways can we see the legacy of the possessive individualism of seventeenth-century England in the current economic system in the United States?

Answer 2

The legacy of possessive individualism from seventeenth-century England can be seen in the current economic system in the United States in several ways.

First, the emphasis on individual rights and property ownership that emerged during this time period has influenced the development of capitalism in the United States. The idea that individuals have the right to accumulate and own private property has shaped the economic system, leading to a focus on free market principles and the protection of private property rights.

Additionally, the legacy of possessive individualism can be seen in the unequal distribution of wealth and resources in the United States. The emphasis on individual accumulation of wealth has led to a system where a small percentage of the population holds a disproportionate amount of wealth and power, while many others struggle to make ends meet.

Furthermore, the idea of possessive individualism has also influenced the cultural and social attitudes towards success and achievement in the United States. The emphasis on individualism and self-reliance has led to a culture that values personal success and achievement, often at the expense of collective well-being and social equality.

Overall, the legacy of possessive individualism from seventeenth-century England has left a lasting impact on the current economic system in the United States, shaping attitudes towards property ownership, wealth distribution, and individual success.

Question 3

The term "savage" has been applied to different groups of people at various points in history. How does this term connect to issues of power and identity? What other contemporary terms or worldviews can you think of that invoke the same principle implied in the term "savage?"

Answer 3

The term "savage" has a long history of being used to describe indigenous or non-Western peoples in a derogatory manner. This term has often been used by colonial powers to justify their domination and exploitation of these groups. By labeling them as "savage," it was easier for colonizers to dehumanize and subjugate these populations, as it reinforced the idea that they were inferior and in need of civilization.

The term "savage" is deeply connected to issues of power and identity. It reflects the power dynamics at play in colonial and imperialist systems, where the dominant group seeks to assert its superiority over others. It also speaks to the construction of identity, as the label of "savage" is used to define and categorize certain groups as "other" or outside of the norm.

In contemporary times, similar principles are invoked in terms such as "barbaric," "uncivilized," or "primitive." These terms are often used to marginalize and oppress certain groups, reinforcing power imbalances and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Additionally, worldviews that invoke similar principles include ethnocentrism, cultural imperialism, and orientalism, all of which serve to uphold the dominance of certain cultures and marginalize others.

Overall, the use of the term "savage" and its contemporary counterparts reflects the ongoing struggle for power and the construction of identity, and serves as a reminder of the need to challenge and dismantle these harmful narratives.

Question 4

Feagin discusses the "slavery-centered economic complex" in which a large number of whites in all the colonies worked in occupations that were either linked directly or indirectly to the slavery system, thus benefitting economically in one way or the other. What is an example of a contemporary version of this complex? How does U.S. society still engage in these systems of inequality?

Question 5

As Dikötter states, "racist belief systems, like all belief systems, are always linked up with issues of power and prestige." Think of an example of another belief system and describe how it is connected to power and prestige. What are the alternatives to this belief system?

Question 6

The rise of merchant capitalism in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fostered values of individualism, absolute private property, and the unrestrained accumulation of wealth. Do you think it's possible to have a capitalist economic system that does not embrace these values? What would that look like?

Question 7

Smelding and Smelding state that "English ideologies about individualism and accumulation of property guided their assault on foreign lands and their treatment of the indigenous peoples of the New World." Give some examples of what the authors mean by this statement.

Question 8

Describe the differences between English and Irish cultural values about land and property. How did these differences create conflict? Can you think of a contemporary example of differences in cultural values creating conflict between groups of people?

Question 9

Share an example of a time that you observed the process of "frame assumption" in conversations with classmates, family, peers, or strangers.

Question 10

Dikötter describes three common explanations of the global dimensions of racism. Briefly describe and provide one contemporary example of each of these. What is lacking in these explanations?

Question 11

Which of the following was NOT one of the economic changes that took place in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

A) Rise of free wage labor
B) Decline of free wage labor
C) Separation of labor from the land
D) Transformation of land and labor into commodities

Question 12

Which term best describes the attitude and relationship between the English and the Irish during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

A) Assimilation
B) Respect
C) Ethnocentrism
D) Mutuality

Question 13

What does the term "pater" mean?

A) A social father
B) A biological father
C) A social mother
D) A biological mother

Question 14

When did the global theft of Native American and African labor by state-sanctioned capitalistic enterprises end?

A) After the first century of European wealth generation
B) After slavery in the United States ended
C) It never started.
D) It hasn't ended-it continues into the present day.

Question 15

Feagin critiques Marxist analysts and other critical analysts for ignoring or downplaying which of the following aspects of European colonialization?

A) Economic
B) Racist
C) Moral
D) Political

Question 16

The ethic that it is the right and duty of whites to expand wherever they needed to increase their prosperity, no matter the cost to those killed, displaced, or exploited in the process, is called

A) Manifest destiny
B) Manifest ownership
C) Latent destiny
D) Latent ownership

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT one of the components of racial capital?

A) Economic capital
B) Equal opportunity
C) Social status
D) Social networking

Question 18

Shared assumptions, understandings, and inclinations produce

A) Symbolic capital
B) Economic capital
C) Human capital
D) Social mobility

Question 19

At the time of the writing of the U.S. Constitution, what percentage of the population was enslaved?

A) 5%
B) 10%
C) 20%
D) 50%

Question 20

Which Supreme Court case resulted in a ruling that black Americans were "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race"?

A) Brown v. Board of Education
B) Roe v. Wade
C) Dred Scott v. Sandford
D) Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 21

Which demographic group created the first Jim Crow segregation laws and customs that excluded African Americans from schools, juries, and voting?

A) Southern whites
B) New England whites
C) Western whites
D) We do not know.

Question 22

Political systems have historically always been based on strict hierarchy, but it wasn't until the end of the eighteenth century that these systems invoked the notion of

A) Religion
B) Kinship
C) Language
D) Race

Question 23

Global racism shares a language grounded in

A) Culture
B) Theory
C) Science
D) Relativism

Question 24

Although racism has become global, it is not

A) Persistent
B) Uniform
C) Prevalent
D) Relevant

Question 25

Which process began in fifteenth-century England and resulted in the transformation of what were once communal lands, forests, and medians in English villages to private property held by landowners to produce commodities?

A) Enclosure movement
B) Eminent domain
C) Communal ownership
D) Socialism

Question 26

Describe the economic changes that took place in sixteenth- and seventeenth- century England and explain the impact of these changes.

Question 27

Explain how the accumulation of private wealth became a dominant cultural value in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and discuss how this economic change impacted social inequality.

Question 28

Feagin argues that modern societies' characteristics of industrialization and technology, market economies, national governments, and complex bureaucratization played a major role in the genocide and land and labor theft of the colonialism of European countries. Provide examples of how these processes played out.

Question 29

Feagin discusses the "bureaucratization of oppression." Explain what he means by this term, discuss the historical context, and provide an example of it.

Question 30

Describe what the social reproduction of racial hierarchy means and discuss how this process is embedded in the fabric of the United States.

Question 31

Hansen discusses the fact that citizenship is malleable. Is that how U.S. society typically portrays citizenship? What impact do you think a more flexible understanding of citizenship would have on immigrant debates in the U.S.?

Question 32

Sánchez argues that one factor limiting the spread of Mexican nationalism was racial diversity. Explain what is meant by this statement. Why do you think that is the case? How might these dynamics differ in a more racially homogenous society?

Question 33

How do contemporary debates about immigrant and border patrol between the U.S. and Mexico account for the historical context of where this border was located? How do you think current debates would be changed if this history was more readily acknowledged?

Question 34

Hansen discusses the complexity of immigration in Europe and ultimately emphasizes that "Europe needs immigrants." Why is this the case? Do you think this is true of the United States as well? If so, what impact does this have on U.S. immigration policy?

Question 35

How do you think global economic, political, and social changes impacted the shifting nature of the relationship and attitudes between Japanese immigrants and Brazilians?

Question 36

What are the implications of understanding ethnic identity as dynamic? Can you think of an example of a person or group of people whose ethnic identity has shifted?

Question 37

Discuss how Europe's history of immigration is both similar to and different from the history of immigration in the U.S.

Question 38

Which of Hansen's policy suggestions about European immigration do you think is most helpful? Think of an additional policy suggestion and discuss the pros and cons of that policy.

Question 39

When faced with discriminatory treatment by majority society, immigrant minority groups can respond in two different ways. Describe each of these ways and think of an example that is different from the example offered in the textbook. Can you think of examples of other immigrant minority groups responding to discrimination in these ways?

Question 40

Discuss how xenophobia impacted the experiences of Japanese immigrants in Brazil. Can you think of examples of other immigrant groups in other countries who have been impacted by xenophobia?

Question 41

The circumstances within migrants' home countries that influenced them to leave are called

A) Pull factors
B) Push factors
C) Context of reception
D) Context of resettlement

Question 42

The economic, social, and historical contexts that led migrants into specific host countries are called

A) Pull factors
B) Push factors
C) Context of departure
D) Context of resettlement

Question 43

The idea that the attitude of toughness within machismo is actually a façade that masks a more pronounced sense of powerlessness is called

A) Habitus
B) Social control
C) Undermined patriarchy
D) Feminism

Question 44

During the Porfirian and revolution periods, the vast majority of Mexicans made which of the following decisions in order to improve their family's situation?

A) Migrate to the U.S.
B) Migrate to Europe
C) Migrate to Mexican cities and larger towns
D) Migrate to Mexican farmland and rural areas

Question 45

Mexican families migrating to the U.S. typically follow a pattern of

A) Chain migration
B) Circular migration
C) Distinct migration
D) Permanent migration

Question 46

By 1980, labor shortages and guest-worker programs had led to a core of non-white settlement in Europe. Which processes locked in this population and increased its size?

A) Family reunification only
B) Higher birth rates only
C) Family reunification and higher birth rates
D) Neither family reunification nor higher birth rates

Question 47

The default position of public opinion about immigration across Europe is

A) Different in all European countries
B) Anti-immigrant
C) Pro-immigrant
D) Neutral on the issue of immigration

Question 48

Which of the following factors led Brazil to actively recruit immigrant labor during the beginning of the twentieth century?

A) Rapidly expanding coffee plantation industry
B) Desire to promote racial diversity
C) Rapidly expanding technology industry
D) Desire to promote ethnic diversity

Question 49

Which of the following processes did Japanese officials engage in to promote the long-term settlement of Japanese immigrants in Brazil?

A) Language training for immigrants
B) Purchasing land that immigrants could settle
C) Cultural education programs for immigrants
D) None-there was no specific effort on the part of Japan to promote settlement

Question 50

The Diaz administration in Mexico followed a land policy which encouraged the growth of

A) Large haciendas
B) Small farmers
C) Communally owned land
D) Family-run farms

Question 51

The national railroad system in Mexico resulted in

A) Reduction in land prices
B) Driving up of land prices
C) Decreased concentration of land among the hacendados
D) Improvements in the ability of small landowners to maintain their land

Question 52

European families migrating to the U.S. typically follow a pattern of

A) Chain migration
B) Circular migration
C) Distinct migration
D) Surplus migration

Question 53

Which part of Mexico had higher wages and drew workers to it during the end of the nineteenth century?

A) North
B) South
C) East
D) West

Question 54

Which of the following is NOT one of the three steps in the historical migration chain that shaped Europe's current immigration dynamics?

A) Arrival of guest-worker/colonial migrants
B) Arrival of the families of guest-worker/colonial migrants
C) Post-1980 surge in asylum seekers
D) The European public's overwhelming support of immigrants

Question 55

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Japanese government was actively promoting emigration to the Americas for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A) Alleviate its surplus rural population
B) Increase the size of its rural population
C) Declining agricultural prices in rural areas
D) Increasing unemployment in rural areas

Question 56

Explain how the demand for labor created by the expansion of southwestern U.S. industry and changes in U.S. immigration laws impacted Mexican immigration during the early twentieth century.

Question 57

Discuss the variety of ways that the development of the national railroad system in Mexico impacted the country.

Question 58

Describe the difference between the initial idea behind the guest-worker program in Germany and the long-term impact this policy ultimately had.

Question 59

Hansen discusses three steps in a historical migration chain that have created the current situation of immigration in Europe. Describe each of these steps and discuss the historical and contemporary significance of each.

Question 60

Describe the ways in which Japanese immigrants to Brazil undertook the process of "nationalization of ethnic identity."

Question 61

Why do you think Fredrickson differentiates between racism and culturalism? What is important about this distinction? Is there anything you would add to his discussion of the differences between these two concepts?

Question 62

What do you think are the pros and cons of promoting multiculturalism? How might promoting multiculturalism benefit society, and how might it actually be problematic?

Question 63

Telles and Bailey conducted an empirical analysis of stratification beliefs across eight Latin American countries. What are the strengths of their research? What are the weaknesses in their methodology?

Question 64

Why do you think whites and minorities in the U.S. generally have very different stratification beliefs?

Question 65

If you were to write a recommendation about how race and science should or should not be connected, what would your recommendation be? What are the pros and cons of this approach?

Question 66

Discuss what Fredrickson refers to as the "illusion of nonracism." What are some contemporary examples of this?

Question 67

Describe what makes Western racism so autonomous and conspicuous in world history. Why did Western racism develop in this way?

Question 68

Can you think of examples of people in your life who hold a structuralist account of stratification? What kinds of things do they say or do that demonstrate this? Now can you think of examples of people in your life who hold an individualist account of stratification? What kinds of things do they say or do that demonstrate this?

Question 69

Give an example of a time that you have observed scientific research that relies on racial categories.

Question 70

Discuss the problem of a binary, either/or approach to viewing race as either a scientific classification or as only a social construction.

Question 71

What term was invested by the ancient Greeks to describe a reflexive feeling of hostility to the stranger or Other?

A) Ethnocentrism
B) Xenophobia
C) Nationalism
D) Cultural relativism

Question 72

Which two components constitute Fredrickson's conception of racism?

A) Difference and power
B) Difference and equality
C) Power and equality
D) Discrimination and inequality

Question 73

Which region of the world has the highest level of income inequality among world regions?

A) North America
B) Latin America
C) Asia
D) Europe

Question 74

Which term describes the Latin American national projects of racial and cultural mixing?

A) Ejidos
B) Issei
C) Mestizaje
D) Zapatista

Question 75

Someone who focuses on a lack of motivation or cultural deficiencies as an explanation for inequality holds which type of stratification belief?

A) Structuralist
B) Institutional
C) Systemic
D) Individualist

Question 76

The majority of Latin Americans in the countries studied by Telles and Bailey hold which stratification belief regarding minority disadvantage?

A) Structuralist
B) Cultural
C) Individualist
D) Personal

Question 77

The majority of whites in the United States hold which stratification belief regarding minority disadvantage?

A) Structuralist
B) Institutional
C) Individualist
D) Systemic

Question 78

Which of the following is now a scientific fact?

A) There is more genetic variation within most current common socially used categories of race than between them.
B) There is more genetic variation between most current common socially used categories of race than within them.
C) There are equal amounts of genetic variation both within and between most current common socially used categories of race.
D) The current common socially used categories of race are the correct categories.

Question 79

What did the Allotment Act of 1887 legislate?

A) Denied land rights to Native Americans who were "less than half-blood"
B) Denied land rights to Native Americans who were "less than full-blood"
C) Denied land rights to all Native Americans
D) Allotted land rights to all Native Americans

Question 80

The racist regime in South Africa that banned marriage and sexual relations between different population groups and required separate residential areas for people of mixed race and Africans is called

A) Mestizaje
B) Apartheid
C) Integration
D) Jim Crow