Deck 7: White Privileges and Black Burdens: Still Systemic Racism

Question 1

Karyn McKinney has collected racial autobiographies from white college students. Her autobiographies specifically reveal:

A) most of these whites do not understand their white racial privileges.
B) most of these whites do understand their white racial privileges.
C) most of these whites have significant equal-status contacts with people of color.
D) most of these whites' reject individualistic, cognitive, and/or non-systemic interpretation of racial issues.
E) most of these whites reveal a positive orientation to whites as virtuous and superior.

Answer 1

most of these whites do not understand their white racial privileges.

Question 2

Researchers asked groups of white college students to write an essay about the ways in which they had been privileged or had been disadvantaged because they were white. Which of the following did the researchers find?

A) White respondents who wrote about their racial privileges later scored higher on a modern-racism scale with anti-black items than did those respondents who did not write about their racial privileges.
B) When whites had to consider racial privilege and inequality, most justified their privileged status by denying the existence of discrimination.
C) When whites had to consider racial privilege and inequality, most justified their privileged status by accenting the white racial frame's anti-black stereotypes.
D) All the above

Answer 2

All the above

Question 3

Systemic racism ensures whites _________ than people of color.

A) greater resources
B) a wider range of personal choice
C) more power
D) more self-esteem
E) All the above

Answer 3

All the above

Question 4

___________ occurs when one person is enriched at the expense of another in circumstances that the law sees as unfair.

A) Unjust enrichment
B) The law of restitution
C) Biased endowment
D) Inequitable enhancement
E) Unjustified embellishment

Question 5

Researcher Randolph Hohle has shown that since the 1960s civil rights movement, elite whites have joined a traditional white racial framing of black Americans with:

A) a neoliberal philosophy that is inherently white supremacist in its foundation.
B) a reinvigorated capitalistic framing that emphasizes privatization and the language of free-market fundamentalism.
C) deracialized and depoliticized policies on interethnic community relations.
D) neoliberal racism that promotes competition between black Americans and other people of color.
E) a far-right scapegoating of black Americans.

Question 6

The _________________ created many billions of dollars of wealth for white homesteaders and their descendants, with the latter often benefiting to the present day.

A) Bounty Land Act
B) Donation Land Claim Act
C) federal homestead program
D) Harrison Land Act
E) Land Ordinance Act

Question 7

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, white European newcomers were able to move up the economic ladder because:

A) most arrived when the economy was expanding greatly and jobs were relatively abundant.
B) many had some skills or money resources.
C) most faced much less discrimination than black urbanites.
D) All the above

Question 8

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, white European newcomers were able to move up the economic ladder because:

A) they were not excluded from residential areas near workplaces as black urbanites often were.
B) cities were then increasingly under control of white political machines oriented to white immigrant voters.
C) many had some skills or money resources.
D) All the above

Question 9

Until the ______ most unions discriminated openly against black workers, reinforcing racial segregation in the labor market and increasing white workers' incomes relative to those of black workers.

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

Question 10

The ________________ gave U.S. air routes to new companies, mainly those started by aviators trained during World War I.

A) Air Commerce Act
B) Airline Deregulation Act
C) Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization (AIRR) Act
D) Civil Aeronautics Act
E) Federal Aviation Act

Question 11

Please identify the FALSE statement.

A) Until the 1950s, most colleges and universities - except historically black colleges - were all white or nearly so.
B) The period of active school desegregation was brief and resegregation is increasingly the trend.
C) Today, white students' access to first-rate college programs is still significantly greater than for black students.
D) Since the nineteenth century, the years since public elementary and secondary schools were first created on a significant scale, they have been overtly or informally segregated along racial lines.
E) Typically, all-white or mostly white public schools have better educational resources and facilities than schools composed predominantly of students of color.

Question 12

A great American myth portrays the U.S. as a ______________, in which people from different nations, ethnicities, and cultures come together.

A) cultural mosaic
B) melting pot
C) monocultural montage
D) multicultural medley
E) salad bowl

Question 13

Most higher-level executives in major firms are white men. Strong evidence of the corporate world's failure to promote meritorious employees of color and women is seen in the fact that:

A) few Fortune 500 companies have ever had a black executive at the very top.
B) in the most recent count, there were fewer than half-a-dozen black CEOs (all men).
C) in the most recent count, there were only six Latino CEOs and nine Asian CEOs.
D) whites make-up 96 percent of CEOs and 92 percent of those are white men.
E) All the above

Question 14

The U.S. workforce is about 64 percent white, and just under one-third white male; however, elite white men make-up:

A) 56 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board chairs and 46 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board members.
B) 66 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board chairs and 66 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board members.
C) 76 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board chairs and 66 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board members.
D) 86 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board chairs and 76 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board members.
E) 96 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board chairs and 86 percent of Fortune 500 corporations' board members.

Question 15

Citing new research by sociologists Richard Zweigenhaft and Bill Domhof, one journalist summarized their data to include which of the following?

A) More than two-thirds of potential future CEOs are white men, followed by white women at around 20 percent.
B) Asian men account for just under eight percent of the pool of potential future CEOs.
C) Black and Hispanic candidates, of both genders, combine to make-up less than seven percent of the pool of potential future CEOs.
D) In most elite professional circles, mentees are often chosen based on how comfortable an existing team of executives or board members might feel with them.
E) All the above

Question 16

The latest Forbes study of the wealthiest 400 Americans found all the following EXCEPT:

A) of the wealthiest 400 Americans, the overwhelming majority are white men.
B) of the wealthiest 400 Americans, more South or East Asian descended people are listed than blacks or Latinos.
C) of the wealthiest 400 Americans, the majority are "self-made."

Question 17

Which of the following is true of white women's place in the U.S. contemporarily and historically?

A) White women are significantly underrepresented at the top of major corporations and other powerful organizations today.
B) White women have historically played a less central and less powerful role than white men in creating and maintaining the ongoing system of racial oppression.
C) White women were seen by the white male "founders" as unequal by nature and in need of patriarchal control.
D) In major contrast to black Americans, as the Dred Scott case (1857) made clear, white women possessed certain legal rights.
E) All the above

Question 18

Most white American feminist leaders of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:

A) supported the country's dominant white racial hierarchy.
B) supported white male leaders' global imperialist goals.
C) understood citizenship, democracy, political self-expression, and equality in white supremacist terms.
D) All the above

Question 19

For centuries, white women's access to economic and cultural resources and socioeconomic opportunities has on average been ____________ black women or black men.

A) much less than that of
B) about the same as
C) much greater than that of

Question 20

Beginning in the 1980s, the few top corporate managers who were white women have mostly:

A) shared the same higher social class and family status backgrounds as white male corporate managers.
B) shared the same educational backgrounds as white male corporate managers.
C) shared a similar racial framing of society as white male corporate managers.
D) reinforced contemporary patterns of systemic racism in the workplace like white male corporate managers.
E) All the above

Question 21

A majority of white female voters:

A) support the most progressive political party (Democrats) and candidates in presidential elections.
B) supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, a white female candidate committed strongly to women's rights.
C) voted against Hillary Clinton in 2016, a white female candidate whom they likely considered to be in a party too linked to voters of color.
D) All the above

Question 22

Recently, the National Urban League issued a State of Black America report that summarized the general state of contemporary black America across several institutional areas. The economic area showed the most relative inequality for African Americans with respect to white Americans, with an economic index of _____ percent. (Equality with whites would be 100 percent.)

A) 22.7
B) 33.3
C) 40.1
D) 56.5
E) 63.6

Question 23

In recent decades, U.S. Census data have revealed the median family income of black families to be consistently in the range of ______ percent of the median family income of white families.

A) 33 to 42
B) 40 to 51
C) 55 to 62
D) 60 to 68
E) 69 to 81

Question 24

Today, U.S. Census data have revealed the median family income of black families to be ______ percent of the median family income of white families.

A) 33.3
B) 40.1
C) 56.5
D) 60.7
E) 71.3

Question 25

Current Pew Research Center data based on the U.S. Census indicate that compared to white households, black households have ___________ median (adjusted) household income.

A) a much lower
B) about the same
C) a higher
D) a much higher

Question 26

Examining data for the generation of Americans now entering retirement years, researchers have estimated that the average white baby-boom family will have earned _________ more than the average black baby-boom family over their respective lifetimes of work.

A) $250,000
B) $350,000
C) $450,000
D) $550,000
E) $650,000

Question 27

According to a 2016 Pew report, the median net worth of white households is many times greater than that of black households - with black households at only ______ and white households at ______.

A) $11,200; $144,200.
B) $12,300; $150,200.
C) $13,333; $160,200.
D) $14,400; $170,200.
E) $15,500; $180,200.

Question 28

A major reason why the median wealth of white families is much higher than that of black (and Latino) families is because of:

A) housing equities that a majority of whites have built up over generations of discrimination limiting black and Latino access to buying houses.
B) educational access that a majority of whites has had over generations of discrimination limiting black and Latino access to education.
C) employment access that a majority of whites has had over generations of discrimination limiting black and Latino to higher-paying jobs.
D) wealth in the form of interest-bearing bank accounts and stock in companies that whites have built up over generations of discrimination limiting black and Latino access to the same.

Question 29

Sociologist Thomas Shapiro has called intergenerational racial inequality _______________.

A) noxious discrimination.
B) lethal disparity.
C) venomous prejudice.
D) mephitic dissimilarity.
E) toxic inequality.

Question 30

In a 2017 national survey, _______ percent of white respondents agreed that past racial discrimination is a major factor in blacks' current lower average wealth level and _______ percent of black respondents felt that it is.

A) 29; 62
B) 37; 46
C) 50; 50
D) 60; 71
E) 73; 98

Question 31

Recently, the National Urban League issued a State of Black America report that summarized the general state of contemporary black America across several institutional areas, including:

A) growth over the previous decade in the overall societal position of black Americans relative to whites.
B) little decrease in black-white economic equality from 2007 to 2017.
C) thriving educational equality for blacks from 2007 to 2017.
D) All the above

Question 32

Recently, the National Urban League issued a State of Black America report that summarized the general state of contemporary black America across several institutional areas, including:

A) declining educational inequality between whites and blacks from 2007 to 2017.
B) declining racial inequality in regard to health issues due to improvements under the Affordable Care Act.
C) a significant decline between 2007 and 2017 on a composite social-criminal justice measure, due in part to an increase in imprisonment rates for black Americans.
D) All the above

Question 33

Much of the economic advantage and prosperity of whites in earlier centuries came directly or indirectly from the country's economic development spurred by profits from:

A) slave farms.
B) slave plantations.
C) the slave trade.
D) All the above

Question 34

The scholar Thomas Craemer has calculated the hours worked by enslaved black men, women, and children from 1776 (the Declaration of Independence) to 1865 (the official end to slavery). He estimated that the cost of reparations for this largely uncompensated labor would be in the range of ________________.

A) $500 million to $1 billion.
B) $50 billion to $250,000 billion.
C) $350,000 billion to $500,000 billion.
D) $850,000 billion to $1 trillion.
E) $5.9 trillion to $14.2 trillion.

Question 35

The scholar Thomas Craemer calculated a second compensation estimate for the hours worked by enslaved black men, women, and children from 1776 (the Declaration of Independence) to 1865 (the official end to slavery) for all 24 hours of the day to be _____.

A) $1 billion in current dollars.
B) $250,000 billion in current dollars
C) $500,000 billion in current dollars.
D) $1 trillion in current dollars.
E) $14.2 trillion in current dollars.

Question 36

________________ was a major cause of persisting racial inequalities after the Civil War.

A) Inequality in agricultural land
B) Inequality in education
C) Inequality in the law
D) Inequality in employment

Question 37

Researchers have estimated the costs of the labor market discrimination against black Americans from 1929 to 1969 (in 1983 dollars) at about ________.

A) $56.6 million.
B) $1.6 billion.
C) $15.6 billion
D) $1.6 trillion.
E) $12.6 trillion.

Question 38

The Urban Institute has estimated that over some years, black workers lost more than ________ annually because of persisting employment discrimination.

A) $800 million
B) $33 billion
C) $120 billion
D) $1.3 trillion
E) $4.9 trillion

Question 39

A recent United Nations panel recommended wide-ranging U.S. black reparations for:

A) the legacy of colonial history.
B) enslavement.
C) racial subordination.
D) All the above

Question 40

A recent United Nations panel recommended wide-ranging U.S. black reparations for:

A) racial segregation.
B) racial terrorism.
C) racial inequality.
D) All the above

Question 41

Beyond U.S. borders, the black reparations movement has endured for decades. For instance, Caribbean heads of governments created the ___________________, whose directive has been to formulate a case for reparatory justice for that region's Indigenous and African descendants.

A) CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC)
B) Caribbean Compensations Directive (CCD)
C) Global Reparations for Indigenous and African Descendants (GRIAD)
D) National African Reparations Commission (NARC)
E) National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA)

Question 42

Stephen DeCanio's economic model suggests that African Americans who had no significant material property because of slavery, and who were emancipated without the promised arable land, were collectively fated to endure major long-term economic inequality compared to whites:

A) even if they had experienced favorable employment conditions, which they did not.
B) because the initial gap in land access would have produced by itself most of the gap in income between blacks and whites throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
C) because this huge racial disparity has been passed along to subsequent generations, to the present.
D) All the above

Question 43

Stephen DeCanio's economic model suggests that African Americans who had no significant material property because of slavery, and who were emancipated without the promised arable land, were collectively fated to endure major long-term economic inequality compared to whites:

A) because the long-term impact of initial inequality in agricultural resources would prevent attainment of racial equality even if current discrimination ended and blacks and whites had identical tastes and preferences.
B) because not only were black families substantially excluded from wealth-generating homestead lands by law or violence, they were forced into racially segregated schools, workplaces, and residential areas.
C) because legal segregation in the South and de facto segregation in the North generally kept black families from generating the socioeconomic resources necessary to compete effectively with whites over many generations.
D) All the above

Question 44

Social scientist Andrew Hacker asked white college students how much they would seek in compensation if they were suddenly changed from white to black. Most indicated:

A) it would be out of place to ask for any sum because at most a small sliver of wealth was passed down by inheritance for a generation or two.
B) it would be out of place to ask for any sum because resources were largely consumed by the miscreants who extracted them from the backs of slaves.
C) it would be out of place to ask for any sum because essentially all the wealth that exists in the U.S. today was produced by the inventiveness of an array of inventors, entrepreneurs, immigrants, and countless others and no fund of wealth survives the demise of slavery and Jim Crow.
D) it would not be out of place to ask for $50 million or $1 million for each coming black year.
E) that the extensive affirmative action programs, both public and private, that have gained traction in the post-Civil Rights period is sufficient and hence, it would be out of place to ask for any sum.

Question 45

In the latest Census Bureau data, the white poverty rate was ____ percent, as compared with a much higher black poverty rate of ____ percent.

A) 3.3; 11
B) 4.4; 14
C) 5.5; 16
D) 7.7; 19
E) 8.8; 22

Question 46

the latest Census Bureau data, the white poverty rate was ____ percent, as compared with a much higher Latino poverty rate of ____ percent.

A) 3.3; 9.4
B) 4.4; 11.1
C) 5.5; 15.5
D) 7.7; 17.7
E) 8.8; 19.4

Question 47

Recently, a United Nations special rapporteur conducted an information gathering mission in California, Georgia, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and Washington, DC. He noted:

A) there is a prevalence of caricatured, racist narratives about the poor, particularly the notion that welfare recipients are scammers.
B) that while funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to audit wealthy taxpayers has been reduced, efforts to identify welfare fraud are being greatly intensified.
C) that the undermining of democracy, assisted by overt disenfranchisement of felons, gerrymandering, and the imposition of unnecessary voter ID requirements, results in the deprivation of the poor, minorities, and other disfavored groups of their voting rights.
D) that in a country as prosperous as the U.S. the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power.
E) All the above

Question 48

________________ is the process of cultural assimilation of racial, ethnic, and religious groups who are forced into an established and generally larger community.

A) Acculturation
B) Cultural appropriation
C) Cultural imperialism
D) Forced assimilation
E) Enforced conversion

Question 49

Legal scholar Patricia Williams concludes that black enslavement meant losing all the following EXCEPT:

A) languages.
B) cultures.
C) land rights.
D) kinship bonds.
E) the power to procreate in the image of oneself and not that of an alien master.

Question 50

Legal scholar Patricia Williams concludes that black enslavement meant losing all the following EXCEPT:

A) languages.
B) cultures.
C) tribal ties.
D) kinship bonds.
E) religions.

Question 51

In recent years, some analysts have tried to counter arguments that racism is still systemic with the contention that the U.S. now has a __________.

A) chromatic culture.
B) kaleidoscopic culture.
C) moiré culture.
D) prismatic culture.
E) rainbow culture.

Question 52

__________ is a term that suggests that many whites accept music (e.g., jazz and rap) and other entertainment that has emerged from African American communities.

A) Chromatic culture
B) Kaleidoscopic culture
C) Moiré culture
D) Prismatic culture
E) Rainbow culture

Question 53

Ellis Cashmore argues:

A) whites have rarely, if ever, converted certain black culture into a commodity for their own use.
B) whites have frequently converted certain black culture into a commodity, usually in the interests of white-owned corporations.
C) blacks have generally been kept from exceling in entertainment by white-owned corporations.
D) blacks have rarely been permitted to excel in entertainment and then only on the condition that they conform to whites' images of blacks.

Question 54

In much recent research, many black Americans have indicated that they still feel like _____________ in the United States.

A) aliens
B) foreigners
C) interlopers
D) outsiders
E) strangers

Question 55

Several recent surveys have shown that a substantial majority of African Americans have ____________ about the racial future of the U.S.

A) become less pessimistic
B) become more pessimistic
C) become more optimistic
D) become more anxious
E) become more worried

Question 56

_____________ is a situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of conforming to stereotypes about their social group.

A) Golem effect
B) Pygmalion effect
C) Self-fulfilling prophecy
D) Stereotype threat
E) Thin-slicing

Question 57

The stress, anger, and rage created by everyday racism can generate serious physical health consequences. Sociologist William Smith has described a key aspect of this reality______________, which is produced by the persistent rerouting of energy needed for emergency situations, primarily for psychosocial reasons, to deal with race-related stress.

A) acute racial stress reaction
B) racial battle fatigue
C) racial combat stress reaction
D) racial posttraumatic stress disorder
E) racial shellshock

Question 58

When asked about the costs of the discrimination they face, African American respondents frequently cite a broad range of stress-related health problems, including:

A) hypertension.
B) insomnia.
C) diabetes.
D) stress-related heart conditions.
E) All the above

Question 59

In its early stages after the 1960s civil rights movement, ____________ emerged substantially as protest music and commentary, as resistance against a racist society.

A) blues
B) rap (hip-hop)
C) rock-in-roll
D) soul music
E) spoken word

Question 60

Historical and recent data indicate:

A) most enslaved black Americans died by the age of 40, while on average white slaveholders lived more than 40 years.
B) by 1900, the life expectancy for an average black person was only 32-35 years, about 16 years less than that for the average white person.
C) the average contemporary black person has a life expectancy three to five years (female and male respectively) less than the average white person.
D) All the above

Question 61

Recent government data indicate:

A) blacks aged 18-64 years are more likely to die an early death than whites.
B) blacks aged 35-64 years are much more likely to endure high blood pressure than whites.
C) blacks aged 18-49 years are far more likely to die from heart disease than whites.
D) blacks are more likely to die from all major cancers than whites.
E) All the above

Question 62

In the major 1968 Supreme Court case, __________________________, the famous progressive white Justice William O. Douglas argued that the true curse of racism is what it has done to the white man.

A) American Commercial Lines, Inc. v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co.
B) Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp.
C) Jones et ux. v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.
D) Lee Art Theatre, Inc. v. Virginia
E) United States v. Southwestern Cable Co.

Question 63

What is social alexithymia?

A) concrete, realistic, logical thinking, often to the exclusion of emotional responses to racism
B) confusion of physical sensations often associated with racial emotions
C) difficulty identifying racial emotions
D) difficulty describing racial feelings to whites
E) difficulty dealing well with any group that is different socially from oneself.

Question 64

Some decades back, Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish social scientist, and his U.S. colleagues conducted a major study of Jim Crow segregation, reported in the influential 1944 book titled, ______________.

A) An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.
B) Negro is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy.
C) The Equality Issue: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy.
D) Whites' Racism: A Problem for Democracy.
E) Social Trends in America and Strategic Approaches to the Negro Problem.

Question 65

Some decades back, Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish social scientist, and his U.S. colleagues, representing the small liberal wing of the U.S. elite, argued that whites were under the spell of the ______________.

A) American creed.
B) American exceptionalism.
C) American nationalism.
D) American patriotism.
E) ideology of Americanism.

Question 66

White families have paid a high price for residential and neighbourhood segregation, including:

A) higher housing costs.
B) long-distance commuting.
C) pollution from automobiles.
D) problems associated with central city decline.
E) All the above

Question 67

Residential segregation and ____________ have been shown in some cases to negatively affect overall metropolitan economic growth.

A) education/career mismatch
B) education-to-job mismatch
C) mismatch in job market affecting economic growth
D) residence/job mismatch
E) trade/education mismatch

Question 68

Several studies have shown that whites who live mostly segregated lives:

A) are often fearful of blacks and other people of color with whom they have few or no equal-status contacts.
B) and who have greater privileges and power, do not have the experience necessary to view other Americans with accuracy and sensitivity.
C) do not understand the oppressive reality faced by Americans of color.
D) All the above

Question 69

A majority of whites are very defensive when reminded of their white privilege and position in society's racial hierarchy.

Question 70

Each white generation benefits from societal transmission processes that pass earlier unjustly gained economic and cultural capital to future white generations.

Question 71

Powerful whites have conned much of the American white population into often thinking and speaking of "public schools" and "public spending" as "good" for whites and privatization or elimination of numerous government programs as "good" for whites.

Question 72

Given overwhelming evidence that major tax cuts very disproportionately benefit elite whites, and usually do not generate much job growth or other economic benefits for ordinary workers, the majority of the white working and middle classes no longer support oligopoly capitalists and their political candidates.

Question 73

From the 1860s to the 1930s, the federal government - operating under the homestead acts - gave away millions of acres of government land for little or no cost to white and Afrcian American families.

Question 74

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and their descendants were generally able to do much better economically, politically, and residentially than the still-segregated black Americans who had already resided in the country for generations before these white immigrants arrived.

Question 75

New Deal programs favored whites.

Question 76

Throughout the 1930s, New Deal programs provided much important aid to white farmers, bankers, and business executives, enabling them to survive the Great Depression and to thrive during World War II and the postwar years.

Question 77

To varying degrees African Americans benefited from relief programs of the Great Depression and postwar housing and veterans' programs.

Question 78

Until the 1950s, most colleges and universities - except historically black colleges - were all white or nearly so. In the 1960s this had changed quite a lot.

Question 79

The period of active school desegregation was brief and resegregation is increasingly the trend

Question 80

Today, white students' access to first-rate college programs is still significantly greater than black students' access to first-rate college programs.