Deck 1: Race in the Twenty-First Century

Question 1

Sometimes speakers invoke examples of individuals-say,Madame C.J.Walker,Oprah Winfrey,or Barack Obama-to suggest that if these individuals were able to triumph over racial barriers,the path is clear for everyone.What type of fallacy best describes such thinking?

A)fixed fallacy
B)legalistic fallacy
C)ahistorical fallacy
D)tokenistic fallacy

Answer 1

D  

Question 2

Race is often described with reference to __________,but there is much more genetic variation within _______________ groups than between them.

A)genomes;DNA
B)biological markers skin shade,hair texture,etc. );DNA
C)cultures;traditionally-defined racial groups
D)biological markers;traditionally-defined racial groups

Answer 2

D  

Question 3

While many people assume that "obvious physical differences" explain racial categories,this logic fails to appreciate:

A)that classificatory schemes are not rigidly linked to skin tones
B)physical traits vary enormously among those who are classified as the same race
C)classification schemes vary widely,both historically and across national boundaries
D)all of these

Answer 3

D  

Question 4

Which of the five fallacies or misconceptions about racism best describes this example?
"Your friend does not believe that racial segregation in schools is a problem today.After all,she argues,the courts ruled segregated education unconstitutional many decades ago."

A)tokenistic fallacy
B)legalistic fallacy
C)ahistorical fallacy
D)individualistic fallacy

Question 5

One of the fundamental tenets of the _________________________ is that history does not structure our experiences and that these experiences can either compound as advantages-or privileges-or increase barriers to opportunities.What type of fallacy best describes such thinking?

A)ahistorical fallacy
B)legalistic fallacy
C)tokenistic fallacy
D)individualistic fallacy

Question 6

Prejudice surrounds us,and people of color may internalize negative attitudes aimed at their own racial group.Psychologists describe this as "internalized oppression," while sociologist Pierre Bourdieu labels it:

A)unconscious oppression
B)internalized racism
C)symbolic violence
D)interpersonal racism

Question 7

As it relates to racial domination,symbolic power is best described as:

A)the power to define and classify groups as normal or aberrant
B)the power to legally withhold basic rights from certain groups
C)the power to privilege whites over others in terms of access to employment and the accumulation of wealth
D)the power to deny people of color membership in desirable associations

Question 8

Which of the five fallacies or misconceptions about racism best describes this example?
"You read a newspaper article on changing racial attitudes declaring that young adults ages eighteen to twenty-four are the least racist in American history.While you hope this is true,you are worried that the research is using a static definition of 'racism.'"

A)fixed fallacy
B)legalistic fallacy
C)tokenistic fallacy
D)individualistic fallacy

Question 9

Which of the following is a key feature of symbolic power?

A)the ability to categorize and name
B)the ability to determine salaries and wages
C)the ability to draw upon social networks
D)brute force

Question 10

Stephen Jay Gould argues that ________________ reappears,even when disproven,during eras of political retrenchment or during times when elites are fearful of changes to their status.

A)social constructivism
B)institutional racism
C)biological determinism
D)interpersonal racism

Question 11

According to the textbook,which of the following best defines "racial domination"?

A)Racial domination is characterized by overt coercion and violence.
B)Racial domination is an organizing force in society that disproportionately offers benefits to some groups and not others.
C)Racial domination is often necessarily the conscious intention of those who benefit from it.
D)none of these

Question 12

Raul is an African American,but he has many other social identities in addition to his racial identity.He is also a young,middle-class college student who identifies as bisexual.Rather than thinking of any particular racial group as a monolithic category,scholars who take an intersectional approach pay attention to:

A)how multiple dimensions in individual lives intersect
B)prioritizing identities and social locations by economic importance
C)how individuals manage narratives about their lives
D)understanding which type of oppression is more important than others

Question 13

A _____________________ is a social and symbolic hierarchical system of classification and social division that organizes people into rigid groups.

A)racial hierarchy
B)caste system
C)phenotypical classification
D)genetic variation

Question 14

Historically,racial oppression has been justified through explanations grounded in scientific language.Modern scientists tell us that we share _________ percent of the same genes with other humans and there is much greater genetic variation within traditionally defined racial groups than among them.

A)99.9
B)88.7
C)79.9
D)65.0

Question 15

Which of the following statements about institutional racism and interpersonal racism is accurate?

A)Institutional racism is overt,while interpersonal racism is embedded in social practices at work in schools,politics,and law enforcement.
B)Institutional racism often quietly privileges some groups for example,by highlighting the accomplishments of the dominant group in school curricula),while interpersonal racism is more overt.
C)Neither institutional nor interpersonal racism is necessarily overt;both forms of racism often operate in the habitual commonsense and largely unconscious practices of daily life.
D)Both institutional and interpersonal racism are consciously chosen ways of acting in social settings and in creating social order.

Question 16

According to the textbook,what are two key forms of racial domination?

A)institutional racism and white privilege
B)institutional racism and political domination
C)institutional racism and interpersonal racism
D)interpersonal racism and white privilege

Question 17

The cartoon below offers us an insightful look at how ________________ can take form in everyday interactions.

A)interpersonal racism
B)institutional racism
C)symbolic violence
D)legalistic fallacy

Question 18

___________ is best described as the argument that social and economic differences between races are the result of immutable,inherited,and inborn distinctions.

A)Biological determinism
B)Social constructivism
C)Institutional racism
D)Interpersonal racism

Question 19

Institutional racism is facilitated by different types of power.Which of the following is one of these modes of power?

A)cultural power
B)political power
C)military power
D)physical power

Question 20

Which of the following best summarizes the process by which systemic white domination of people of color occurs?

A)racial domination
B)institutional racism
C)white privilege
D)symbolic violence

Question 21

Racial categories are bound to their specific social and ___________ contexts,meaning that such boundaries are not the same in India as in South Africa.

A)economic
B)historical
C)tribal
D)familial

Question 22

The current _______________ in the United States delineates five major groups.

A)homogenizing heading
B)ethnic variation
C)cultural schema
D)racial taxonomy

Question 23

Which of the following is an example of a homogenizing heading?

A)Native American
B)Irish American
C)Korean American
D)Italian American

Question 24

According to the historian Mae Ngai,laws and policies that made ethnic or racial identity a determining factor in the opportunity to immigrate during the 1920s resulted in:

A)decreasing racial identification for white immigrants
B)decreasing racial identification for Latino/a immigrants
C)decreasing racial identification for Caribbean islanders
D)decreasing racial identification for Asian immigrants

Question 25

__________ is the collection of unearned cultural,political,economic,and social advantages and privileges possessed by people of Anglo-European descent or those who pass as such.

A)White privilege
B)Racial domination
C)Institutional racism
D)Caste hierarchy

Question 26

The courts have played an important role in adjudicating racial categorization processes.Understanding court decisions around racial categorization processes further underscores how race and ethnicity are _____________ and ______________ constructs.

A)economic;material
B)geographic;cultural
C)biological;genetic
D)social;historical

Question 27

A person's ___________________ is his or her family lineage,which often includes tribal,regional,or national affiliation.

A)race
B)ethnicity
C)phenotype
D)ancestry

Question 28

Racial categories are ________________ when symbolic groupings,the products of specific historical contexts,are mistakenly considered natural and immutable.

A)legal
B)undermined
C)naturalized
D)erased

Question 29

The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924,with its imposition of national quotas and racial restrictions,contributed to the U.S.racial order by:

A)distinguishing all Europeans as part of a white race,distinct from all those considered nonwhite
B)blaming immigrants for the rise of urban poverty and class conflict
C)creating a symbolic boundary between ancestry and phenotype in racial classification
D)Producing rigid immigration controls that gave rise to illegal border-crossing

Question 30

Race,ethnicity,and nationality are mutually overlapping _____________ that are mutually reinforcing and cannot be understood in isolation from one another.

A)racial categories
B)legal categories
C)symbolic categories
D)cultural categories

Question 31

A person's ___________________ is his or her physical appearance,including skeletal structure,height,hair texture,eye color,and skin tone.

A)race
B)ethnicity
C)phenotype
D)ancestry

Question 32

In the United States,__________ often creates distinctions and identities within _____________.For instance,four people may be considered white,yet they may each have ancestry and cultural traditions originating from different countries,including Poland,Ireland,England,and Norway.

A)racial identity;ethnic groups
B)ethnicity;racial groups
C)culture;ethnic groups
D)racial groups;cultures

Question 33

Comparisons across ________________ reveal variation in racial categorization between countries,highlighting the importance of _______________ in making race.

A)countries;time
B)time;place
C)homogenizing headings;culture
D)families;place

Question 34

In the United States,whiteness is the _______________ racial category,that with which all other categories are compared and contrasted.

A)normal
B)dominant
C)exclusionary
D)cultural

Question 35

Although many people think of Tiger Woods as African American,he considers himself multiracial and as a child invented the term "Calabanasian" to describe himself.This example helps us understand the complex relationship between _______________.

A)ancestry and culture
B)culture and tribal membership
C)phenotype and culture
D)ancestry and phenotype

Question 36

Which explanation for why are whites less likely than people of color to identify themselves in racial terms is discussed in the textbook?

A)Whites often do not think of themselves as belonging to a racial category.
B)Whites are less concerned with racism than other groups.
C)Whites think of race in biological,not cultural,terms.
D)Whites worry that drawing attention to race is impolite.

Question 37

The _____________________ of race organizes people into bounded groupings based on their phenotype,______________,or both.

A)symbolic category;ancestry
B)historical development;culture
C)visibility;symbolic category
D)political history;culture

Question 38

In an attempt to resist stigma,some people of color,especially new immigrants,may highlight their ethnicity and resist American _________________.

A)racial categories
B)state classification
C)tribal categories
D)cultural categories

Question 39

George's father is an African American,and his mother is white American.Mike's father is a white Italian,and his mother is a white American.Why does Mike have a higher degree of fluidity and freedom when self-identifying ethnically?

A)because Mike's father is from a different country
B)because George's black identity is stigmatized
C)because whites are better at "performing" ethnic identity
D)because of Mike's personal values

Question 40

Race is a ___________________category that is misrecognized as a _____________ category.

A)symbolic;cultural
B)biological;genetic
C)cultural;biological
D)symbolic;natural

Question 41

Consider the five fallacies about racism in the first section of Chapter 1.Select one of these that you think best helps us understand stereotypes and assumptions around race and athletic ability.

Question 42

James Baldwin observed,"Color is not a human or personal reality;it is a political reality." How can his definition help us analyze the importance of unpacking white privilege?

Question 43

Two friends are arguing over the results of a recent NBA draft.Alex tells Jorge that his favorite team should have picked more black players because they naturally have more athletic skill and everyone knows "white men can't jump." Jorge calls Alex out for basing his argument on:

A)biological determinism
B)social constructivism
C)institutional racism
D)interpersonal racism

Question 44

The authors of this textbook argue that "a better metaphor for intersecting modes of oppression might not be criss- crossing roads,but a web of relations within which struggles over opportunities,power,and privileges take place." Explain both metaphors and analyze why the authors prefer their metaphor to Crenshaw's.

Question 45

Consider the following scenario: School board members are debating a policy change that would increase the police presence at the local high school.What course of action might a sociologist recommend before making a decision?

A)assigning police to schools based on the per pupil percentage of disciplinary infractions
B)letting the principal decide based on what he thought worked at the high school he attended
C)analyzing the factors that are of concern,including social and historical patterns
D)letting the students vote

Question 46

W.E.B.Du Bois admonished us to not "make the all too common error of mistaking names for things." Discuss how labels,categories,and classifications have shaped race and ethnicity.Can race and ethnicity be collapsed into one category? Why or why not?

Question 47

The authors of the textbook invite you to understand race and ethnicity through a sociological lens.C.Wright Mills coined the term "_________________," which means understanding and interpreting everyday life not only through one's own personal experience but also through the exploration of ________________ that structure and direct our social world.

A)sociological lens;cultural influences
B)interpretative analysis;broader economic forces
C)aggregated analysis;variables
D)sociological imagination;broader historical forces

Question 48

Racial groups were created through centuries of oppression,colonialism,political discourse,and scientific manipulation.Some politicians-and even countries such as France-have argued against the use of racial categories on official data collection.For instance,some have argued for doing away with questions about race on the census or in collecting information on higher education enrollment.Why might this be a wrong-headed response?

Question 49

The textbook authors provide a historical case study to describe how the racial composition of sports team rosters is more a reflection of the decisions that young people make than of biological superiority.Explain the relationship between the transformation of inner cities and basketball participation.

Question 50

While blacks were granted the right of citizenship in 1870 as part of the Reconstruction Amendments after the Civil War,other nonwhites were denied citizenship until:

A)the 1890s
B)the 1920s
C)the 1940s
D)the 1960s

Question 51

Which of the following best exemplifies the advice offered by the textbook authors on how whites can contribute to fighting racial injustice?

A)Promote colorblindness by refusing to provide one's race on the census.
B)Accept guilt for the crimes committed by other whites.
C)Join an antiracist group on campus to suggest improvements that would make residential life more inclusive.
D)Protest affirmative action in admissions.

Question 52

Beverly Tatum draws an analogy between racism and polluted air: "Always,day in and day out,we are breathing it in." Offer your own observation of an example of "day in and day out" racism.

Question 53

Based on what you have learned in Chapter 1,how can whites contribute to reducing racial inequality? Use the concepts of white privilege and color-blindness in formulating your essay.

Question 54

Describe an example of how whiteness is held up as the status quo.