Racism and Sexism Questions

Instructions: Complete this on the word document.

Short Answer Responses (10 points).

i. Use full sentences and explain answers in your own words.

ii. Be as specific as you can.

iii. Do not copy and paste your answers from the internet or other sources.

1. What does Melvin Oliver mean by the “racial wealth gap”? (2 points)

2. In Broken on All Sides, Michelle Alexander explains how the War on Drug and “tough on crime” movement used racially coded rhetoric. What does she mean by this and how do the War on Drugs and “tough on crime” laws exemplify racially coded rhetoric? (3 points)

3. Citing Patricia Hill Collins, Dorothy Roberts discusses “system intersectionality.” Explain what system intersectionality is in your own words. How does “system intersectionality” help in analyzing “structures of privilege and disadvantage” especially in the contexts which Roberts examines? (5 points)

Short Essay

(15 points)

Choose one of the following three prompts. Answers must be provided in your own words. You can use quotes as part of your answers but must be followed-up with your own explication and analysis of the quote. Responses must be a minimum of 500 words.

1. Angela Davis raises the Moynihan Report as a problematic instance that reproduced gendered racial stereotypes of black women and black families. Why is the Moynihan Report an example for Davis of power scapegoating responsibility? How does this connect to what she illustrates about the roles of racial myths (such as the black matriarch) and “the deformed equality of equal oppression” as essential in upholding the practices of slavery? How does this relate to what Dorothy Roberts points to as an excessive phenomenon of policing black mothers and black children?

2. Sabrina Strings argues that obesity is not what puts black people at risk of COVID. Rather, it is the systemic and structural health inequalities that are consequences of racial slavery. Why does she argue this? Given other texts that we have read in class (such as Davis, Morgan, Roberts, and Hartman to name a few), how would you further substantiate this claim? How might something like the crisis of homelessness also put black people, but especially black women, at risk of facing other health insecurities particularly during the pandemic?

3. Drawing from Broken on All Sides, Dorothy Robert’s “Prison, Foster Care, and the Systemic Punishment of Black Mothers,” and Lori Yearwood’s “Pregnant and Shackled,” discuss how gendered racial targeting takes place in the context of policing, incarceration, and the criminal justice system. Explain why it is important to utilize an “intersectional lens” with particular attention to gender and race.

** Bonus 3 points ** (Points given will vary depending on the extensiveness and specificity of the answer. Answers must be provided in your own words. If you use quotes, you must follow-up and substantiate what you are explaining.)

What is Robert’s critique of the image of a nuclear family as part of a neoliberal regime? How is the punishment of black mothers and the foster care system relate to what she described in her lecture “the disaggregation of black life”?