questions in(sociology of poverty)

Answer ALL seven (7) questions. Responses must reflect information from lectures, handouts, and assigned textbooks. Responses should be a MINIUMUM of three (3) typed, double-spaced pages for each question. Number each question and response.

Questions from the Text: The Constraint of Race (Chapter 4, etc.)

Question 1

Critically discuss how the New Racial Politics and Social Policy in the Nixon years (1970’s) and Reagan and Bush years (1980) affected women and people of color. Also, discuss the factors that set the stage for the New Racial Politics.

Question 2 (Chapter 4)

Discuss in detail how (1) political forces rooted in the legacy of the great society; (2) the

democratic controlled congress; (3) various bureaucrats within the Welfare state; civil rights

organizations etc. prevented Reagan/Bush administrations from fulfilling their promise to

fundamentally “cut-back” on social policies, eliminate affirmative action and dramatically

transform the American Welfare state.

Question 3: From lecture notes and textbook: The Constraints of Race (Chapters 5-6)

What strategies did President Clinton use to reduce the political salience of race and retain

African American and Latino political support?

Question 4: From lecture notes and textbook: The Constraints of Race (Chapter 6)

Critically discuss President Clinton’s crime bill and its effects on people of color. Also discuss the failure of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and other Black organizations to oppose the crime bill.

Question 5: From lecture notes and textbook: The Constraints of Race (Chapter 7)

Critically discuss the background factors/conditions that led up to the 1996 Welfare Reform. Be sure to also discuss, the stereotypical image of welfare recipients; the deficit; the Contract with America; tax expenditures for business and the hidden welfare for the affluent; coded messages, etc.

Question 6: From lecture notes and textbook: The Constraints of Race (Chapter 7-8)

Critically discuss the 1996 Welfare Reform showing among other things that it was not “race

neutral,” and the failure of the Congressional Black Caucus, Left Organizations, women and

Latino Civil Rights Organizations to oppose it. Also discuss the effects of Welfare Reform

on women and people of color, recommendations to improve the conditions for women and

people of color, etc.

Question from Text: Today’s Globalization

Question 7

What is new about today’s globalization- especially the technology of production,

communication and distribution? How does this impact our lives- the political economy of the wages, market system; culture, ideology and the media: politics and structures of social control and domination?