Hw SC

Social Theory Fall ‘14

These questions, are due on Tuesday, October 21 (both classes.)

Questions from “What is Racism, Reflections from.. Chicago” by Paul Street,” “What is Racism,” by Fred Strange, “What Privilege Looks Like in Everyday Life,” by Allen Johnson, Racism: a Very Short Introduction, by Ali Rattansi, and excerpts from Race: Are we so different? Give number and letters in your answers.

1. a) What is “race,” according to the “Race exhibit video transcript, in the Race: are we so different excerpts.? b) Where did the idea, or concept, of black and white races come from? c) What does it mean to say that race is a cultural, not an individual or biological phenomenon? d) In what sense are both the “black race” and the “white race” reified concepts, reifications?

2. What are the two kinds of racism, according to Stoklely Carmichal and Stephen Hamilton? What are the four types (in intersecting boxes) according to Strange?

3. a) What is meant by structural (“state of being”) racism as opposed to intentional or attitude (“state of mind”) racism? b) Give some specific examples of structural or institutional racism from Strange’s chart. Do any of these surprise you more than others? Do you have any doubts about their validity? c) From Johnson’s list, which ones do you think are most clearly instances of institutional (structural) white privilege (built into the system and held in place by people following, pretty much unconsciously, the lines of least resistance)?

4. a) Explain how you think structural (i.e., institutional) racism can or might occur without conscious or intentional prejudice (I think you can get this by going through Strange and Johnson and finding the cases that seem more or less unintentional)? b) What is wrong with defining and explaining racism simply in terms of prejudice or bad attitudes in the minds of individuals? c) Is doing this reducionistic (define the term as you answer)? How so?

5. a) What are some “new school” examples of “state of mind” racism (see Strange #s 2 & 4.)? b) Are there specific examples (or sayings) given here by Strange which you doubt are really racist? Why or why not? b) Why or how might some of these presumed examples of racism be upsetting to white people? c) What items on Johnson’s list best approximate “state of mind,” or Strange calls “idealist” racism?

6. a) What makes some people (mainly whites) think racism is in retreat, or practically over with? b) Why (do you think) people might believe this? c) For what reasons might the assumptions behind this view (that racism is a thing of the past) be seen as both reductionist and reifying (as we have defined these terms in this course)? d) Why doesn’t a growing black middle class, or the conspicuous success of individual Afro-Americans, mean that racism in the US is on the way out? How can such successes be used against minorities?

7. a) What do you understand the phrase “reverse racism” to mean? Who is accused of it? b) What arguments suggest that black against white racism is unreal or negligible, and that attempts at “color blindness” are more of a problem than a solution? (see especially Strange, # 4) Are you persuaded by these perspective, or not? c) How did Martin Luther King diagnose the causes of racism? Where then would the solution lie? d) Why do you suppose many mainstream commentators who pay homage to MLK today as a dead martyr, found him threatening and “extremist” while he lived?

8. a) What statistics from the Rattansi excerpt would you quote to persuade someone that racial inequality is alive and well? b) Do your examples qualify as institutional (structural) racism? How so?

c) How has the situation improved (pp.142)? What is the evidence for discrimination in the criminal justice system? d) Weren’t the burdens on African Americans lifted after emancipation? Why not (pp. 143-149)?

9. a) How have African Americans been excluded from, or shunted to the bottom of, the housing market (p.204-206)? b) How would you explain why it is that most white folks are not even aware (conscious) of the fact that they live in a white neighborhood?

10. Detail some of the historical steps and conditions by which Native Americans have lost their lands (p.196-198.) b) How would you relate these processes to the concept of Eurocentrism (in other words, what does Eurocentrism have to do with these losses (p.196-198)? c) How and why are these and similar events likely to stay a “hidden history,” outside the main narrative of many texts? What do such hidden, or half-hidden, histories have to tell us about the history of imperialism, of which these are examples?

11. a) What was “Manifest Destiny”? What purpose did such a concept serve? b) What did the US gain from the Mexican-American War? c) What was the effect on the Mexican inhabitants, afterwards? (p. 199-200.) What do we learn from this sidelined, largely forgotten history? What kind of Eurocentrism was promoted at this time?

12. a) What are the bases, and basic causes, of the wealth gap that exists in the US between African Americans and Euro-Americans (p. 209-212.) b) How does the “housing market” show us a good example of how we can have racism without prejudice (and thereby unintentional), here in the US? Give details. (p. 211-212.) c) Would you call these “housing market” examples cases of “institutionalized racism,” or do we need another word for them that we haven’t thought of yet? What do you think?

13. a) How do these data (p. 218-219) pretty conclusively show that high blood pressure averages among US black people are not the result of (an imagined) biological or genetic “race,” but rather of something else? b) What do you think is the best explanation for what that “something else” is?

c) Give me a specific example, even if it’s wrong and in poor taste, of what explaining a person’s or a group’s behavior by their supposed biological race looks (or sounds) like? Make it from the real life of our country as you know it. Now tell me, in such an “explanation” what is being reified (probably more than one thing)? d) When we try to explain complex social behaviors, like excelling at basketball, for example, or alcoholism among Native Americans, or poverty among a given minority group, by attributing any of these to a people’s biological race, how is this reductionistic? Clarify this.

14 . a) Why do you suppose so many whites are largely unaware of the “privileges” on Johnson’s list, or when they become aware of them question and resist them, or simply don’t want to hear about it—“I’m sick of hearing about ‘race’—get over it”)? Is there an element of self-protection in such responses? b) What does Johnson suggest about this at the beginning of his list? c) Given that there exist in our society paired privileged and oppressed groups—whites vs. people of color, men vs. women, owners and managers vs. workers, doesn’t someone have to make sacrifices and concessions in or to achieve real, meaningful change? For example wouldn’t white, upper class males have to stop being first in line for housing loans, job opportunities, the best school districts for their kids, making bigger profits, and much more? No? If this question hurts (no pain, no gain), say why. d) How might whites/men/straights/and yes, even the superrich, though I know that’s a tough one for us, etc. gain in the long run by giving up their (unjust?) privileges to be on a more equal basis with their opposite number, namely people of color, women, LBGTs, and the working poor? How could those who relinquish privilege possibly gain? Okay, this last question (d) might be too deep for me to expect an answer from you at this point. Just tell me whether it strikes you as ridiculous or as a worthy goal, and why. It’s okay if you feel torn, confused, disturbed, or of two different minds about any of this. Just say so, write about that. Feelings, values, moral concerns, including yours, are part of social analysis, aren’t they? But if you object to some of these readings, try, nevertheless to give them due consideration in your remarks.

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How about relations of privilege and oppression between upper class and working class? Between middle class and working class? Do you think much of the same data and analysis put forward above will apply? How would you expect a working class family man who works hard for his well-to-do employer, makes from $12,000 to $32,000 a year, and is given a lot of disrespect and condescension by most college-educated middle o r upper-middles class people, likely to feel when he is told that he has privileges that African Americans—and women—don’t have? Don’t answer this one here, just consider it. For future reference.