“Historic Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation, and the Need for New Integration
Strategies,” Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee
Orfield and Lee call for new strategies to integrate schools, because schools are
re-segregating as a result of recent court decisions, creating separate and unequal
educational experiences for Whites and minorities. This is particularly the case for
African Americans and Latinos, who Orfield and Lee describe as “highly likely to be
attending poorly supported “majority-minority” schools. Blacks and Latinos are doubly
segregated: from Whites and from middle-class students; Latinos experience triple
segregation: by class, race and language.
In the country as a whole _______________ percent of students are White.
a. 98
b. 57
c. 34
d. 77
“Darker Shade of Queer,” Chung-suk Han
Chung-suk Han writes as a gay man of color who must confront racism in
“gayborhoods’ and gay organizations and must at the same time confront homophobia
among people of color. Ultimately, he says, the crisis for gay men of color is a crisis of
masculinity ” a crisis that manifests in different ways for gay men of diverse races.
Gay people of color are often told by family and friends that being gay is:
a. an okay choice, but only while in adolescence
b. a White problem
c. an important political and personal issue
d. temporary
“Whosoever” Is Welcome Here: An Interview with Reverend Edwin C. Sanders
II” Gary David Comstock
Gary David Comstock discusses how an urban-based minister is making a difference in
the lives of lesbian/bisexual/gay/transgendered people by welcoming them to the
church he pastors and encouraging them to participate in the life of the church. As a
result, his efforts have paid off in creating a compassionate and caring community of
worshipers that evolve from diverse cultural, racial and sexual backgrounds. Because of
this approach, the Reverend Edwin C. Sanders II and his congregation are involved in
various community causes such as an HIV/AIDS ministry and a prison ministry that
benefit the membership as well the community.
Reverend Edwin C. Sanders II’s congregation is predominately:
a. Caucasian
b. Asian
c. African-American
d. Native American
“Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the
Color Line in Post Race America,”
Gallagher argues that a new form of racist thinking, an ideology called color-blind
racism, has become dominant among whites in America. Media and popular culture
have created an illusion of equality by reducing race to cultural symbols that are
marketed to everyone. Symbols of racial equality are embodied in the images of
successful personalities in politics and sports, as well as in commodities as diverse as
music, clothing, condiments, and cars. This focus on race as merely symbolic allows a
majority of whites to believe that racial harmony prevails, institutional racism has been
eliminated, and race no longer shapes life chances. This myth buttresses the deeply held
belief that America is a meritocracy and that therefore any advantages that whites have
now relative to racial minorities are earned advantages, achieved through individual
effort. White privilege is thus rendered invisible, and support for programs that address
problems caused by institutional racism is undermined.
Color-blind ideology:
a. ignores race
b. creates equality
c. encourages racial harmony
d. disregards racial hierarchy
“Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black
beauty Salon,” Adia M. Harvey
Harvey applies the concept of intersectionality to Black women’s entrepreneurial
efforts, addressing how race, class and gender intersect to inform working class Black
women hair salon owners. She finds that intersections of race class and gender
influence both the process of becoming salon owners, and the relationship of owners
and stylists.
Black women have a history of working in the _____________________ industry,
dating back to the late nineteenth century:
a. hair
b. automobile
c. cosmetic
d. clothing
“The Culture of Black Femininity and School Success,” Carla O”Connor, R.
L”Heureux Lewis, and Jennifer Mueller
Previous studies have found that Black girls are raised to be assertive and independent
with relatively high self-esteem and work oriented aspirations. However, these same
studies have indicated that these qualities of Black femininity have undermined girls in
their educational pursuits. O”Connor, Lewis and Mueller conducted a study of three age
cohorts and found that the culture of Black femininity has changed over time, and that
Black women’s socialization toward voice and power can be ” and often has been ”
productive in relation to securing an education. The authors conclude that a just society
is dependent upon schools and educators learning to build upon rather than attempt to
suppress “the socially productive nature of Black femininity.”
As a result of their socialization Black girls generally have ____________________
than their White or Latina counterparts:
a. lower educational aspirations
b. higher self-esteem
c. more children
d. lower self-esteem
“Historic Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation, and the Need for New Integration
Strategies,” Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee
Orfield and Lee call for new strategies to integrate schools, because schools are
re-segregating as a result of recent court decisions, creating separate and unequal
educational experiences for Whites and minorities. This is particularly the case for
African Americans and Latinos, who Orfield and Lee describe as “highly likely to be
attending poorly supported “majority-minority” schools. Blacks and Latinos are doubly
segregated: from Whites and from middle-class students; Latinos experience triple
segregation: by class, race and language.
Latino and Black students are now _______________ than they have been since the
1960’s according to Orfield and Lee.
a. more integrated with each other
b. more integrated with White students
c. more segregated
d. more desirous of school segregation
“How the New Working Class Can Transform Urban America” Robin Kelley
Kelley explains how the pervasive imagery that exists about the urban “underclass”
undermines our understanding of a contemporary urban working class. The urban
working class, many of whom are Latino and women, can be found in many different
industries today including hospitals, universities, nursing homes, food services and
retail establishments. He also discusses why organizing the new immigrant labor force
is a challenge for the labor movement. He highlights Justice for Janitors, one of the
most significant labor-based social justice movements, of which Black and Latino
women make up the majority of its membership. He highlights a second broad-based
radical movement ” the Labor/Community Strategy Center based in Los Angeles, CA.
The Center’s most important campaign has been the Bus Riders Union, since public
transportation is one of the few issues that impacts the lives of many urban working
people. This campaign argued that the public transportation system’s policies violate
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Until recently, union leaders assumed that Latino and Asian workers were too difficult
to organize ” the same assumptions that had previously been made about:
a. women and African American workers.
b. young workers
c. industrial workers
d. White male workers
“Race, Poverty and Disability: Three Strikes and You”re Out! Or Are You?”
Pamela Black, Fabricio Balcazar and Christopher Keys
Black, Balcazar and Keys chronicle the theoretical development to understanding race,
class and disability. They argue that early conceptualizations present images of race,
class and disability in terms of deficiency and dependence. For example, biological
models represented certain racial and ethnic groups as genetically inferior. The eugenics
movement that started in the early 1900s stemmed from the biological mode was used
to establish race and class distinctions as “natural.” Similarly, cultural models
represented racial and ethnic groups as trapped in a cycle of poverty. This culture of
poverty was reproduced from generation to generation. The authors state that biological
and cultural models to explain race, class and disability do not adequately explain the
differences between disabled and non-disabled, minority and non-minority populations.
The minority group model supplied a contrary position to the biological and cultural
models by suggesting that social problems should be addressed structurally through the
elimination of unequal power relations and re-distribution of wealth and income.
However, identity formation is problematic within the minority group model because its
focus is typically on a single issue, for example, race or gender or sexual orientation.
According to the authors, this single issue strategy excludes those facing multiple
concerns or “triple jeopardy.” The authors advocate for the use of an empowerment
framework so that “individuals from marginalized groups with multiple stigmas may
gain the social, political, and economic support needed to overcome barriers to their full
participation in society.”
The uses a single issue (such as race or gender or sexual orientation) as the focus for
identity formation.
a. biological model
b. cultural model
c. minority group model
d. empowerment model
“An Intersectional Analysis of “Sixpacks’, “Midriffs’, and “Hot Lesbians’ in
Advertising, Rosalind Gill
Gil uses an intersectional analysis to examine practices of “sexualization” in
advertising. She demonstrates that sexualization is not “a singular unmarked process’.
She finds that “commodified sexiness” in advertising is linked to “the politics of
looking.” She argues that patterns of sexualization vary, having different determinants
and modes of representation, and that they are “read in radically different ways”
depending on the specific intersections of gender, age, class, sexuality and racialization.
According to Gil, the organization of ___________________ within advertising works
to minimize the transgressive threat posed by the representation of male bodies.
a. gender
b. gazes
c. hair and makeup
d. race
“Sustainable Food and Privilege: Why is Green Always White (and Male and
Upper Class)” Janani Balasubramanian
Food justice, Janani Balasubramanian argues, is fundamentally a race and class issue,
and food activists are not speaking about it as such. The emphahsis on local food
economy fails to recognize the importance of United States support of agriculture in
other parts of the world. Activists of color who do admirable work in their communities
are often ignored by White activist writers and film makers. Thus we do not hear the
“variety of voices’ that needs to be heard if universal food reform is to be achieved.
We should not be too hasty to reject globalization, according to Balasubramania,
because:
a. the U.S. make a lot of money from foreign trade
b. people in other countries depend on our purchase of their food
c. return to local consumption is impossible
d. agribusiness in the U.S. will fail without it.
“Tapping Our Strength,” Eisa Nefertari Ulen
As a Muslim and a womanist, Eisa Nefertari Ulen stands at an important intersection.
She challenges Western feminists who criticize women who embrace Islamic traditions
to consider whether women who insist on wearing hijab are “unconsciously oppressed”
or are they actually, “performing daily acts of resistance.” Are they, she asks, actually
“the most daring of revolutionaries…storming the gates for our own liberation”? She
challenges the reader to see the cutting of Western women for “beautification” as a
“virtual duplication” of the cutting of daughters by some Muslim women in the
“pre-Islamic practice of genital mutilation.” She also challenges those who claim to
practice Islam while violating its teachings by dishonoring women. Ultimately she calls
for the building of bridges among Muslims and non-Muslims, and among warrior
women who “have so much work to do.”
In almost every country in Europe _______________ is the second religion after
_______________.
a. Christianity/Islam
b. Islam/Judaism
c. Islam/Christianity
d. Christianity/Judaism
“From a Native Daughter,” Haunani-Kay Trask
Trask describes her experiences of growing up and learning about Hawaiian history
from two sources. Her family described the “”life of the old ones'” ” how they planted,
fished, danced and chanted. The second source, textbooks, described a very different
Hawaii ” “”Pagan Hawaiians'” could not read or write and were “”lustful cannibals.””
Trask is troubled by how native language has been suppressed by school knowledge.
She concludes that historians had never learned the language of the Hawaiian people.
Therefore, the story of Hawaii, its culture and connection to the land remains unwritten.
Historians claim that Hawaiian land tenure was based on “feudalism.” Trask would
argue that the historians’ claims are:
a. true
b. false
“Crimes Against Humanity,” Ward Churchill
Churchill makes a case for seeing the use of American Indian names and degrading and
dehumanizing symbols by sports teams as a violation of the Geneva Convention and a
crime against humanity. The use of these names and images creates barriers to authentic
communication about the realities of history and contemporary life for American
Indians. Churchill challenges several myths, including that the use of these symbols is
just good clean fun; that this usage “honors’ American Indians; and that if some find the
practice offensive it doesn”t matter because there are too few left to defend themselves.
Between the 1880s and the 1980s, nearly half of all Native American
_______________were coercively transferred from their own families, communities,
and cultures to those of the aggressor society.
a. children
b. women
c. men
d. chiefs
“Sub-Prime as a Black Catastrophe,” Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro
The catastrophe described by Oliver and Shapiro is rooted in the fact that home equity
is the most important source of wealth for families in the United States. The authors
argue this is particularly so for African American families. It was the targeting of
African American families by sub-prime lenders that robbed so many of this important
and hard-earned source of security.
Due to the very high interest rates charged for these loans, the devastating effects of
these sub-prime loans has not only taken away gains made in the recent past, but will
compromise the ability of African American families into the future, effecting the
ability to open small businesses, pay for college educations, and support retirements.
Predatory loans have left African American communities facing, “the greatest loss of
financial wealth” ever. “Institutional and racialized policy,” they argue, “are trumping
hard-earned educational, job and income advances.”
Income helps families get along, but assets help them:
a. get and stay ahead
b. buy groceries and other daily necessities
c. have greater self esteem
d. afford luxuries, like vacations
“Selling Sex for Visas: Sex Tourism as a Stepping-stone to International
Migration,” Denise Brennan
Addressing the myth that sex workers around the globe are simply victims of
exploitation and domination, Denise Brennan considers the case of women sex workers
in Sosua, Dominican Republic. These women – predominantly poor, single mothers
with limited educations – see sex work not as a survival strategy, but as an advancement
strategy. They have meager job opportunities and can make more money more quickly
selling sex than in any other job available to them. Ultimately many hope to obtain
marriage proposals from wealthy sex tourists, and with them visas to places with
greater economic opportunities. Brennan sites these strategies as examples of the
“savviness and resourcefulness of the so-called powerless.”
Poor single mothers use sex work with European clients as:
a. a survival strategy for themselves
b. a survival strategy for their children
c. an advancement strategy
d. a self-esteem enhancer
“Our Mothers’ Grief: Racial-Ethnic Women and the Maintenance of Families,”
Bonnie Thornton Dill
Bonnie Thornton Dill broadens the dominant perspective of American families through
this historical analysis of racial-ethnic women and their families. She demonstrates how
the establishment of the “modern American family” ideal and expectations of racial and
ethnic groups as sources of cheap labor created distinct familial experiences among
women of various racial-ethnic groups in early America
According to Bonnie Thornton Dill, a White woman working outside the home
indicated:
a. high social standing of the family.
b. an egalitarian relationship between husband and wife.
c. insufficient wage earnings of her husband.
d. the birth of feminism.
“The Contested Meaning of “Asian American”: Racial Dilemmas in the
Contemporary U.S.,” Nazli Kimbria
Kibria explores the social construction and contested meanings of “Asian American” in
the U.S.
She views the social construction of race as a dynamic process involving the imposition
of categories from without as well as the shaping of meaning within the categorized
group. Kibria discusses the tension between “pan-Asianism” and a multiracial approach.
In the 1960s the Asian American movement was inspired by:
a. anti-Asian violence
b. the Vincent Chin case
c. President Kennedy
d. civil rights struggles
“White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen
Engagement with Myspace and Facebook,” Danah Boyd
Danah Boyd looks at the demographics of MySpace and Facebook and Facebook and
finds that these online communities reflect the same social categories of race and class
found in the larger society. In fact, she traces a movement away from MySpace to
Facebook, and identifies the trend as “White flight” ” a trend that mirrors the movement
of Whites from urban to suburban neighborhoods in the 20th century.
The movement of Whites from urban to suburban neighborhoods in the 20th century
was
referred to by sociologists as:
a. White flight
b. gentrification
c. outsourcing
d. integration
“Racism in Toyland,” Christine Williams
Williams examines the social organization of shopping and uncovers labor, advertising
and other practices that perpetuate racial (as well as gender and class) injustice and
inequality. She identifies problems in retail policies such as selective advertising;
opposition to public bus service to malls; job segregation; and racial profiling by clerks
and security guards. Williams views the raising of awareness as a first step in creating a
better alternative.
The history of suburban malls is a history of:
a. intentional racial segregation
b. the creation of egalitarian space where all shoppers are equal
c. intentional racial integration
d. unintentional racial segregation
“The Culture of Black Femininity and School Success,” Carla O”Connor, R.
L”Heureux Lewis, and Jennifer Mueller
Previous studies have found that Black girls are raised to be assertive and independent
with relatively high self-esteem and work oriented aspirations. However, these same
studies have indicated that these qualities of Black femininity have undermined girls in
their educational pursuits. O”Connor, Lewis and Mueller conducted a study of three age
cohorts and found that the culture of Black femininity has changed over time, and that
Black women’s socialization toward voice and power can be ” and often has been ”
productive in relation to securing an education. The authors conclude that a just society
is dependent upon schools and educators learning to build upon rather than attempt to
suppress “the socially productive nature of Black femininity.”
If we are ever to have a just society, O”Connor, Lewis and Mueller argue, schools and
educators must ____ the socially productive nature of Black femininity.
a. build upon
b. discourage
c. change
d. ignore
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh
Peggy McIntosh explores the invisibility of racial privilege. She argues that Whites tend
to be unaware of the privilege they have as members of the dominant group. To
illustrate this point she compares her own experiences with denied male privilege to her
own limited perception of the privilege she enjoys because she is White. In an effort to
challenge this lack of awareness, she lists forty-six examples of the invisible privilege
she experiences in her everyday life that people of color do not. She points out that
these daily benefits of being white make her life easier. For example, the ability to shop
without being followed, to count on her skin color not causing suspicion of her financial
reliability, or even the ability to find blemish cover to match her skin tone reflects her
white privilege. She argues that for Whites these occurrences are largely taken for
granted. They are expected, assumed to be the normal experiences of everyday life. For
people of color, however, they are constant reminders of the struggle involved in all
aspects of life when one’s position in society is reflected as outside of the norm.
McIntosh identifies positive and negative aspects of privilege; unearned advantage and
conferred dominance. The advantage experienced by the privileged group can be
unearned, merely as a consequence of their position, or it can be created through
dominance yielded because of their position. Both aspects challenge the notion that
one’s experience in society is based solely on one’s merit, and recognizing this
challenges the denial surrounding systems of privilege and oppression. McIntosh
contends that once the privileged can no longer deny the benefits intrinsic to their
position, they must then decide to either destroy or maintain the system from which
they benefit.
McIntosh acknowledges that running through a matrix of White privilege were a pattern
of_________________ that were passed on to her as a White person.
a. assumptions
b. attitudes
c. behaviors
d. actions
“What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar about Identity,” Abby L.
Ferber
Abby L. Ferber examines the interdependence of systems of oppression. Her research
on white supremacy reveals the connection white supremacists groups make between
anti-Semitism and racism in their efforts to maintain the dominant position of Whites in
society. Ferber asserts that the changing racial classification of Jews, as revealed in their
history, demonstrates the social construction of race. Ferber contrasts her own
experience as a Jewish woman, who racially identifies herself as White, with that of her
ancestors who experienced discrimination based on their designation as an inferior,
non-White race. The variability of racial classifications directly challenges the white
supremacists view of innate, and undeniable, White supremacy. Ferber contends that in
order to maintain their position of racial superiority, white supremacists target Jews in
an attempt to deny their evolved racial classification, thereby denying the relativeness
and ambiguity of race.
According to “What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar about Identity” by
Abby L. Ferber, the history of the Jewish experience:
a. has followed a consistent path.
b. demonstrates the social construction of race.
c. represents the value of white supremacy.
d. is the history of freedom from racism.
“The Well-Coifed Man: Class, Race, and Heterosexual Masculinity in the Hair
Salon,”Kristen Barber
Kristen Barber responds to claims that the male body is now sexualized and objectified
by media just as women’s bodies have been. In her case study of a small hair salon in
California, Barber finds that men who purchase “beauty work and beauty products”
consciously distinguish themselves from white working class men and distance
themselves from “the feminizing character ” of beauty work. She argues that these men
“appropriate embodied symbols of cultural capital that distinguish them as raced,
classed, sexualized and gendered” and that they
“heterosexualize” their contacts with women stylists, further distancing themselves
from the potential gender equalizing effects of beauty work.
According to Kristen Barber women cut, shape and dye their hair in ways that express:
a. individuality
b. their desire for acceptance by men
c. social location
d. their mood of the moment
“Missing People and Others: Joining Together to Expand,” Arturo Madrid
Arturo Madrid argues that Latinos, as well as other racial and ethnic minorities, are
perceived as “other” because of language, culture, and physical attributes that differ
from those of the dominant group in society. Accordingly, access to social institutions
such as employment, education, and government is limited. Once access is obtained,
particularly in those institutions within which integration is expected, for example,
universities, ethnic and racial minorities are marginalized, denied opportunity and a
political voice. Madrid urges all members of society to unite in struggle against
marginalization, exclusion, and alienation. By ensuring that our institutions more
accurately reflect the diversity of society, we relieve social tensions and prevent the
possible disintegration of the very structures that are intended to offer opportunity.
The author believes that educators and those who are educated have a special
responsibility for leading the struggle against:
a. traditionalism, family values and alienation.
b. marginalization, traditionalism and alienation.
c. exclusion, alienation, marginalization.
d. family values, traditionalism and elitism
“Race, Class, Gender, and Women’s Works,” Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei
Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei explore the economic experiences of women through
the interconnected effects of gender, race-ethnicity, and class. Taking a historical
perspective, the authors illustrate the relativeness of these social constructs and
demonstrate how each is affected by the others. For example, Amott and Matthaei point
out that while the construction of gender created spheres of “men’s” and “women’s”
work, what this work entailed had to do with class position and racial-ethnic identity.
Race and class greatly affected the definition of womanhood in the 1950s. White
middle class women were not expected to be part of the paid labor force, while it was
common for poor Black women to work as domestic servants. Both women were
expected to remain “in the home,” but for poor Black women that meant theirs as well
as those of their White employers. The authors apply the concepts of race-ethnicity and
class to the examination of gender, but point out the limitations of applying each
independently.
Since the processes of ____________________ are historically distinct in different
times and different cultures, they result in different conceptions of appropriate gender
behavior.
a. human development
b. genetic tendencies
c. sex-role socialization
d. boys and girls
“Gender Matters. So Do Race And Class: Experiences of Gendered Racism on the
Wal-Mart Shop Floor,” Sandra E, Weissinger
Sandra Weissinger examined complaints made in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
class action lawsuit to understand the specific ways that individuals who are targeted
for mistreatment experience mistreatment in raced, classed and gendered ways. She
documents the unequal treatment that women receive in comparison to men, but shows
that some women hold contradictory positions. A given woman who is targeted for her
gender may be given some privilege linked to her race, thus yielding different outcomes
for different women. She argues that discrimination based on sex alone does not explain
the variation in women’s experiences.
She concludes that discriminatory work atmospheres are maintained in multiple and
complex ways, contributing to the persistence of “a web of intersecting and relational
inequalities.”
Joking can be a subtle medium through which people of color experience belittlement
and struggles for _______________.
a. dominance
b. fair wages
c. better working conditions
d. attention
“Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America’s Future,” Center
for Community Economic Development
This article addresses the significant gap in wealth owned by diverse groups of women
of color compared to men who are their racial counterparts and to white women. Both
structural and cultural factors that contribute to the gap are discussed, along with policy
solutions. Because women of color “are some of the most resilient, resourceful, and
relied-upon people in our society” programs aimed at increasing economic security for
these women are essential to the future economic health of the nation as a whole.
Single Black and Hispanic women have _____________________ for every dollar of
wealth owned by their male counterparts.
a. one penny
b. a nickel
c. a quarter
d. fifty cents
“How the New Working Class Can Transform Urban America” Robin Kelley
Kelley explains how the pervasive imagery that exists about the urban “underclass”
undermines our understanding of a contemporary urban working class. The urban
working class, many of whom are Latino and women, can be found in many different
industries today including hospitals, universities, nursing homes, food services and
retail establishments. He also discusses why organizing the new immigrant labor force
is a challenge for the labor movement. He highlights Justice for Janitors, one of the
most significant labor-based social justice movements, of which Black and Latino
women make up the majority of its membership. He highlights a second broad-based
radical movement ” the Labor/Community Strategy Center based in Los Angeles, CA.
The Center’s most important campaign has been the Bus Riders Union, since public
transportation is one of the few issues that impacts the lives of many urban working
people. This campaign argued that the public transportation system’s policies violate
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
_______________ is a multi-racial organization of transit-dependent working people
who have declared war on race and class inequality in public transportation.
a. The Bus Riders Union
b. Justice for Janitors
c. The United Electrical Workers
d. The AFL-CIO
“Straight is to Gay as Family is to No Family,” Kath Weston
This essay presents a distinct dichotomy that depicts the establishment and maintenance
of family and extended kin in the gay and straight world. Weston delineates a path of
rejection, isolation and loneliness from straight families as gay persons attempt to
establish individual identities. In addressing misperceptions surrounding gay life, this
essay also introduces alternative approaches to the establishment and cultivation of
family life.
Weston argues the characterization of lesbians and gay men as non-reproductive beings
links their supposed attacks on the family to:
a. attacks on everyday citizenry.
b. attacks on society in the broadest sense.
c. attacks on heterosexuals.
d. jealousy of heterosexuals
“Racism in Toyland,” Christine Williams
Williams examines the social organization of shopping and uncovers labor, advertising
and other practices that perpetuate racial (as well as gender and class) injustice and
inequality. She identifies problems in retail policies such as selective advertising;
opposition to public bus service to malls; job segregation; and racial profiling by clerks
and security guards. Williams views the raising of awareness as a first step in creating a
better alternative.
Racial inequality is perpetuated in the social organization of shopping by:
a. job segregation
b. opposition to public bus service to malls
c. racial profiling by clerks and security guards
d. all of these answers are correct
“We Are Not Ophelia: Empowerment and Activist Identities,” Jessica K. Taft
Jessica Taft identifies a distinction between empowerment of girls and girls’ activism.
Empowerment, she argues, “is all too often focused on incorporating girls into the
social order, while activist girls desire to make substantial changes to the social order.
The girls in her study find the civic engagement emphasis of popular definitions of
empowerment far too narrow. They want much more than simply to better their own
circumstances; they want to make the world a better place for all to live. With a
sociological rather than an individualized view of the world, these girls connect their
own struggles as issues of public concern. Taft identifies a “breathtaking range of social
problems and contemporary political issues’ girl activists work collectively to address.
If girls’ problems are seen as ________________ they are much more likely to engage
in social action to remedy them.
a. personal troubles
b. resulting from their own bad decisions
c. publicly relevant
d. caused by their own individual families
“I Hate It When People Treat Me Like a Fxxx-up,” Jeanne Theoharis
Jeanne Theoharis responds to the commonly held belief that urban minority students
fail to value education by studying attitudes of African American and Latino high
school students who attend an intensely segregated Los Angeles school. The writings of
these students debunk the myth that they do not value an education, and indicate to the
contrary, “how profoundly students value education, how deeply they wish to succeed
academically, and how much they hope to make their families proud.” Theoharis
analyzes the schooling these students receive, identifying structural explanations for
why these highly motivated students sometimes claim that “school sucks.”
Theoharis found that “the bungalows’ constructed as cheap additional classroom space
resembled:
a. home environments
b. classrooms in some of the most prestigious schools in the United States
c. juvenile detention facilities
d. prison cells
“The Color of Justice,” Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander examines the racial disparities in our criminal justice system,
finding that
“rates and patterns of drug crime do not explain” the fact that “although the majority of
illegal drug users and dealers nationwide are White, three-fourths of all people
imprisoned for drug offenses are Black or Latino.” Alexander identifies two stages in a
structural process that results in the unjust disparities she finds in the system of
“racialized social control” that passes itself off as criminal justice.
_________________ students use crack cocaine at eight times the rate of
_____________
students,
a. Black/White
b. Latino/White
c. White/Black
d. Black/Latino
“What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar about Identity,” Abby L.
Ferber
Abby L. Ferber examines the interdependence of systems of oppression. Her research
on white supremacy reveals the connection white supremacists groups make between
anti-Semitism and racism in their efforts to maintain the dominant position of Whites in
society. Ferber asserts that the changing racial classification of Jews, as revealed in their
history, demonstrates the social construction of race. Ferber contrasts her own
experience as a Jewish woman, who racially identifies herself as White, with that of her
ancestors who experienced discrimination based on their designation as an inferior,
non-White race. The variability of racial classifications directly challenges the white
supremacists view of innate, and undeniable, White supremacy. Ferber contends that in
order to maintain their position of racial superiority, white supremacists target Jews in
an attempt to deny their evolved racial classification, thereby denying the relativeness
and ambiguity of race.
Contemporary white supremacist define Jews as non-white: “not a religion, they are an
Asiatic race,
a. locked in a mortal conflict with mortal man.”
b. locked in a mortal conflict with Aryan man.”
c. locked in a mortal conflict with Asian man.”
d. locked in a mortal conflict with Black man.”