Family Short-Answer Questions, A Few Final Observations on Yellow & Notes on the Final Exam

Below are the final exam questions I selected from the families which submitted them. I changed the wording of some of them. REMEMBER, ALL THESE QUESTIONS WILL BE ON THE FINAL EXAM.

240A (1:00)

Black family:

1. Name two of the three educational strategies to overcoming the language barrier for new immigrants, especially Hispanics. (2pts)

Answer: (a)bilingual, (b) ESL, (c) English immersion.

2. Which minority group represents the largest percentage of American converts to Islam? (1pt)

Answer: African Americans

Blue family:

1. Give one of two major reasons why Frank Wu (author of Yellow) usually declines an invitation to debate affirmative action. (1pt)

Answer: (a) because he does not believe we should focus on one of the solutions to the problem of racial discrimination. Rather, we should focus on racial discrimination itself. (b) because he believes debates are a waste of time -- we need more dialogue and doing.

Red family:

1. What stereotype do Americans have about Arab Americans and their religion? What major event does this stem from? (2pts)

Answer: Americans think all Arab Americans are Muslims (and potential terrorists). It stems from the 9/11 attacks.

Green family:

1. What is Puerto Rico's current status with respect to the United States? Name one of two other options about their status that Puerto Ricans have debated over the years. (2pts)

Answer: Current status: Commonwealth. They have debated either (a) becoming a state, or (b) becoming independent.

2. What was the Dawes' Act of 1887 and what resulted from it? (2pts)

Answer: It made tribal members individual landowners. Indians became homesteaders. However, they were not accustomed to cultivating land and the land itself was quite arid and not suitable for farming. The Indians were either swindled or walked away from their land. By 1934, Indians had lost 90 million of the 130 million acres they had before the Dawes Act.

Yellow family: no questions submitted.

______________________________________________________

240B (2:30)

Blue family:

1. Identify the two largest groups of Hispanics in the United States. (2pts)

Answer: (a) Mexican Americans, (b) Puerto Ricans.

2. Historian Robert Remini makes what argument regarding Andrew Jackson and his treatment of the Cherokees? (2pts)

Answer: He tries to salvage Jackson's reputation. He claims that Jackson had a healthy respect for Indians and ordered the Cherokees removal (the "trail of tears") to save them because he believed unless all Indians east of the Mississippi were moved they would be wiped out. So the Cherokees' removal was necessary.

Red family:

1. What was the purpose of the Termination Act? And what was its outcome? (2pts)

Answer: It gave Indians more autonomy and reduced federal expenditures on reservations. This led to greater problems because reservations didn't have the money to make up for the lack of government spending.

2. What is the basic belief or principle on which the Nation Of Islam (NOI) was founded? (1pt)

Answer: Black people are the "chosen ones," and the white man is the devil.

Green family:

1. Name two of the three educational strategies to overcoming the language barrier for new immigrants, especially Hispanics. (2pts)

Answer: (a) bilingual education, (b) ESL, (c) English immersion.

2. Why was the first wave of Cuban immigrants generally more successful and able to assimilate into U.S. society? (1pt)

Answer: Because they were wealthy, well-educated, often knew English, and they were welcomed because they were fleeing communist tyranny.

__________________________________________

Some concluding notes on Yellow (some of which will be repetitious for those in 240A):

Chapter 7 The Changing Face of America: Intermarriage and the Mixed Race Movement

Remember, for Wu, "Intermarriage and the mixed race movement are positive, but they are no panacea." (p. 264)

Wu is suspicious of polls which indicate overwhelimng acceptance of interracial marriage. He talks about the problem of "preference falsification." (p. 268)

He feels strongly that -- "Integration will remain incomplete unless interracial marriage is allowed." And not just tolerated as some idealized form of renegade romance -- "jungle (or yellow) fever."

In the section entitled, "A New Face for Betty Crocker," Wu reminds us that mixed race individuals have existed since before our nation was founded. He suggests that one-fourth to one-third of African Americans are of mixed heritage (which I suggested may be an underestimate).

Wu expresses some support for the NAACP and its concern that the mixed race movement may be diluting the strength of numbers of African Americans and other minorities. He strongly opposes calls to eliminate racial counting, because we must keep track of numbers in order to monitor discrimination (which is a lesson the French recently had to learn). (pp. 288-9)

Finally, he mentions how a white icon, Betty Crocker, has recently been changed to reflect this mixed race reality. Her image is now a computer-generated composite of 75 different ethnic groups.

On Tiger Woods and Keanu Reeves, the key point is that mixed race individuals, even such celebrities, "do not leave race behind." Society invariably puts them in distinct racial categories.

In the last chapter, I planned to quote the first two paragraphs on p. 325, in which Wu stresses how we must get out of our comfort zones in order to really tackle racial issues.

________________________________________

Notes on Final Exam:

Schedule:

240A (1:00) Thursday, 9-12

240B (2:30) Wednesday 2-5

The exam will consist of two parts: Part I will consist of questions from the latter half of the course (since class lecture on Chapter 2 in Black Wealth/White Wealth). And Part II will be selected questions from the midterm exam, with the point values of many of them increased. Remember to review relevant blog material, handouts, as well as class notes.

Review session this Sunday 2-4PM in Main 126.