Looking Ahead

In addition to handing back and going over your midterm exams tomorrow (Tues. 10/27), I will also be handing out a write-up of your second out-of-class essay. I am not posting it on the blog because, as with the first essay, it involves an interview with an author which will be attached. Among other things, it will ask you to relate an aspect of that interview to what Dr. Tatum has to say in Chapter 6 of her book. So, in that context, you should continue reading "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" You should be at least through Chapter 3 by now, and you probably want to have read through Chapter 6 by the end of this week, since this second essay will be due next Tuesday, November 3rd. We'll pick up with Chapter 3 tomorrow. See you then.

Family Questions for the Midterm

Below are my selections, with some editing, from the family questions & answers that were submitted. Remember that you only need to focus on the families in your section (240A-8:00 or 240B-9:30).

240A - 8:00-9:20AM

GREEN FAMILY (Ellie, Coleman, Alex) No questions submitted, so you do not earn the 4 points for this activity.

BLUE FAMILY (Kathrine, Sarah, Katie, Emily) 4pts.

1. What is the difference between RACE and ETHNIC GROUP? (2)

ANSWER: Race is determined by socially-selected PHYSICAL traits, whereas ethnic groups are distinguished by CULTURAL traits such as religion, music, food, language.

2. Identify and briefly describe any TWO of the four strategies for overcoming prejudice that were presented in class lecture. (4)

ANSWER: any TWO of the following: (1) CONTACT - breaking down barriers and fostering contact between people of different ethnic and racial groups that is meaningful and direct. Equal-status contact is most effective; unequal-status contact may just reinforce prejudice. (2) COOPERATIVE ACTION - people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds working together for a common goal, such as in the military. (3) EMPATHY - taking the role of someone from a different racial and ethnic background and trying to see the world from their point of view. Promotes understanding but this does not mean you agree with their perspective. Intellectually, this is mainly what we're trying to do in this course. (4) LAW - cannot legislate directly against prejudice, but by regulating behavior you may help to break down barriers which in turn may help you to overcome prejudice. So, law may work INDIRECTLY to overcome prejudice.


RED FAMILY: (Allison, Marquel, Chris, Andrew) 4pts.

1. In what sense is the "melting pot" metaphor an inaccurate way to describe America's diversity? (2)

ANSWER: Because it was applied only to the mixing and blending of the different white ethnic groups from different European countries. It did not include people of color such as Blacks, Indians, or Asians.

2. Toward the end of Part 2 of the video series, what was meant by the phrase "white man's burden?" (1)

ANSWER: this refers to the belief shared by both American and European colonizers that it was the white man's duty to conquer, convert, and educate the inferior races of people in different parts of the world to the white man's ways.
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240B - 9:30-10:50AM

BLACK FAMILY (Onyx, Alan, Melanie, Kaitlyn) 4pts.

1. Based on class lectures on the basic definition of PREJUDICE, identify TWO of the four sources from which prejudice is learned. (2)

ANSWER: any TWO of the following: (1) authority figures, (2) media images, (3) negative experiences, (4) discrimination.

2. Explain the difference between ETHNOCENTRISM and RACISM. (2)

ANSWER: Ethnocentrism involves judging other groups based on one's own culture's standards and values. Or, seeing one's culture as superior and right, which all cultures seek to instill in their people. Racism involves judging others as inferior based on innate physical characteristics.


YELLOW FAMILY (Aubrey, Lauren, Zach, Dani) 4pts.

1. Many famous people referred to both in class lecture and the video series were quoted as arguing that in order to overcome race we must first do what? (1)

ANSWER: Acknowledge it.

2. Describe the argument the Japanese man, Takeo Ozawa, made to the Supreme Court in his petition to be declared white so he might be eligible to become a naturalized citizen. And what was the decision of the Court? (2)

ANSWER: He argued that SOCIALLY he was white: he learned English, converted to Christianity, was patriotic. But the court ruled that did not matter since "SCIENTIFICALLY" he was not white, so his petition was denied.
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That's it. See you tomorrow, when we'll make some more progress in Dr. Tatum's book and have time to review for the midterm on Thursday 10/22.

Reminders & Dr. King Quote

Since I finally managed to get into "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" yesterday (Tues. 10/13), we will continue to work our way into the book on Thursday. As I noted yesterday, I believe we will be able to get through Chapter 3 by next Tuesday 10/20, which is where I will draw the line in terms of what you'll be responsible for on the Midterm exam which is scheduled for Thursday 10/22. Also tomorrow I will be giving the families more time to each come up with 4 short-answer questions for the midterm. Don't forget that you can also make up questions from Dr. Tatum's book, even though we have not gotten into it very much. And remember the deadline for submitting those questions is NOON FRIDAY 10/16. Check out the description of this family activity in the previous blog post.
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I quoted the following passage from Dr. King's first book, "Stride Toward Freedom," and used that quote to support my point that law can play an INDIRECT role in overcoming prejudice.

"Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin. We must depend on religion and education to alter the errors of the heart and mind; but meanwhile it is an immoral act to compel a man to accept injustice until another man's heart is set straight. As the experience of several northern states has shown, antidiscrimination laws can provide powerful sanctions against this kind of immorality."
"Moreover, the law itself is a form of education."


That's all for now. See you tomorrow.

Family Activity: Making Up Midterm Exam Questions & Reminders

Reminders: First, let me note that I will, FINALLY, be wrapping up my lectures on the Basic Definitions and then moving on to Dr. Tatum's book on Tuesday 10/13. I anticipate that we will be able to get through Chapter 2 by the end of next week. Our midterm exam will be on Thursday 10/22. In preparation for that, I want the families to begin brainstorming some midterm exam questions that I can use on that exam. Below are the details of what I want you to do:

FAMILY ACTIVITY: MAKING UP MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS

Drawing on anything we've covered in class since the beginning of the semester, including any handouts, class lectures on the video series, and blog material, I want each of the families to come up with FOUR short-answer questions. Keep in mind some of the samples I've given in class. I do NOT want any True/False or Multiple-Choice questions. Please also keep in mind that I will be looking for questions that deal with fairly significant points, not relatively insignificant facts. When you submit the questions also include the answers as well. After I get all these questions I will review them and try to select at least TWO from each family; for each additional question I select that family will earn a bonus point, so you may earn up to two bonus points for this exercise.

I will give you some time to confer with your family members on both Tuesday 10/13 and Thursday 10/15 of this coming week. Each family should designate someone to be responsible for submiting your questions. THE DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, OCT. 16TH BY NOON. Put the questions and answers in an email to me, or you may submit them on a sheet of paper in class or drop it by my office. I need to have them by then so I can make my selections and post them on the blog, as well as make up the test itself.

All participating family members will earn 4 activity points for this exercise.


See you next Tuesday 10/13.

Quoted Passages & Some Lecture Notes

Below are the passages I quoted in class yesterday, adding and reinforcing the argument contained in the basic definition of RACE.

First, from "The Geometer of Race," by Stephen Jay Gould. Gould discusses the racial hierarchy of Johann Frederick Blumenbach. Blumenbach is the one who is credited with coming up with the term "Caucasian" to refer to whites, and note that it is based on aesthetic grounds (not scientific):

"...Blumenbach chose physical beauty as his guide to ranking. He simply affirmed that Europeans were most beautiful, with Caucasians as the most comely of all. This explains why Blumenbach,...linked the maximal beauty of the Caucasians to the place of human origin. Blumenbach viewed all subsequent variation as departures from the originally created ideal -- therefore, the most beautiful people must live closest to our primal home."
"Blumenbach's descriptions are pervaded by his subjective sense of relative beauty, presented as though he were discussing an objective and quantifiable property, not subject to doubt or disagreement. He describes a Georgian female skull (found close to Mount Caucasus) as 'really the most beautiful form of skull which...always of itself attracts every eye, however little observant.' He then defends his European standard on aesthetic grounds: 'In the first place, that stock displays...the most beautiful form of the skull, from which, as from a mean and primeval type, the others diverge by most easy gradations....Besides, it is white in color, which we may fairly assume to have been the primitive color of mankind, since...it is very easy for that to degenerate into brown, but very much more difficult for dark to become white.'"

And then a couple paragraphs from the American Anthropological Association's Draft Official Statement on Race (Sept. 1997):

"Biophysical diversity has no inherent social meaning except what we humans confer upon it. The concept of 'race' is in reality a product of that process. 'Race' is a set of culturally created attitudes toward, and beliefs about, human differences developed following the widespread exploration and colonization by Western European powers since the 16th century. In the North American colonies, European settlers conquered an indigenous population and brought in as slaves alien peoples from Africa. By the end of the 18th century a rising antislavery movement, produced by liberal and humanistic forces mostly in Europe, compelled slave owners to find new defenses for preserving slavery. 'Race' was invented as a social mechanism to justify the retention of slavery. 'Race' ideology magnified differences among these populations, established a rigid hierarchy of socially exclusive categories, underscored and bolstered unequal rank and status differences and provided the rationalization that such diffferences were natural or God-given. The different physical traits became markers or symbols of status differences."

"How people have been accepted and treated within the context of their society and culture has a direct impact on how they perform within that society. The 'racial' worldview was invented to assign some groups to perpetual low status while others were permitted access to privilege, power and wealth. The tragedy is that it succeeded all too well in constructing unequal populations. Given what we know about the capacity of normal humans to achieve and function within any culture, we conclude that present-day inequalities between human groups are not consequences of their biological inheritance; rather, these inequalities are products of historical and contemporary social, economic, educational and political circumstances."
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Let me, then, pick up where I left off in commenting on the basic definition of RACISM. You recall that I suggested that the vast majority of people would probably reject the notion that they are racist according to that definition. That does not mean racism is dead. Racism, today, is more subtle than blatant, and it has the most serious consequences when it is subtle and unrecognized.

(1) George Federickson (a historian who was interviewed in part II of the video series) observes in his recent book, "Racism: A Short History," that many people were ready to declare racism as a thing of the past, especially after the fall of South African apartheid, the last explicitly racist regime. And he goes on to comment --
"But racism does not require the full and explicit support of the state and law (as in the northern U.S.). Nor does it require an ideology centered on the concept of biological inequality. Discrimination by institutions and individuals against those perceived as racially different can long persist and even flourish under the illusion of nonracism, as recent studies of Brazilian race relations have discovered."

(a) In this context he talks about a "cultural racism," such as whites who believe blacks or Latinos in ghettos are incurable infected by cultural pathologies. Indeed, he argues that such "cultural racism" actually predates the scientific theories of race in the late 18th century (i.e., Blumenbach).

(2) Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (also appearing in the video series) argues that a new form of racism has emerged, what he calls "color-blind racism" (which appears to be an oxymoron) -- that is, similar to cultural racism, color-blind racism involving differential treatment of racial groups is NOT based on a belief in inherent biological inferiority but rather is based on or explained by nonracial factors such as market forces, cultural factors (such as a poor work ethic), etc.

(3) INSTITUTIONAL RACISM (or institutional discrimination) persists even though it has lost its legal sanction (as slavery and Jim Crow segregation once had) -- that is, there continue to be racial biases built into the operation and policy of various institutions. (Eg., "redlining," "glass ceiling," "racial profiling," etc.) Much more on this in Shirley Better's book.

(a) I believe it is unquestionable the the so-called "war on drugs" has had a clear racial bias which has led to the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans.



That brings us up to ETHNIC GROUP in our list of basic definitions, which is where we will pick up next Tuesday, 10/6. Please make sure to incorporate the above lecture material in your class notes.