Exam Reviews

Final Project

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Key terms and concepts:

-black/white binary

-Du Bois – “problem of the color line”

-Jim Crow

-color-blindness: society, racism, politics

-white supremacy

-color-coded

-individualism

-white privilege

-institutional discrimination

-racial realism

-conservatism and market solutions

-color-conscious policy

-economic theory of discrimination

-revisionist history

-Plessy v Ferguson (1896)

-group hoarding

-“myth of the machine

-disaccumulation

-residential segregation

-redlining

-“perpetrator perspective”

-health care disparities

-wealth disparities

-relative group status

-“reverse discrimination”

-merit

-durable racial inequality analysis

-segregated seniority

-occupational ceilings

-affirmative action policies

-myth of white bootstraps/when affirmative action was white

-deindustrialization

-service industry

-downward mobility

-urban apartheid

-“zero tolerance”

-“the new Jim Crow”

-racial profiling

-differential treatment of criminality

-unintentional discrimination

-gerrymandering

-political apartheid

-vote dilution

-“cracking the black vote”

Possible Essay/Short Answer:

Racial realists explain the income gap  between black and white families by attributing it to higher representation of blacks among the less skilled and the uneducated. Explain how this is a misrepresentation of systematic discrimination and dissacumulation.

Explain how marriage, as the conservatives’ major policy recommendation, individualizes poverty on the basis of moral failures and how this narrative fits into creating a color-blind society.

What is urban apartheid and how does this framework let us better understand poverty beyond notions of “white flight?”

What is the difference between means-tested programs and universal programs? How does racial stigmatization effect these policies?

What does the SAT test for? Is it legitimate to conclude that it is an integral part of evaluating merit in admissions?

Discuss how the Griggs case developed a broader definition of discrimination in relation to the conception of equality of opportunity. Then discuss how critics assert this new definition mandates equality and results in “reverse discrimination.” Lastly unpack this criticism by discussing its misrepresentation and ideology of color-blind logic.

Why do so few white men sue for racial discrimination? What types of discrimination do they file under and why? Frame your argument within the context of group hoarding and “racism-blindness.”

For conservatives and racial realists, affirmative action and color-conscious policies betray the promise of a color-blind society. Despite being portrayed as unfair, unjust and undemocratic, discuss the significance and benefits these policies have in minimizing white advantage (not rectify past injustices).  Also, discuss the ways these policies have been attacked.

Explain what our authors mean by stating, the idea that the electoral process should be color-blind is in fact a very color-conscious notion. Use concepts such as redistricting, abilities to accumulate political capital, gerrymandering to frame your discussion.

Explain how and why racially polarized elections persist. Discuss terms and concepts such as “freedom of choice,” Willy Horton ads, “the race card,” political parties becoming anti-black in your answer. Lastly discuss how electoral competition undermines the taken-for-granted political order.

How has Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech become the basis for color-blind ideology?

How does using class exclusively subvert discussions about equality and race?

How do race conscious policies use race as an analytical tool to promote equality?

When discussing cumulative inequalities, what does it mean to say “the past shapes the future?”

What is the difference between overt and covert discrimination? How can we use this dichotomy to better discuss racism when the prevailing knowledge tells are color-blind society?

What is a meritocracy and how does it shape a common sense understanding of discrimination?

Our authors state that the benefits of being white are related to the costs of being nonwhite.  Discuss how health care is an example of this material reality.

In a racially stratified society, neither the gains nor the pains of economic change are distributed randomly.  Discuss conservatives’ explanations for racialized poverty and what this explanation ignores.

In what ways are educated black workers still vulnerable to unemployment and wage discrimination? How are these facts inconsistent with conservative notions of “socially responsible choices?”

When and how was affirmative action white?