Exam 4: Unmaking Race and Ethnicity

Share an example of a way in which you have assimilated in some capacity to a group or a norm or a practice. Was this required of you in order to feel like you fit in? Do you feel like you lost anything in that process?

The DREAM Coalition focuses on which social issue?

Which term describes the process of consciously taking apart and critically analyzing elements of the old racial frame?

What are the implications of the C. Wright Mills quote: "No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, history, and their intersections within a society has completed its intellectual journey"?

Describe the school(s) you attended when growing up. How was your school experience shaped by where you lived? What impact did this have on you at the time? What impact did this have on your educational trajectory?

Public school funding comes primarily from

How do the dimensions of racial mixture in Brazil compare to the U.S.? Why might that be?

Take one of the steps in the mutual-obligations approach to addressing racial issues and reflect on what it would look like for you to engage in that step. What would be the challenges? What would be the benefits?

Present both sides of the reparations argument. What are the pros and cons of this proposed policy?

What concerns have scholars historically had regarding cultural assimilation? In what ways does Brubaker's argument that there has been a shift from cultural to socio-economic assimilation address these concerns? In what ways does this argument not address these concerns?

Think of forms that you have filled out asking about your racial/ethnic identity. Have there been different versions of the questions you've been asked? Have you ever struggled with deciding which box to check?

In his "A More Perfect Union" speech, then-Senator Obama talked about the "gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of our time." What are examples of this gap currently? Why do these gaps still remain? What is required to close those gaps, and what are the challenges in doing so?

In the years between the early and mid-1990s, U.S. public schools

Why do you think public discourse in U.S. society tends to promote the myth that fatherhood is the solution for challenges in black communities? Why is this a myth? Who benefits from this myth and who does not?

Describe the impact of the G. I. Bill on residential segregation and wealth inequality in the U.S.

Which of the following is NOT one of the new drivers of rising heterogeneity in the U.S.?

Describe how children become adept at race-centered behavior. Provide two examples to illustrate this process.

Which term describes an individual's cognitive, moral, and emotional connection with a broader community . . . a perception of shared status or relation?

Summarize in your own words the main ideas about race presented in then-Senator Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech.

What did you find most compelling about the speech "A More Perfect Union" by then-Senator Obama? What questions do you have?