Deck 10: Race and Ethnicity

Question 1

Which of the following statements offers evidence that race is social rather than biological?

A) The human genome is virtually identical across the species.
B) Racial categorization occurs when a human group defines itself or is described by others on the basis of innate physical characteristics.
C) Social inequalities occur because certain races are inherently less capable.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) All of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The belief that a particular group is inferior because of inherited physical differences that are inherently connected with behavioral differences is:

A) Racism
B) Genocide
C) Malice
D) Fundamentalism
E) None of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Studies, like those conducted by Pager and Bertrand and Mullainathan, offer evidence that:

A) Racial inequalities will never be eradicated.
B) Unequal opportunities in the labor market are restricted by an individual's aptitude and the availability of jobs-not race.
C) Race continues to have a significant effect on an applicant's employment opportunities.
D) Race is a biological and social factor.
E) All of the above.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Genocide refers to:

A) The Nazis' attempted mass murder of the Jews during World War II.
B) The systematic mass murder of a group of people
C) A new innovation in genetics that allowed scientists to alter an individual's racial make up by adapting their DNA.
D) Both a and b, but not c.
E) None of the above

Question 5

Which of the following accurately describes the difference between race and ethnicity?

A) Race focuses on physical factors; ethnicity does not take account of physical traits.
B) Racial classification is determined by physical traits. Ethnic classification is based on a sense of shared history, territory, and traditions.
C) Race is often used as reason for discrimination, whereas ethnicity is not.
D) There is no difference.
E) None of the above

Question 6

Believing in the superiority of one's own ethnic group, believing that one's own cultural practices are natural, and viewing other group's practices with disdain is referred to as:

A) Racism
B) An inflated ego
C) Ethnocentrism
D) A power trip
E) None of the above

Question 7

American culture and institutions were from the nation's origins distorted by racism and ethnocentrism. These ethnocentric attitudes of the native-born population toward immigrants might be called:

A) Nativism
B) Essentialism
C) Pluralism
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 8

Why was the Hans-Celler Act significant with regards to American immigration patterns?

A) The Act prohibited immigration for a period of 50 years, causing the population to decline drastically.
B) The Act was an open door policy which welcomed immigrants into the United States. As a result, employment opportunities became scarce, and racial discrimination became an even bigger problem than ever.
C) The Act eliminated the national origins system that favored immigrants from northern and western Europe. After the Act was passed, immigration from Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean increased.
D) It had no effect. The Hans-Celler Act is related to gender equality in the workplace.
E) None of the above

Question 9

Minority Group Theory refers to:

A) An effort by American sociologists, in response to a difficult period of ethnocentrism, to develop a general theory that would move beyond the particularities of the American situation.
B) A theory, influenced by Louis Wirth, that suggests that every society contains majority and minority groups.
C) A theory that suggests that the status of so-called minority groups does not refer to actual numbers, but instead to power differentials between ethnic and racially defined groups.
D) A theory that suggests that prejudice rests upon stereotypes rather than social observations.
E) All of the above

Question 10

What is the difference between a stereotype and a prejudice?

A) A stereotype is an attitude, whereas a prejudice is a generalized belief.
B) A stereotype is a generalized belief about particular minority and majority groups that is used as the basis for domination by the majority group. A prejudice is a stigmatizing attitude based on a stereotype.
C) Stereotypes are objective, prejudices are subjective.
D) There is no difference
E) None of the above

Question 11

What is meant by the statement: "Discrimination varies along two axes: scope and intentionality"?

A) Discrimination can be either harmless or harmful, meaningful or insignificant.
B) Discrimination can be either isolated or repeated, utilitarian or materialist.
C) Discrimination can be either individual or institutional, conscious or unintended.
D) Both a and c, but not b.
E) None of the above

Question 12

Which of the following is not a factor in Wilson's argument as to why the racial underclass exists?

A) Changes in the economy have restructured occupations and relocated industries
B) Political processes (like affirmative action) have separated the black working and middle class from the black poor.
C) Urban migration, changes in the age structures, a limited pool of marriageable men, and social isolation have negatively influenced factors such as employment and income distribution.
D) Ghetto residents are isolated and have limited access to mainstream social networks that facilitate social and economic mobility.
E) None of the above

Question 13

According to Chapter 10, what might explain reverse migration trends?

A) Migrants are moving back to the South to find jobs.
B) Reverse migration signals a desire for voluntary segregation.
C) Migration is actually not reversing, but new immigrants are flocking to the South because of its more desirable climate than the harsh North.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 14

What is the "Hispanic Challenge" according to Samuel P. Huntington?

A) Hispanic immigrants resist assimilation and want to remain outside of core American culture and institutional life.
B) Hispanic immigrants are limited in their economic and social mobility due to the same discrimination and institutional blockages African Americans experience.
C) Genetic testing has revealed that Hispanics have a lower intellectual aptitude; therefore, it is more difficult for them to learn crucial skills which facilitate finding a job.
D) Both a and b, but not c.
E) None of the above

Question 15

How has sociologists' understanding of assimilation changed?

A) Assimilation is now recognized as a necessary force for individual and collective success.
B) Assimilation is now recognized as a two-way process in which ethnic groups can maintain elements of their home culture.
C) Assimilation is now viewed as a much easier process in postmodern society with the push towards multiculturalism.
D) It hasn't changed.
E) None of the above

Question 16

According to Chapter 10, how has globalization and postmodern social life changed American culture?

A) The core American values that remain are not ethnic, sexual, religious, or racial, but political and civil.
B) It is easier for immigrant groups to maintain their 'diasporic' status.
C) Cultural values and identity are best thought of as a hybrid.
D) The notion of a single, homogenous American identity has become obsolete.
E) All of the above

Question 17

Which of the following does not play an important role in immigrants maintaining ethnic identity?

A) Internet
B) Religion
C) International travel capabilities
D) Local school systems
E) None of the above

Question 18

What is the distinction between the 'melting pot' and the 'salad bowl' image of America?

A) The 'melting pot' suggests that all ethnic difference is boiled down into a common soup whereas the 'salad bowl' suggests that each ethnic difference adds something to the whole of the society.
B) The 'melting pot' values a sense of American culture, whereas the 'salad bowl' discredits the possibility for American culture.
C) The theorist who developed the melting pot preferred dessert, whereas the theorist who developed the salad bowl was a vegetarian.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 19

What does multiculturalism refer to?

A) A society that has five or more cultures co-existing.
B) The value that many cultures can and should co-exist in a particular region.
C) The increase of 'political correctness' in postmodern society.
D) A society in which there is one mass culture that consumes all other sub-cultures.
E) None of the above

Question 20

According to Chapter 10, what is the difference between multiculturalism and hyphenated Americanism?

A) Hyphenated Americanism is recognized by the U.S. Census, multiculturalism is not.
B) Multiculturalism does not restrict ethnicity to the private sphere.
C) Multiculturalism allows any individual to embrace two or more ethnic identities; hyphenated Americanism restricts an individual to only one ethnic identity other than American.
D) Multiculturalism has replaced hyphenated Americanism as a theoretical concept and a pragmatic identity.
E) None of the above

Question 21

If present trends continue, by 2050 nearly one in five Americans will be an immigrant.

Question 22

Gender patterns of racial intermarriage are about the same for all American racial and ethnic groups.

Question 23

If members of stigmatized racial groups behave differently or are compelled to occupy lower social positions, it is because of their innate worth.

Question 24

Racial classification is universally based on skin color.

Question 25

Racial thinking and racism played a major role in instigating the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s.

Question 26

Ethnic difference is both real and imagined.

Question 27

Throughout American history, immigrants were resisted, even discriminated against, because they were perceived as a threat to America's 'native' culture.

Question 28

Stereotypes are cultural structures that both facilitate and rationalize a majority's domination over minority groups.

Question 29

Henry Louis Gates suggested that while structural factors were important, and opportunities needed to be created for inner-city blacks to get out of poverty, it was important to discuss values too.

Question 30

Interest in Asian and Hispanic food and entertainment, for example, is evidence that assimilation is a two-way process.

Question 31

Hybridity sustains difference, but deters cultural integration into the kinds of values that form the non-ethnic core of democratic societies.

Question 32

The idea of hybrid culture is similar to the idea of hyphenated Americanism.