Deck 10: Race Theory

Question 1

Much of the early sociological and anthropological was filled with racist theory grounded in biology. Which of the following helped legitimate these theories?

A) Religion and myth
B) Politics and the state
C) Science and technology
D) Feminism and gender

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Race become codified and integrated into a system of cultural, social, and political discourse during

A) The enlightenment
B) The renaissance
C) Modernity
D) Postmodernity

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The assignment of a race to all people is a process known as

A) Racism
B) Racialization
C) Race baiting
D) Race assignment

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT a key dimension of whiteness, according to Ruth Frankenberg?

A) It is a location of structured advantage or race privilege
B) It is a "standpoint," a place from which white people look at themselves and others
C) It often refers to cultural practices that are hardly ever remarked upon
D) It was the first racial category ever created, and all other races are constructed in opposition to it

Question 5

Henry Louis Gates argues that race is a significant yet contentious container of meaning. This is known as a

A) Symbol
B) Signifier
C) Sign
D) Concept

Question 6

An important historical fact to consider in the development of race is that

A) Slaves were denied important economic opportunities
B) Slaves were denied the vote and opportunities for political participation
C) Slaves were denied the opportunity to participate in civic life
D) Slaves were denied the ability to read and write

Question 7

Cornel West's combination of social theory, theology, and philosophy that espouses home, courage, and positive social change is known as

A) Social movement theory
B) prophetic pragmatism
C) liberation theology
D) none of the above

Question 8

For West, postmodernism

A) Is positive because it recognizes errors in Enlightenment thinking
B) Is negative because it undermines people's sense of power and autonomy
C) Neither A nor B
D) Both A and B

Question 9

According to W. Lawrence Hogue, what does postmodernism do to race?

A) It ignores it
B) It subtly reinforces traditional racial hierarchies
C) Problematizes race categories by decentering
D) Reshuffles the deck, and assigns new groups to old categories

Question 10

Overall, postmodern theory

A) Was overly concerned with race, to the point that it inadvertently reinforced racial categories
B) Has not taken root in the black intellectual community
C) Has deconstructed racial categories to the point where race and racism are no longer social issues
D) Has refocused the race debate back onto biological categories

Question 11

The "borderland"

A) Is the space created for Mexican-American theorists of race and ethnicity
B) Describes the boundaries that exist between racial categories
C) The physical and imaginary space created for critical exchange
D) Is the intersection between race and gender

Question 12

Gloria Anzaldua, a sixth generation Tejana, writes extensively about the intersection of race, gender, culture, and

A) Skin color
B) Age
C) Sexuality
D) Sex

Question 13

For Timothy Barnett, which of the following is NOT a component of whiteness?

A) Whiteness emerges from a racialized discourse between whites and those of other races
B) Whiteness is promoted as unraced, which hides its economic and political interests
C) Whiteness is not tied to skin color per se, but is related to the notion of race without being one
D) Whiteness reserves for itself the ultimate power to define race according to its political, social, and economic interests.

Question 14

To demonstrate the concept of whiteness, Noel Ignatiev describes how which of the following ethic groups "became" white?

A) Italian
B) German
C) French
D) Irish

Question 15

Critical Race Theory grew out of

A) The Black Panthers
B) Indigenous peoples' movements
C) The Critical Legal Studies movement
D) Emancipation

Question 16

Critical Race Theory is built on all of the following insights EXCEPT

A) Racism is normal and not aberrant in U.S. society
B) Law needs to be color blind in order to promote racial equality
C) Laws that treat whites and blacks alike can only remedy the most extreme forms of injustice
D) White elites will tolerate racial change only when it serves their interests

Question 17

A major criticism of Critical Race Theory is that it

A) Is too aggressive in its proposed solutions for racial justice
B) Is not aggressive enough in its proposed solutions for racial justice
C) Is to similar to poststructuralism in its conceptual basis
D) doesn't have a particular theoretical perspective at all

Question 18

The purpose of _________ is to reveal the hidden history of African culture and its importance to the world

A) Afrocentrism
B) African studies
C) Black world studies
D) African diaspora

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the Afrocentric method?

A) Locating all phenomena to be studied in psychological time and space
B) Locating imaginative systems of power
C) Locating racial construction and oppression in everyday interaction
D) Recognizing the diverse, dynamic, and changing nature of all phenomena

Question 20

What significance does Paul Gilroy assign to race?

A) It operates at a subconscious level to maintain privilege for whites
B) It has created racialized legacies that continue to oppress minorities
C) It is becoming less significant than social class in explaining inequality
D) It is real and tangible mainly in its consequences

Question 21

The Enlightenment helped to end racist theories based on biological explanations of difference

Question 22

Whiteness studies are an attempt to retain white dominance

Question 23

Henry Louis Gates is a major advocate of Afrocentrism

Question 24

Afrocentrism recognizes that most black people suffer from false consciousness

Question 25

How does the case of the Irish in America demonstrate the social construction of race?

Question 26

What is "racialization?"

Question 27

Has the linguistic turn helped or hindered constructionist theories of race? Why?

Question 28

What is "whiteness studies?" How is whiteness part of the project of racialization?

Question 29

How does Critical Race Theory differ from earlier versions of race theories? Is its focus more or less narrow than constructionist views of race? On balance, which do you think is better at explaining contemporary racial inequality?

Question 30

Does race still matter, or has the world become "post-racial?" Choose and explain one theory of race and compare it to Gilroy's "post-race theory." Which do you find most persuasive and why?