Deck 8: Race and Ethnicity As Lived Experience

Question 1

In 2010, the Census Bureau allowed Americans to check more than one box when identifying their race. What percentage of the population took advantage of this and identified themselves as multiracial?

A) 17.8 percent
B) 42.6 percent
C) 54.9 percent
D) 12 percent
E) 2.9 percent

Answer 1

E

Question 2

When someone of Irish ancestry who doesn't typically identify as Irish in everyday life puts on a green hat, drinks green beer, and wears a "Kiss me, I'm Irish" T-shirt on St. Patrick's Day, it is an example of:

A) posing.
B) prejudice.
C) disembodied identities.
D) symbolic ethnicity.
E) situational ethnicity.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

A young person from Southern California has four German grandparents. She lived in Los Angeles all her life before accepting a job in Milwaukee. She's never really thought about her German heritage, but in Milwaukee she discovers many other people with similar ancestries and starts using her ethnicity as a way to develop social and professional relationships. What is this an example of?

A) symbolic ethnicity
B) internal colonialism
C) passing
D) situational ethnicity
E) the disparities in racial consequences

Answer 3

D

Question 4

How do we decide when to display situational ethnicity?

A) We decide based on the holiday.
B) We follow our families' demands.
C) We only consider religious holidays.
D) We wait until the end of our life cycle.
E) We do a cost-benefit analysis.

Question 5

Displays of ethnic identity that only occur on special occasions are called:

A) celebratory ethnicity.
B) symbolic ethnicity.
C) situational ethnicity.
D) quiet race.
E) religious identity.

Question 6

In the United States, which of the following groups would have the most freedom in choosing to display or not display their race or ethnicity?

A) Asian
B) Hispanic
C) African American
D) Irish
E) Native American

Question 7

In the early 1900s, native-born Americans, usually Protestants, did not consider Irish, Italian, or Jewish immigrants to be white. What does this illustrate?

A) racial passing
B) an enactment of symbolic ethnicity
C) the social construction of race
D) racial indifference
E) racial pluralism

Question 8

How do sociologists define a minority group?

A) a group that makes up less than 50 percent of the total population
B) a group that makes up less than 20 percent of the total population
C) a group whose members suffer from unequal treatment
D) a group that is smaller than the dominant group
E) a group that is overrepresented in the educational system

Question 9

How does Tiger Woods describe his own racial identity?

A) biracial
B) Cablinasian
C) Caucasian
D) African American
E) Asian

Question 10

In the 1900s, there was a strong prejudice against Irish immigrants and their descendants. Editorial cartoons often depicted the Irish as physically distinct and as looking like apes. What does this tell you about the history of race in the United States?

A) The Irish were once considered to be a separate race.
B) Racial hostility is permanent.
C) Europe has many different racial groups.
D) There must have been significant biological differences between early Protestant immigrants from England and Holland and Catholic immigrants from Ireland.
E) Ireland must have changed a great deal over the course of the twentieth century.

Question 11

What are the positive consequences of racial and ethnic categories?

A) They help create hierarchy.
B) They allow for split labor markets.
C) They create a sense of identity and lead to feelings of solidarity.
D) They help create conditions of inequality.
E) They create a large pool of people who can be forced to work in less desirable jobs.

Question 12

How do sociologists define race?

A) an inherited set of predispositions
B) a group with a shared cultural heritage
C) the same way they define ethnicity
D) the difference between Mongoloid, Negroid, and Caucasoid people
E) a social category based on real or perceived biological differences

Question 13

The Brazilian census has traditionally only had four racial categories: preto, branco, amarelo, and pardo. However, in everyday life, Brazilians have many other racial categories, including moreno, mulato, neguinho, and pretinho. Most of these terms don't have an equivalent in the United States. What does this tell you?

A) Race is a social construct.
B) Brazil places more importance on symbolic ethnicity.
C) The United States is less diverse than Brazil.
D) Brazil has never used science to classify its population.
E) Race doesn't matter in Brazil as much as it does in the United States.

Question 14

Despite demographic shifts, how can you tell that whites are still the dominant group in California?

A) They discriminate against other racial and ethnic groups.
B) They remain dominant in terms of power, resources, and representation in social institutions.
C) They are overrepresented in prisons.
D) They are overrepresented as victims of violent crimes.
E) Affirmative action policies are still in place.

Question 15

For a long time, the fact that immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America tended to be shorter than native-born Americans was taken as evidence that there were inherent racial differences between these populations. However, the immigrants had children who grew up to be as tall as anyone else, and geneticists now tell us that, while there can be considerable variation in height within a group due to genetics, height differences between groups are largely caused by diet. What does this demonstrate?

A) Race will always be an important way to understand physical traits.
B) There are essential differences between racial populations.
C) It is "natural" for different racial groups to avoid mixing.
D) Some physical features, like blood type, are correlated with race.
E) Racial differences are socially constructed and not genetic.

Question 16

How do the current demographics of California challenge the way the term "minority" has been used in the past?

A) Hispanics are a numerical minority but are very socially powerful.
B) There are far fewer African Americans in California than in the rest of the country.
C) Whites are now less than half of the population of California.
D) California has a much wider variety of racial and ethnic groups than the rest of the country.
E) California is more tolerant of its ethnic diversity than the rest of the country is.

Question 17

In Chicago, a city with more Polish people than anywhere else in the United States, Casimir Pulaski Day is always a very important holiday. Although not well remembered in the rest of the country, Pulaski was a Polish-born hero of the American Revolution and a cavalry general. What concept helps to explain why this holiday is so much more important to people who trace their ancestry to Poland?

A) racial hegemony
B) racial passing
C) symbolic ethnicity
D) situational ethnicity
E) the social construction of race

Question 18

What has modern science determined about racial categories?

A) There is greater diversity between racial populations than within them.
B) Biologically there is no such thing as a pure race.
C) Some racial groups are genetically predisposed to be more intelligent than others.
D) Some racial groups are genetically predisposed to be more athletically inclined than others.
E) There has been almost no mixing of races in American history.

Question 19

When whites are less than half the population of any given state, it is called a:

A) pluralistic state.
B) metadiverse state.
C) postmodern state.
D) minority state.
E) majority-minority state.

Question 20

How do sociologists define ethnicity?

A) people who share a common physical characteristic
B) people with the same skin color
C) a group with a shared ancestry or shared cultural heritage
D) the same way they define race
E) a genetic predisposition toward certain behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs

Question 21

In 1991 an enormous controversy erupted after five Los Angeles police officers were caught on tape beating a motorist named Rodney King. Although there continues to be much controversy over the event, many people see it as a blatant act of discrimination. Under what circumstances would this beating be considered institutional discrimination?

A) It would be seen as institutional discrimination as long as none of the officers involved had a financial motive.
B) Under no circumstances could this be institutional discrimination, as it was carried out by individuals.
C) If the leadership of the Los Angeles Police Department condoned or encouraged this type of behavior on a regular basis, it would be considered institutional discrimination.
D) If it could be shown that at least one of the officers was truly racist, it would be considered institutional discrimination.
E) If all of the officers involved were motivated by racial hatred, it would be considered institutional discrimination.

Question 22

Plantation owners in America often argued that the Africans they imported were better off as slaves because they didn't have the mental capacity to run their own lives. Today, this seems both racist and crazy. How could such racist beliefs flourish?

A) People are, by nature, hostile and look to blame their problems on others.
B) Such beliefs justify social arrangements between dominant and minority groups that benefit those who accept them.
C) People knew much less about world history then, so it seemed more plausible.
D) Nineteenth-century science wasn't very well developed, so no authority figures could debunk racist beliefs.
E) There were very few slaves in America, so not many people had firsthand experience with the issue.

Question 23

An action or behavior that results in the unequal treatment of an individual because of his membership in a racial or ethnic group is called:

A) prejudice.
B) discrimination.
C) pluralism.
D) passing.
E) racial assimilation.

Question 24

In 1993 six African American Secret Service agents filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against Denny's for refusal of service because the restaurant took much longer to serve them than other customers. After they filed the complaint, thousands of other African Americans came forward with similar allegations. What are these allegations evidence of?

A) situational ethnicity
B) assimilation
C) institutional discrimination
D) individual discrimination
E) internal colonialism

Question 25

The belief that Asians are genetically predisposed to be more intelligent than Europeans is an example of:

A) discrimination.
B) cultural assimilation.
C) racism.
D) racial passing.
E) pluralism.

Question 26

If a landlord was found guilty of discriminatory practices for refusing to rent to Hispanic tenants, what could be seen as evidence that it was a case of individual discrimination?

A) The landlord was following the instructions of the local business association.
B) Other Hispanic tenants were able to find places to rent in the area.
C) The landlord was following long-held conventions and practices.
D) Hispanic tenants had a hard time finding someone who would rent to them.
E) The landlord was supported by all the other big landlords in the area.

Question 27

The belief that all Irish are drunks is an example of:

A) discrimination.
B) miscegenation.
C) passing.
D) prejudice.
E) underrepresentation.

Question 28

The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray generated an enormous amount of controversy when it first came out, largely because it suggested that racial differences in IQ scores were due to genetically driven differences in intelligence and argued that "both genes and the environment have something to do with racial differences." For those who disagreed, this seemed like a very familiar argument, because:

A) racism usually is reducible to a group's cultural characteristics.
B) this is the same argument that was made by the founding fathers to justify the relatively equal treatment of both Native Americans and involuntary African immigrants.
C) as always, it leaves education policy at the center of a racial controversy.
D) racist beliefs are often rooted in the assumption that differences between groups are biologically based.
E) IQ tests were always used to justify racism.

Question 29

How did the G.I. Bill of Rights, which provided funds for home loans, affect African Americans?

A) It greatly aided in the creation of an African American middle class.
B) Though it was written to help all veterans regardless of race, African Americans were typically excluded from home ownership.
C) It helped those who had served in the military, but there were relatively few African American veterans.
D) It provided assistance to African Americans in the North, but there was still too much prejudice in the South.
E) It helped African Americans buy houses in black neighborhoods, but not anywhere else.

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT a feature of a minority group?

A) Minority group members most often believe they are superior to the majority.
B) Minority group members develop a self-conscious common identity.
C) Minority group members practice endogamy.
D) Minority group members suffer social disadvantages.
E) Minority group members are subjected to racist beliefs.

Question 31

Many immigrants to the United States have gotten in trouble for keeping livestock-especially chickens, goats, and pigs-in urban areas. Their neighbors feel it's okay to own a 150-pound mastiff but "unsanitary" to have a 50-pound goat that gives milk. In this case, what is driving racism?

A) the need to generate finance capital
B) the assumption that differences between groups are innate, or biologically based
C) a negative view of a group's cultural characteristics
D) the financial interests of Wall Street
E) the linguistic barriers that prevent communication

Question 32

How is prejudice different from discrimination?

A) Prejudice is an action; discrimination is an attitude.
B) Prejudices can only be negative; discrimination can be either negative or positive.
C) Prejudice only occurs within minority groups, but discrimination can happen anywhere.
D) Prejudice requires the negatively affected group to be a minority group; discrimination does not.
E) Prejudice is an attitude; discrimination is an action.

Question 33

A set of beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group compared to another is:

A) discrimination.
B) racism.
C) prejudice.
D) pluralism.
E) assimilation.

Question 34

What is the goal of affirmative action?

A) to increase diversity
B) to disadvantage white students
C) to achieve reverse discrimination
D) to provide a justification for reverse racism
E) to increase majority representation

Question 35

The "Jim Crow" laws in the American South, which mandated separate facilities for whites and blacks, were an example of:

A) population transfer.
B) assimilation.
C) conflict theory.
D) individual discrimination.
E) institutional discrimination.

Question 36

How is institutional discrimination different from individual discrimination?

A) Institutional discrimination involves attitudes or opinions.
B) Institutional discrimination can be either positive or negative.
C) Institutional discrimination is more systematic and widespread.
D) Institutional discrimination is less harmful.
E) Institutional discrimination almost never happens today, while individual discrimination is still very common.

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT an example of discrimination?

A) refusing to sell someone a house in a particular neighborhood because of her race
B) grading students unfairly because of race or gender
C) believing that African Americans are better dancers than white people
D) pulling over motorists based solely on their race
E) scrutinizing shoppers because of their race or ethnicity

Question 38

Which of the following is an example of a prejudice?

A) not hiring someone because of their ethnicity
B) giving African Americans higher mortgage interest rates
C) only searching people of certain ethnicities at the airport
D) believing that Asians are better at math
E) making fun of classmates for looking different

Question 39

In visual representations, racial and ethnic minorities are often portrayed as animalistic or subhuman, many times as monkeys or chimpanzees. According to your understanding of Chapter 8, why would racist imagery so often use animals?

A) For Europeans, representing someone as a primate is the worst possible insult.
B) Many minority cultures have cultural associations with monkeys.
C) Racists aren't really very imaginative, so they simply recycle the same stereotypes.
D) Animal imagery guarantees that even people who don't read much can still be exposed to racist stereotypes.
E) Animal imagery supports the assumption that differences between groups are innate, or biologically based.

Question 40

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, since 2004 Texas has had a minority population of at least 11.3 million, comprising 50.2 percent of its total population of 22.5 million. The primary minority group is Mexican Americans. However, despite this numerical prominence, Texas has never had a Mexican American governor and the percentage of Mexican Americans in its state House has never been higher than 26. Why would a sociologist still call Mexican Americans a minority group?

A) It was only in the past decade that they stopped being a numerical minority.
B) They are still only a plurality, not a numerical majority.
C) They are denied access to power and resources.
D) There are several other racial and ethnic groups that are more prominent in Texas.
E) A sociologist would not call them a minority group.

Question 41

Classical Marxist analysis often argued that everything is ultimately determined by the economy, even though sometimes it is through many complicated steps. Can economic factors explain racism?

A) No, almost none of the factors associated with racism can be understood in economic terms.
B) The link between race and class is very strong, and almost all sociologists accept that race is primarily a way to keep the working class divided.
C) The link between race and class is useful and important, but it doesn't provide a satisfactory explanation for all forms of racism.
D) Yes, although the economic origins of racism may be very distant now, ultimately racism began with economic factors.
E) Yes, it was the need for cheap labor that originally created American racial divisions.

Question 42

The fact that so many people are asked, "What are you?" in reference to their race is evidence that:

A) race is not all that important.
B) race must be established interactionally.
C) race has a biological basis.
D) it is usually easy to tell someone's race just by looking at them.
E) people are generally very comfortable talking about their own race.

Question 43

According to sociologists like Howard Winant and Michael Omi, what is the relationship between race and class?

A) Race is not a side effect of class; rather, it permeates every aspect of daily life.
B) Race is a secondary phenomenon that results from the class system.
C) Class is an unintended consequence of racial hierarchies.
D) There is no relationship at all between race and class.
E) Both race and class are created by biological factors inherent in being human.

Question 44

What does an individual need to be able to do in order to sound authentically African American when interacting with others online?

A) be able to include racially relevant content and language in interactions
B) listen to the right kind of music
C) set her avatar or picture to look like a cartoon
D) almost nothing; people have no way of verifying claims made online
E) it's almost impossible, as no one trusts anything they encounter on the Internet

Question 45

According to theorists like Edna Bonacich, what is the effect of a split labor market, in which workers belonging to one race are paid less than those of a different race?

A) The effects of racism are compounded by poverty.
B) The need to assimilate and achieve greater group cohesion is strengthened.
C) Racial tensions are lessened and conflict decreases.
D) Increasing numbers of workers may attempt to pass as another race.
E) Affirmative action policies are used to equalize wages.

Question 46

How do many people hope that the Internet will have a democratic influence on society?

A) It will make the economy more efficient, thus generating more wealth for all.
B) It will help traditionally underrepresented communities gain access to power, privilege, and influence.
C) In online interactions, there is no way to see what other people look like.
D) It will help train poor people to use technology.
E) It lets corporations gather large amounts of data about individual consumers.

Question 47

The sociologist Amy L. Best, in "Doing Race in the Context of Feminist Interviewing: Constructing Whiteness Through Talk," analyzed how two African American teenagers had to create racial identities during their interview with her. What does this analysis suggest about race?

A) Racism is partly driven by economic competition and the struggle over scarce resources.
B) Even master statuses like race and gender have to be constructed in the negotiation between what we project and what others recognize.
C) People have a tendency toward ethnocentrism, or the belief that one's own culture and way of life are right and normal.
D) There is a racial hierarchy in the United States.
E) Race isn't just a secondary phenomenon that results from the class system.

Question 48

How have racial problems manifested themselves on the Internet?

A) There are almost no racial problems on the Internet because no one can see what others look like.
B) There are racial problems only on websites that allow users to upload pictures.
C) The Internet is not a place where negative racial distinctions disappear; they simply appear in different ways.
D) Racial problems are much worse on the Internet than in everyday life.
E) Racial problems only occur on the Internet when people from different countries interact.

Question 49

Anatole Broyard, a literary critic and writer for the New York Times, lived a double life. He had a mixed racial heritage, and while African American friends knew him as African American, white friends and professional acquaintances thought he was white. After his death, Broyard's daughter tried to write his life story and, as part of the process, organized a family reunion. This was made more difficult by the fact that Broyard's extended family included many who thought of themselves as white, others as black. What does this demonstrate about passing?

A) Anyone with light enough skin usually passes for white.
B) Only people in certain parts of the country can get away with passing.
C) Passing is easy to do.
D) The only factor that determines whether someone wants to pass is the ability to do so.
E) Passing happens almost entirely through interaction.

Question 50

What is it called when someone lives as if they were a member of a different racial category than the one they were born into?

A) assimilation
B) cultural imperialism
C) racial self-hatred
D) racial passing
E) racial stereotyping

Question 51

What explanation does functionalism have for prejudice and discrimination today?

A) Prejudice and discrimination are the result of a struggle for scarce resources.
B) Prejudice and discrimination are perpetuated by economic, not racial, factors.
C) Prejudice and discrimination are established on an international level.
D) Prejudice and discrimination are more or less nonexistent because, as functionalism would predict, they are nonfunctional.
E) Prejudice and discrimination help to increase group cohesion.

Question 52

According to William Julius Wilson, racism has created a black underclass, but this underclass is perpetuated by:

A) more racism.
B) institutional racism.
C) racial passing.
D) economic factors.
E) redlining.

Question 53

Cornel West argues that the work of Antonio Gramsci is significant because Gramsci was the first European Marxist to seriously consider the "cultural life-worlds of the oppressed" in ways that treated culture as a serious, independent force in people's lives. How is Gramsci's work similar to that of Tomás Almaguer or Howard Winant and Michael Omi?

A) It treats race and class as the central features of society.
B) It doesn't assume that the economy determines every aspect of a society and its culture.
C) It sees race as a lived phenomenon.
D) It assumes that religion is more important than class.
E) It treats economic determinism as the answer to most questions about race.

Question 54

The "ethnic miracle" is a term used to describe the process by which European immigrants and their descendants stopped being treated as members of minority groups and became assimilated into the dominant group. What kind of sociologist believes that this happened because it made society run much more efficiently?

A) a structural functionalist
B) a conflict theorist
C) a symbolic interactionist
D) a Weberian
E) a follower of William Julius Wilson

Question 55

What do sociologists call it when an African American individual is told he is not really "black enough"?

A) assimilation
B) racism
C) internal colonialism
D) stereotyping
E) an identity challenge

Question 56

In the novel The Human Stain by Philip Roth, a professor at a college in the Northeast is forced into early retirement after he is accused of racism. The charge turns out to be ironic when the reader learns that the professor has a secret: he was born to African American parents and has been covering up his heritage and living as a white man his whole adult life. What is this an example of?

A) reverse discrimination
B) assimilation
C) hegemony
D) individual discrimination
E) passing

Question 57

The work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci is significant because it seriously considers the importance of the "cultural life-worlds of the oppressed." In what way does this resemble the symbolic interactionist perspective on race?

A) Both see the economy as the central component in creating racism and racial hierarchy.
B) Both look for the source of racism in capitalist hierarchies.
C) Both help explain how certain ethnic groups, mainly European immigrants arriving in the early twentieth century, became assimilated into the larger society.
D) Both argue that race must be explained in the terms in which it is experienced, not as overarching general theories.
E) Both argue that the need for group cohesion creates racism.

Question 58

According to conflict theory, what is the real source of racism?

A) the need for social equality for capitalism to function
B) the people who attempt to live as if they were members of a different racial group
C) the struggle for power and control
D) the desire for assimilation
E) the ways people use cost-benefit analysis to decide if they want to display their ethnicity

Question 59

What racial issue does functionalism help to explain?

A) the persistence of racial divisions in America today
B) the assimilation of European ethnic groups into larger society
C) the continued existence of a distinct Hispanic identity and culture in the United States
D) the everyday mechanisms of racial passing
E) the way race permeates lived experience and everyday life

Question 60

Rather than seeing racism as a product of class differences, recent theorists like Tomás Almaguer argue that:

A) class differences are a product of racism.
B) racist beliefs can become part of economic life.
C) race and class have nothing in common.
D) many minority groups benefit from government policies, and it is actually whites who are discriminated against.
E) there are very few economic differences between racial groups.

Question 61

The exploitation of a minority group within the dominant group's political borders is called:

A) racial assimilation.
B) population transfer.
C) social justice.
D) ethnic conflict.
E) internal colonialism.

Question 62

Which of the following factors make someone most likely to drop out of high school?

A) having parents who didn't attend college
B) living in a rural area
C) coming from a non-English-speaking background
D) living in the Midwest
E) living in a single-parent home

Question 63

In the early nineteenth century, Native Americans, who had survived clashes with the U.S. Army, were forcibly removed to reservations. This is an example of:

A) genocide.
B) assimilation.
C) pluralism.
D) population transfer.
E) multiculturalism.

Question 64

Why are poor women less likely to marry?

A) They are less likely to be in love.
B) They feel that the men they encounter are less likely to offer the advantages that make marriage worth the risk.
C) They come from a culture of poverty that doesn't value marriage.
D) They are officially discouraged from doing so by the government.
E) The costs associated with a wedding and a marriage license are often out of reach for poor women.

Question 65

In 2009 there were only five African Americans who were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, or 1 percent of the total number of Fortune 500 CEOs. Given that African Americans make up more than 11 percent of the U.S. population, what does this tell you?

A) Jobs are not distributed regardless of racial or ethnic identity.
B) Most African Americans are "performing" a version of race that isn't compatible with bureaucracy.
C) Most African Americans live in geographically isolated or rural areas.
D) There are serious flaws in the way we measure and report race in employment surveys.
E) African Americans have rejected mainstream jobs and embraced the informal economy.

Question 66

According to the work of Twine (2011), what changes occur in the lives of white women that have families with black men?

A) They elevate their social status by proving they aren't racist.
B) They lose some racial privilege through their relationships with their husbands.
C) They face strain and uncertainty in their relationships with their husbands' families.
D) They are less likely to become mothers, because of their fears for their children.
E) They are less likely to divorce because of deeper intimacies with their husbands.

Question 67

According to Angela Davis, why are African American teenage girls disproportionately likely to have children?

A) Their culture values motherhood more than other racial and ethnic groups do.
B) They are less educated about methods of contraception.
C) They value the welfare benefits that children bring.
D) They are more likely to marry young, so are more likely to have children young.
E) They see few opportunities for education or work and choose motherhood instead.

Question 68

What historical event is sometimes referred to as the "forgotten genocide"?

A) the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by the Turkish government after World War I
B) the slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda
C) the death of 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II
D) the ethnic cleansing carried out by the government of Serbia in the former Yugoslavia
E) attacks on ethnic minorities in the Darfur region of Sudan

Question 69

In 1994 mass killings occurred in Rwanda, as members of the Hutu majority killed more than a million members of the Tutsi minority, many of them murdered with machetes. Although many Hutus later claimed that they were just trying to defend themselves, which of the following indicates that it was really genocide?

A) There was often rape as well as murder during the conflict.
B) The killings happened at an even faster rate than during the Holocaust.
C) Many of the individuals who did the killing had stockpiled weapons earlier.
D) There was a discussion at the highest levels of government about the need to kill as many people as possible.
E) The killings were particularly brutal.

Question 70

There are a number of derogatory terms in the United States for members of minority groups who have assimilated. "Oreo," "twinkie," and "coconut" are all rude terms for people who are one color on the outside but "white on the inside"-that is, people whose behavior doesn't match their skin color. What term embodies these insults?

A) passing
B) symbolic ethnicity
C) discrimination
D) identity challenges
E) institutional racism

Question 71

Even though antimiscegenation laws have been struck down, interracial relationships are still relatively uncommon. Why?

A) Powerful cultural stereotypes discourage them.
B) Many people don't realize that such laws have been struck down.
C) Members of interracial couples have a much harder time finding a job.
D) Federal laws have been struck down, but state and local laws remain.
E) Young people remain almost universally intolerant of interracial romance.

Question 72

Which major U.S. racial group has the lowest high school dropout rate?

A) African Americans
B) Hispanics
C) Caucasians
D) Native Americans
E) Asian Americans

Question 73

Why are there differences in life expectancies for people of different races?

A) disparities in access to health care
B) genetic differences resulting in predispositions to various diseases
C) biological differences, as different races have radically different hormones
D) greatly increased levels of law enforcement violence directed at certain racial groups
E) all of the above

Question 74

According to one study, in Pennsylvania, black defendants on trial for murder were 40 percent more likely to receive the death penalty than whites convicted of similar crimes. This indicates that:

A) blacks are given equal treatment by the U.S. justice system.
B) whites are often the victims of reverse discrimination.
C) the criminal justice system has a racial bias.
D) African Americans commit more murders than other racial or ethnic groups.
E) the severity of a crime usually doesn't have an effect on the punishment.

Question 75

In 2003 a civil war began in Darfur. A United Nations report released in 2004 argued that: Generally speaking the policy of attacking, killing and forcibly displacing members of some tribes does not evince a specific intent to annihilate, in whole or in part, a group distinguished on racial, ethnic, national or religious grounds. Rather, it would seem that those who planned and organized attacks on villages pursued the intent to drive the victims from their homes.
Although many people disagree, in this passage the United Nations is arguing that the conflict in Darfur is:

A) racism.
B) genocide.
C) assimilation.
D) population transfer.
E) internal colonialism.

Question 76

The deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, or national group is called:

A) assimilation.
B) genocide.
C) colonialism.
D) internal colonialism.
E) population transfer.

Question 77

A study prepared by the United Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Justice argued that African American and Hispanic communities are much more likely to be located near toxic waste dumps than white communities. What does this tell you about race in America?

A) Race is largely socially constructed.
B) Race is an interactional accomplishment.
C) The employment structure of inner cities has collapsed.
D) Even the structure of families is dependent on race.
E) Race can have an effect on health.

Question 78

Which racial group has the highest median income?

A) Caucasians
B) African Americans
C) Hispanics
D) Native Americans
E) Asian Americans

Question 79

When Barack Obama was a presidential candidate, he argued that racial prejudice is one of America's defining social problems. He was implicitly acknowledging that:

A) low-income women of all ethnicities see marriage as having few benefits.
B) membership in socially constructed categories of race and ethnicity can affect people's life chances in many ways.
C) race is constructed almost entirely in interaction.
D) racism is driven by economic factors and any solution to racism will have to involve affirmative action.
E) race is often exaggerated as a factor in people's lives.

Question 80

In 2003 a piece of legislation considered by the U.S. Congress proposed spending almost $2 billion to encourage marriage, and there was some consideration of giving people on welfare cash bonuses if they got married. Why does your textbook suggest that approaches such as this one might not work?

A) Government policy has never been able to effectively do anything about marriage.
B) The poor in the United States are too far gone for marriage to help.
C) Potential husbands of poor women typically will not offer the financial stability, respectability, and trust that make marriage beneficial.
D) The culture among the poor and minority groups in the United States makes marriage undesirable.
E) Marriage has nothing to do with money, so people will almost certainly not be motivated by financial concerns.