Understanding Race and Racism

Understanding Race and Racism

• Racial identity is relational and intersectional, it is defined in relation to other groups and influenced by social identities like gender, class, and sexuality.
• Overt racism is explicit and openly expressed prejudice and discrimination based on race.
• Abstract liberalism justifies racial inequality using liberal ideas such as equal opportunity.
• The U.S. Census classifications categorize racial and ethnic groups.
• Microaggressions are subtle, often unintentional, expressions of prejudice towards marginalized groups.
• Race is understood as a socially constructed story with power dynamics.
• Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices.
• Stock stories are dominant narratives that reinforce existing power structures.
• Concealed stories are counter-narratives that challenge stock stories.
• Resistance stories are narratives of individuals or groups actively resisting oppression.
• Implicit bias consists of unconscious attitudes and stereotypes affecting understanding, actions, and decisions.
• Naturalization explains social inequalities as natural occurrences.
• Systemic approach analyzes how racism is embedded in institutions and policies.
• Social construction of race views race as a social construct, not a biological reality, created and maintained through social processes.
• Conflict theory and intersectional theory explain power imbalances and overlapping forms of oppression.

Immigration, Labor, and Racial Hierarchies

• Placade should be defined through research.
• The gender wage gap is the difference in earnings between men and women, disproportionately affecting women of color.
• Bacon's Rebellion was a historical event that highlighted class and racial tensions in colonial America.
• A refugee is someone forced to leave their country due to fear of persecution.
• Pull and push factors of immigration include factors that attract immigrants to a new country (pull) and those that force them to leave their home country (push).
• Black Code of France includes laws regulating the lives of enslaved Africans in French colonies.
• The Spanish slavery system has characteristics and impacts that should be understood.
• Racial hierarchies refers to systems of stratification based on race, where some groups are considered superior to others.
• The Turner hypothesis is the idea that the frontier shaped American identity and democracy.
• Left-hand marriages requires a definition that needs to be researched.
• The British slave system's characteristics and impact should be understood.
• Common views on Native Americans are the shared negative perceptions of Native Americans held by British and French colonists.

Assimilation and Integration

• Matrix Lens requires a definition that needs to be researched.
• The "Culture of Poverty" thesis is the controversial idea that poverty is perpetuated by the values and behaviors of poor people.
• Transmigrants are individuals who maintain connections to both their home and host countries.
• Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective on how individuals create meaning through interaction.
• Assimilation is the process by which immigrants adopt the cultural norms and values of the host society.
• Conflict theorists have a sociological perspective which emphasizes power struggles and inequality.
• The race relations cycle is a model of intergroup relations that progresses through stages of contact, competition, accommodation, and assimilation.
• The Great Migration was the mass movement of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the early 20th century.
• Marriage Promotion Programs requires a definition that needs to be researched.
• Milton Gordon and the assimilation process has stages (cultural, structural, marital, identificational, attitudinal receptional, behavioral receptional, civic) that should be understood.

Economic Inequality and Policy

• Blue collar work is manual labor, whereas white collar work is professional or office work.
• The Fair Deal was President Truman's extension of the New Deal, focusing on social and economic reforms.
• The Glass Ceiling and Concrete Ceiling are barriers that prevent women and minorities from advancing in their careers.
• The GI Bill of Rights is legislation that provided benefits to World War II veterans, including education and housing assistance.
• Revisions to the tax code needs to be understood as to how it can impact income inequality.
• The New Deal was President Roosevelt's programs to combat the Great Depression, including social security and job creation.
• Income inequality is the unequal distribution of income within a society.
• The Indian New Deal are policies aimed at improving the lives of Native Americans during the New Deal era.

Health and Inequality

• Social Darwinism is the application of Darwinian principles to human society, often used to justify inequality.
• The Epidemiological Paradox is the unexpected finding that some immigrant groups have better health outcomes than native-born populations, despite socioeconomic disadvantages.
• The Human Genome Project is a research project that mapped the human genome.
• Mortality is the rate of death in a population.
• Health inequity is unfair and avoidable differences in health outcomes between groups.
• The Immigration Law of 1891 is legislation that expanded federal control over immigration.
• The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was an unethical study that examined the natural progression of syphilis in African American men.
• Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations.

Education and Socialization

• Dame Schools were early forms of private elementary schools in colonial America.
• Colonization of the mind refers to the internalization of dominant cultural values and beliefs by marginalized groups.
• Human capital is the skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by an individual or population, viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organization or country.
• Reconstruction was the period after the Civil War focused on rebuilding the South and integrating formerly enslaved people into society.
• Socialization is the process by which individuals learn the norms, values, and beliefs of their society.
• Soul wound requires a definition that needs to be researched.
• Human vs. cultural capital differentiates between skills/knowledge (human capital) and cultural knowledge/assets (cultural capital).
• "Education of the Negro" requires a definition that needs to be researched.
• Critical pedagogy is an educational approach encouraging students to critically examine power structures and social inequalities.
• Mendez et al. v. Westminster School District of Orange County (1946) was a landmark case challenging segregation in California schools.

Essay Questions

• School Choice and Minority Students requires analyzing the potential impact of "school choice" policies on minority students and considering positive and negative consequences.
• Privilege and Oppression requires defining privilege, explaining its relationship to oppression, and providing examples of different types of privilege.
• Challenges of Reconstruction requires discussing three major challenges faced by the United States during Reconstruction.
• School-to-Prison Pipeline entails illustrating the school-to-prison pipeline, explaining factors that contribute to it.
• Health Disparities requires explaining health disparities between whites and people of color and identifying contributing factors.