Exam 2

Question 1

Genocide

Answer 1

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation

Question 2

Expulsion

Answer 2

“Population Transfer”
In this pattern, a dominant group forcefully moves subordinate groups into specific geographic areas. Example: Native Americans into reservations in the 19th century

Question 3

Anglo-conformity

Answer 3

A+B+C=A
A is majority group
B and C assimilate and then everyone becomes A
Anglo-conformity and Melting pot are similar (assimilation but of different kinds)
In this pattern, minority group members learn the ways of a majority group to be included into a society

Question 4

Melting pot

Answer 4

In this pattern, different groups learn and incorporate the ways of others, creating a mixture that reflects every group
A+B+C=D
A,B,C interact and create D (new)
D is hybrid of culture and structural patterns
Most applicable to Europeans coming into the US and assimilating

Question 5

Pluralism

Answer 5

(also known, especially in educational contexts, as Multiculturalism)
Pluralism is a combination of the maintenance of cultural distinctiveness and the provision of equal opportunities in economic and political spheres

Question 6

Separatism

Answer 6

In this pattern, a minority group separate completely (politically, economically, culturally) from the dominant group

Question 7

Cultural assimilation

Answer 7

A person or a group learns cultural patterns of a different group. Examples: learning English, wearing clothes prevalent in a society, etc

Question 8

Primary structural assimilation

Answer 8

The inclusion of a different group member into informal networks (such as friendship)

Question 9

Secondary structural assimilation

Answer 9

The inclusion of a different group member into organizations on an official formal basis

Question 10

Amalgamation

Answer 10

(Marital Assimilation)
In the context of race and ethnicity, it simply means interracial marriage

Question 11

Post-Racial America

Answer 11

Since President Obama was elected in 2008, the question of whether his election signifies the arrival of post-racial America was debated widely. But what is post-racial? Scholars define a post-racial society as a situation in which a society attains the condition of cosmopolitanism.
In cosmopolitanism, racial and ethnic identity is a matter of individual choice, thus no racial and ethnic group boundary is maintained. Rather, individuals can activate their racial and ethnic identity when they choose, and their choice does not accompany negative social costs (such as being discriminated). When that condition is attained, scholars claim that the US can call itself post-racial.

Question 12

How does Milton Gordon see the 4 Dimensions of Assimilation?

Answer 12

Milton Gordon sees these dimensions as stages, and the previous stage is a necessary condition to achieve the next stage of assimilation. Namely, cultural assimilation is a prerequisite for secondary structural assimilation. Primary structural assimilation is harder to attain than secondary structural assimilation, etc.

Question 13

Cosmopolitanism

Answer 13

More individual oriented
Racial / ethnic identity is a matter of individual choice, thus no racial / ethnic group boundary is maintained

Question 14

Restrictive Covenants

Answer 14

A contractual agreement that properties will not be sold, leased, or rented to “undesirable” groups

Question 15

Blockbusting

Answer 15

The practice by realtors of infusing fear of minority moving into the neighborhoods, so that they can buy homes cheaply and sell them to minority members for profits.

Question 16

Racial steering

Answer 16

The practice by realtors of showing clients homes or apartments primarily in neighborhoods with residents racially similar to the clients

Question 17

Redlining

Answer 17

The deliberate decision by banks to refuse loans to people trying to buy homes in lower-income minority neighborhoods

Question 18

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

Answer 18

“Separate is inherently unequal.”
“Separate” is inherently “unequal,” thus segregation is unconstitutional

Question 19

Serrano v. Priest (1971)

Answer 19

California State Supreme Court decided that unequal funding resulting from the reliance on local property taxes to fund public education was unconstitutional.
So, the state government must equalize the per-student funding for public schools
Equality-Inequality Issue

Question 20

San Antonio v. Rodriguez (1973)

Answer 20

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that educational funding was a state matter, not a federal matter
Equality-Inequality Issue

Question 21

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971)

Answer 21

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that each school district must bus students to achieve integration proportionate to student demographics in each school district.
Segregation-Integration Issue

Question 22

Milliken v. Bradley (1974)

Answer 22

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that there was NO legal requirement for inter-district busing.
Segregation-Integration Issue

Question 23

Oklahoma Board of Education v. Dowell (1991)

Answer 23

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that school districts can be released from court-ordered busing once they have taken all “practicable” steps to eliminate the legacy of segregation
Segregation-Integration Issue

Question 24

Parents v. Seattle School District (2007)

Answer 24

The U.S. Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional to assign students to public schools solely for the purpose of achieving racial integration and declined to recognize racial balancing as a compelling state interest.
This is where we stand right now on the issues of desegregation and equality.
Segregation-Integration Issue

Question 25

Secession Movement

Answer 25

In the 2010s
Mostly white, economically well-off enclaves secede (or attempt to secede) from the larger, more diverse school districts to form their own school systems. Collectively, it is referred to as “the secession movement.”
Since 2000, at least 128 communities have attempted to secede (of those, 73 succeeded to secede, 17 pending).
When successful, the secession has resulted in the intensification of socioeconomic and racial divides.

Question 26

Affirmative Action

Answer 26

A policy designed to end discrimination (past and present) and to ensure equal opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups by giving preferential treatment to equally qualified minorities in employment, school admissions, and governmental
contracting.

Question 27

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

Answer 27

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that the U.C. Davis medical school’s affirmative action program that set aside 16 spots out of 100 (i.e., Quota System) was unconstitutional and thus must be discontinued.
Importantly, in this case, the U.S. Supreme Court also stated that the use of race as a factor in admission is permissible, if applicants qualify based on merit.
Affirmative Action Issue

Question 28

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

Answer 28

In this case on law school admission, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the use of race as one factor is constitutional
Affirmative Action Issue

Question 29

Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)

Answer 29

University of Michigan’s undergraduate division had the point system which gave 20 points automatically to minority applicants. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that converting race to a pure number resembled a quota far too much, and thus unconstitutional.
Affirmative Action Issue

Question 30

Fisher v. Texas (2016)

Answer 30

On June 23, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision that universities may continue to consider race as one factor in ensuring a diverse student body, basically keeping its own Bakke (1978) and Grutter (2003) decisions intact
Affirmative Action Issue

Question 31

Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023)

Answer 31

On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided race-conscious college admissions processes are unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, ending the policy of affirmative action.
Affirmative Action Issue

Question 32

Hispanic crusade

Answer 32

Because they are the fastest growing voting group, both parties are trying hard to lure Hispanic votes.

Question 33

Hispandering

Answer 33

A strategy employed by political candidates to court Hispanic votes. An example: a non-Hispanic candidate inserting Spanish phrases or sentences into a speech during campaigns.

Question 34

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

Answer 34

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that “preclearance” by Justice Department, set in 1965 Voting Rights Act, before changing election or voting laws, was no longer required.
(More on this case is in “Systemic Inequality and American Democracy.”)
Voter Suppression Issue

Question 35

What are three distinctive characteristics of urban Black neighborhoods?

Answer 35

More homogeneous
More isolated
More Permanent

Question 36

What is Derrick Bell’s idea of “Alternative Brown”?

Answer 36

Because of the slow progress in achieving educational integration and equality in the 1960s-1980s and the backlash against the effort to integrate since the 1990s, some scholars on race argued that the Brown decision was a mistake.
Derrick Bell, one of the most prominent scholars in this line of academic discourse, published a book titled Silent Covenants in 2004, in which he presented his idea of what the Brown decision should have been. Calling it “Alternative Brown,” he presented his idea as follows:
“More important than striking down Plessy v. Ferguson is the need to reveal its hypocritical underpinnings by requiring its full enforcement for all children. Realistic rather than symbolic relief for segregated schools will require a specific judicially monitored plan designed primarily to provide the educational equity long denied under the separate but equal rhetoric.” (Silent Covenants, p. 24)
To put simply, Bell is arguing that, instead of striking down Plessy, the Brown decision should have reaffirmed it with the specific instruction to achieve the “equal” part of “separate but equal.”

Question 37

What are the standpoints - pros and cons - of affirmative action?

Answer 37

1. Quota system - Even though affirmative action is not supposed to have quotas some educational institutions and companies did use quotas. It is not a legitimate affirmative action.
2. Point system - Some universities granted minority applicants automatically some extra points in the process of admission decisions. It is not a legitimate affirmative action.
3. Preference system - At some universities, minority applicants got some additional advantages in admission decisions. It can be legitimate or illegitimate. If universities accept unqualified minority applicants instead of qualified majority applicants, it is illegitimate. If universities accept qualified minority applicants instead of qualified majority applicants, it is a legitimate affirmative action.

Question 38

What is the concept of “interest convergence”? Apply the concept of “interest convergence” to Brown decision:

Answer 38

In the 1950s, the Cold War was intensifying, and the U.S. claimed itself to be the moral exemplar of freedom and democracy, in contrast to the communist nations’ dictatorial governance and neglect of human rights.
But domestically, the U.S. still had the Jim Crow system of segregation, violating the human rights of Black people. And this contradiction between the U.S. self-portrayal of freedom and democracy to the world and the Jim Crow realities within the U.S. was used by the communist nations to discredit the U.S. as a hypocritical nation.
The Brown decision, therefore, was made to serve more for the nation’s interests (that is, advancing its image as the moral exemplar of freedom and democracy), rather than to correct the racial injustice

Question 39

What are some examples of voter suppression strategies?

Answer 39

• More strict voter ID laws (requiring a photo-ID, reducing the number of acceptable IDs)
• DMV closing (predominantly in or adjacent to minority neighborhoods)
• Polling location change (in some cases, for every election)
  Key: Each strategy can be viewed as “race neutral” but the effects have not been racially neutral.

Question 40

What do you think about the idea of color-blindness?

Answer 40

Racism exists because we make racial classifications
Racism disappears once we stop thinking and identifying racial categories
As a goal, its not a problem, but as an ideology, it is
Problems
Presupposes that, racism is no longer a structural phenomenon and the only racism involves “hate crimes” of a few individuals
Thus, race and racism no longer matter in American society with respect to social and economic participation
Thus, persisting racial inequality is either the result of coincidence, natural choice, or failure of minorities to take advantage of the “equal opportunities” presumed to be available
Thus, attempts to redress racial inequality are now decried as violations of general principles of meritocracy and free choice and as the victimization of innocent whites

Question 41

Understand the U.S. Supreme Court case of Mendez v. Westminster (1946):

Answer 41

Segregated its Mexican students into certain schools
Mendez tried to enroll his kids into Westminster, CA but was refused and told to attend nearby Mexican schools
Ruled in favor of Mexican American families, that California’s state laws that segregated Mexican American children were unconstitutional.

Question 42

What is the “opportunity gap”? Why do authors emphasize it instead of using the term “achievement gap”?

Answer 42

The persistent racial issue with the institutions and environmental conditions that provide opportunities for certain students and not for others
It’s the “logical outcome of hundreds of years or racialized hierarchy in the US”
Loaded with negative assumptions - supporting the notion that it is a natural phenomenon

Question 43

What is “tracking”? What are the consequences of tracking?

Answer 43

The practice of grouping students for organizing classes according to the level of difficulty
Because each class builds on the previous classes, it is very hard for a student who starts on a lower track to move up to a higher one
Students are placed on tracks through a combination of teacher recommendations, grades, and scores on standardized testing
Lower-track consequences tend to have less engaging curricula and lower expectations of student achievement
End up being less prepared for college or higher paying jobs then their high-tracked peers
(Advanced classes vs regular classes - supposedly based on people’s ability but advanced classes tend to have predominantly asians and white where lower level have black and hispanic)

Question 44

Mica Pollock’s four myths about race:

Answer 44

1. Are “the races” truly valid biological or genetic subgroups to the human race?
2. Are some “races” smarter than others?
3. Are opportunities in America racially equal?
4. Are achievement gaps caused by groups’ “cultural” orientations toward education?
   (no to all!)