Racial and Ethnic Politics

Question 1

Busing

Answer 1

Mandated movement of school children between racially homogeneous neighbourhoods to create racially mixed schools

Question 2

Quotas

Answer 2

Certain percentage of funds, school places or job place reserved for a previously disadvantaged group

Question 3

Affirmative action

Answer 3

Members of a previously disadvantaged minority group are given a head start in areas such as higher education or employment. An attempt to ‘balance the scales’

Question 4

Multiculturalism

Answer 4

Existence within a nation of people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Creates a diversity of lifestyle in that nation

Question 5

2010 census by ethnicity (changes from 2000)

Answer 5

White: 63.7% (-5.4)
Hispanic: 16.3% (+3.7)
Black: 12.6% (-0.3)
Asian: 5.7% (+1.2)

Question 6

Percentage of New Mexico population that are Hispanic compared to West Virginia

Answer 6

New Mexico: 46.3%

West Virginia: 1.2%

Question 7

Percentage of Mississippi population that are black compared to Montana

Answer 7

Mississippi: 37%
Montana: 0.4%

Question 8

First major Supreme Court civil rights ruling?

Answer 8

1954 Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka

Separate schools for Blacks and Whites deemed unconstitutional

Question 9

First major Congressional civil rights legislation?

Answer 9

1964 Civil Rights Act

Several provisions like making it harder to conduct literacy tests for voters

Question 10

Campaigners for civil rights

Answer 10

Peaceful: Martin Luther King Jr, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama
Violent: Malcolm X and Jeremiah Wright

Question 11

What did Jesse Jackson do?

Answer 11

Ran for Democratic Presidential nomination twice, Shadow Senator for Washington DC, special envoy to Africa

Question 12

Which case curbed affirmative action programmes?

Answer 12

Regents of the University of California vs Bakke 1978
Bakke didn’t get onto medical course as 16/100 places were set aside for minorities. Bakke did better than some of the 16.

Question 13

What did President Clinton say about affirmative action programmes in 1995?

Answer 13

Called for elimination of programmes that create a quota, creates preferences for unqualified individuals, creates reverse discrimination and continues after purpose is acheived

Question 14

What was the Michigan mandate?

Answer 14

University of Michigan stated they would use affirmative action to make the state’s institutions representative of the state’s population

Question 15

What was suggested by the court in the 2003 Bollinger decisions?

Answer 15

25 year limit on affirmative action programmes

Question 16

What percentage of people think affirmative action programmes are ‘a good thing’?

Answer 16

60%

Question 17

What percentage of people think minorities should be given ‘preferential treatment to improve their position’?

Answer 17

24% Agreed

72% Disagreed

Question 18

Unemployment rates of whites, Hispanics and blacks in 2017

Answer 18

Whites: 4.3%
Hispanics: 5.9%
Blacks: 7.7%
National average = 4.8%

Question 19

Number of blacks in Congress in 1984 compared to 2017

Answer 19

1984: 21
2017: 50

Question 20

African Americans in top executive jobs?

Answer 20

3
Colin Powell (State) 2001; Condoleezza Rice (State) 2005; Eric Holder (Justice) 2009

Question 21

First black supreme court judge

Answer 21

Thurgood Marshall in 1967

Question 22

Voting Rights Act 1965

Answer 22

Ended use of literacy tests and introduced federal officials to register voters

Question 23

Which act gave minorities stronger housing rights?

Answer 23

Civil Rights Act 1968

Question 24

How did President Johnson help protect Civil Rights?

Answer 24

Wholeheartedly supported Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 (bully pulpit)