Appendix F
Part I
Define the following terms:
Term
Definition
White privilege
Rights or immunities granted as a particular benefit or favor for being White.
Racial profiling
Any arbitrary police-initiated action based on race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than a person’s behavior.
Racism
A doctrine that one race is superior.
Reverse discrimination
Actions that cause better-qualified White men to be passed over for women and minority men.
Part II
Complete the following using the MySocLab Social Explorer Map: Income Inequality by Race located on your student website:
Select 1 racial group from the list below:
African American
Asian American
Arab American
Hispanic American/Latino
White/Caucasian
Write a 250- to 350-word summary of the economic, social, and political standings of that group. Use additional resources if necessary, from the University Library or your textbooks.
Hispanic Americans, also known as Latinos, are people with cultural roots in the nations of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Spain. Hispanic Americans who trace their heritage to the early centuries have maintained their self-sufficient ranches and farmlands, but the majority earns wages as mine, farm, railroad, construction, and light industry laborers. Puerto Ricans have filled the garment district and light industry jobs of the cities. Cubans arrived with some money but, more important, with skills and training and have had much success in various business enterprises and professions (Encyclopedia.com, 2012).
The social standing of Hispanic Americans is below the U.S. average. The best-off are Cuban Americans, who have higher income and more schooling. Puerto Ricans occupy a middle position in terms of income, although those who are immigrants have a low rate of high school completion. Mexican Americans have the lowest relative ranking, with median family income at slightly less than two-thirds the national average. More than one-third of Hispanic American families now earn more than $50,000 annually. But many challenges remain; including schools that do not do a very good job teaching students whose first language is Spanish (University of Phoenix, 2012).
Latinos vary widely in their access to and inclination toward participation in the political process in the United States. Undocumented and documented aliens who are unable to vote are limited to publicizing their concerns. Many avoid even these activities out of fear of deportation. Latinos are also profoundly divided in political orientations. Cuban Americans are largely drawn to conservative causes, especially on foreign affairs issues. A majority of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans align themselves with the Democratic Party, but the issues that concern them in part reflect their regional differences. Two political positions that Latinos largely support are improved, less punitive immigration legislation and increased support for bilingual education programs (Encyclopedia.com, 2012).
Part III
Answer the following in 150 to 250 words each:
How do racial groups interact in contemporary America? Are interactions positive, negative, or neutral? Support your response using proper citations.
W. E. B. Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk, an analysis of the social standing of black people. As Du Bois saw it; even though slavery was gone, most African Americans were still living as second-class citizens. Every time black people and white people met, said Du Bois, race hung in the air, defining each in the eyes of the other. From the African American perspective, race produces “a peculiar sensation, [a] double-consciousness, [a] sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (2001:227, orig. 1903). In effect, Du Bois said, U.S. society makes whites the standard by which others