Multimedia and Discussion Questions

Chapter 11: The Architecture of Inequality: Race and Ethnicity

• Video Links
  • The O.J. Verdict
    On October 10, 1995 the verdict in the O.J. murder trial was read. The legal proceedings, which had been televised, had transfixed the nation and some 150 million tuned in to watch the reading. Through archival footage and interviews with those who were involved in the case as well as journalists, this Frontline video considers this case as a spectacle that divided a nation along racial lines.

Discussion Questions:
1. What were the characteristics of this case that caused Americans to follow it with such rapt attention?

2. Why were people in the U.S. divided over the issues surrounding the case as well as the verdict?

3. Prior to watching this program, what did you know about the trial? Did you learn anything new or modify any of your ideas based on what you saw in the program?

4. If these events had occurred today and not decades ago, would the nation be more or less divided with respect to opinions?

• A Class Divided
  In 1968 Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliot engaged her class of third graders in what would become a landmark exercise in learning about race and the social construction of difference. She divided the class into groups based on eye color and then informed the class that one group was superior. A Class Divided is a Frontline special report about this powerful and controversial experiment that we continue to discuss decades on.

Discussion Questions:
1. What point was Elliot trying to make? What was she trying to teach her class?

2. Do you think that she was successful?

3. Is this an exercise that you would endorse? Explain your position.

• DJ Dave’s Whole Foods Parking Lot
  Whole Foods Parking Lot rap response: Revenge of the Black Prius by Delia Brown
  The first video is DJDave’s satirical rap about the experience of shopping—and parking—at the Whole Foods grocery store on the West Side of LA. The second is performance artist Delia Brown’s “response rap” to DJDave.  Both artists take a black medium (rap) and use it to point out the ridiculousness of certain aspects of white culture and consumption. 

Discussion Questions:
1. What (or who) is being satirized in these videos?

2. What is the purpose of using rap, rather than song, to explore the experience of parking and shopping at Whole Foods?

3. How do class and race function as sources of humor in these videos? What stereotypes are referenced?

• Chinatown on the Move
  Over the last decade New York’s Chinese population has increased by 1/3 yet the percentage of that population living and working in Manhattan’s Chinatown on the lower east side has declined. This New York Times video explores the changes in Chinatown. 1. Why is the Chinese population in Chinatown dwindling?

Discussion Questions:
1. What is happening to the character of Chinatown? How is it changing?

2. How will these changes affect other parts of Manhattan?

3. Would you characterize these changes as primarily positive or negative? Explain the reasoning behind your answer.

• The Caretaker
  This short New York Times documentary provides a glimpse into the life of Joesy, an undocumented immigrant from Fiji. Joesy works as a live-in attendant/aide for Ms. Tsurumoto, a 95-year-old Japanese-American woman.

Discussion Questions:
1. Using your sociological imagination (in conjunction with what you have learnt about class, family, and race/ethnicity) consider elderly people often look outside of their families for care and why families often hire caregivers for their loved ones who need assistance.

2. Were you surprised that many undocumented immigrant women are employed in such positions? Does it conform to stereotypes about the “type” of labor undocumented workers perform?

3. Analyze this story from a functionalist perspective and then from a conflict perspective.

• Audio Links
  • This American Life 72: Trek
    This program is an idiosyncratic first-person travelogue about race relations and tourism in the new South Africa.  The interracial producers of the program travel through the still mostly-segregated society and have very different opinions about what they see, especially when it comes to some distant relatives of the white correspondent’s in South Africa.

Discussion Questions:
1. How do personal racism and stereotypes factor into this story?

2. What types of prejudice and discrimination can you observe in this story?

3. Explain the institutional racism that you observe in this story.

• 362:  Got you Pegged
  In essence, this episode is about stereotypes.  Shalom goes on vacation with his family, and suspects the beloved, chatty old man in the room next door is an imposter—and sets out to prove it.  Amy thought it was obvious that she was an adult, not a kid, and she assumed the friendly man working at the children's museum knew it too. Unfortunately, the man had Amy pegged all wrong.  These and other stories are presented about the pitfalls of making snap judgments about others.

Discussion Questions:
1. What stereotypes are applied in each of the stories?  Why do the people stereotyping stereotype? 

2. What prejudice results from the stereotypes demonstrated in this episode?  Does any discrimination occur?

3. Is there any evidence of institutional prejudice and/or discrimination taking place?

• Radiolab Season 5 Episode 3: Race
  Description: This episode asks—but never answers—questions about the validity of the term “race.” It examines how understandings of “race” have changed across time and looks at both the scientific and cultural costs we pay for treating “race” as a real and meaningful thing and also examines the costs of treating it as if it is nothing more than a social construct.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why is it so difficult to determine whether or not “race” is a biological reality?

2. What are the costs of sorting people into biological categories according to “race”?

3. Is it possible to retain racial categories without retaining beliefs about superiority and inferiority? Or, are the two inextricably linked?

4. Why do some geneticists and medical researchers believe that it is damaging to dispense with the concept of “race”?

• Mind The Gap: Why Good Schools are Failing Black Students
  This documentary considers the black-white achievement gap. It focuses on one suburban school and how educators and administrators are attempting to address disparities of outcomes.

Discussion Questions:
1. How do students describe their educational experiences? What problems do they identify?

2. Do the students’ views of the educational system and the classroom differ from those of their teachers and their parents? If so, how?

3. What steps do teachers take to engage their students? Do you believe these are effective?

• Web Resources
  Professional Resources
  • Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities
    The purpose of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities is to encourage research, theory, and teaching concerning the relation between socially defined racial and ethnic groups. The encouragement of scholarship contributing to the welfare of all, rather than the promotion of any particular group’s social or political interests, is a paramount goal of the Section.
  
  
  • The American Sociological Association (ASA) also includes two other Sections dedicated to the study of racial issues:
    Section on Asia and Asian Americans
    Section on Latino/a Sociology
  
  
  • Ethnic and Racial Studies
    Race, ethnicity, and nationalism are at the very heart of many of the major social and political issues in the present global environment. New antagonisms have emerged which require a rethinking of traditional theoretical and empirical perspectives. According to the publisher, Routledge, Ethnic and Racial Studies is the leading international journal for the analysis of these issues throughout the world.

Data Resources

• Data on Race
  Data on race are also available from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Other Resources

• Race & Ethnicity
  Michael Kearl’s Sociological Tour Through Cyberspace: Race & Ethnicity.


• The Affirmative Action and Diversity Project
  The Affirmative Action and Diversity Project: A Web Page for Research: This site presents diverse opinions regarding affirmative action topics; rather than taking a singular pro or con position, it is designed to help lend many different voices to the debates surrounding the issues of affirmative action. This site is an academic resource and it provides scholars, students, and the interested public with on-site articles and theoretical analyses, policy documents, current legislative updates, and an annotated bibliography of research and teaching materials.


• The Hirasaki National Resource Center of the Japanese-American National Museum
  During World War II the U.S. Government forcibly removed over 120,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast. These individuals, two thirds of them U.S. citizens, were sent to ten concentration camps built throughout the western interior of the United States. The Hirasaki National Resource Center of the Japanese-American National Museum contains information about this event and the successful movement for reparations from the U.S. Government by Japanese Americans.


• NAACP
  The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP) is ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination [self-characterization].


• Racial Profiling
  The American Civil Liberties Union actively opposes “Racial Profiling” in policing.


• RacismReview
  Contributors to RacismReview are scholars and researchers from sociology and a number of other social science disciplines and a variety of academic institutions across the U.S. RacismReview is intended to provide a credible and reliable source of information for journalists, students and members of the general public who are seeking solid evidence-based research and analysis of “race,” racism, ethnicity, and immigration issues, especially as they undergird and shape U.S. society within a global setting. We also provide substantive research and analysis on local, national, and global resistance to racial and ethnic oppression, including the many types of antiracist activism [self-characterization].


• WPC (White Privilege Conference)
  WPC (White Privilege Conference) is a conference that examines challenging concepts of privilege and oppression and offers solutions and team building strategies to work toward a more equitable world. It is not a conference designed to attack, degrade or beat up on white folks. It is not a conference designed to rally white supremacist groups. WPC is a conference designed to examine issues of privilege beyond skin color. WPC is open to everyone and invites diverse perspectives to provide a comprehensive look at issues of privilege including: race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, etc. — the ways we all experience some form of privilege, and how we’re all affected by that privilege. WPC attracts students, professionals, activists, parents, and community leaders/members from diverse perspectives. WPC welcomes folks with varying levels of experience addressing issues of diversity, cultural competency, and multiculturalism. WPC is committed to a philosophy of “understanding, respecting and connecting.”