Session 7

Assignment before reading

Writing Assignment #1:

Suppose someone comes up to you and asks, "Who are you?" What do you say? Write down as much of your autobiography as you would share in response to such a question.

Now READ Chapter 4, pages 207-17

Writing Assignment #2:

Earlier in session 5 you identified your most important "reference groups" and the ways you are influenced by them. Re-visit that assignment, and if you have since thought of other groups that are just as or more important, describe them. Chances are these groups are racially homogeneous and thus they constitute the core of the "racial group" with which you identify. Think about the ways these groups are characterized by race (i.e., in what sense they are "racial" groups) in their beliefs, attitudes, values, practices, etc. Then reflect on and answer these questions:

1. In what particular ways do you identify with your "racial" group? What do you have in common with the members of this group, and in what ways are you different from them as a member?
2. How does this group accept and confirm your racial identity?
3. Do you ever experience some dissonance or uneasiness in your relation to this group, or feel that there are limits imposed on you? If so, describe your experience.
4. What groups are considered "out-groups" and how are they characterized by your group? What role does race play in identifying and characterizing such out-groups?

Writing Assignment #3:

This section discusses three problems with "racial" identity: (1) It implies that identity is determined and immutable; (2) it imposes a negative identity on an out-group, and imposes and enforces a positive identity on the in-group members; and (3) it determines or influences behavior (roles) in other areas of everyday life. Identify and describe a particular illustration of each of these problems from your own experience. What, if anything, did you do or have you done to counteract these problems?

Writing Assignment #4:

The quotation from James Wm. McClendon on page 216 suggests that our convictions define our character in ways that if we abandon those convictions we will be changed. Identify some of the "tenacious beliefs" that define you (beliefs about "race"), and describe what it might mean for you to abandon those beliefs.

Assignment before reading

Read page 217, and write out your responses to the survey question. Be sure to write out a response to each of the items listed.

Then read page 218 through to the end of the paragraph that ends with "Think about it." Write out your responses to the second survey question as well as to the rhetorical questions in the first and third paragraph.

Now READ Chapter 4, pages 218-24

A trip on the Internet...

Go out on the internet and examine some of the results from opinion polling on Americans’ opinions on race-relations matters. Study a poll at one of the following websites:

1. ABC News/Washington Post, "Race Relations."
2. The Roper Center, "An American Dilemma (Part II): Black/White Relations"  [you will need Adobe Acrobat reader on your computer]
3. New York Times poll on race relations in the U.S. (July 2000), and the accompanying article, "Poll Finds Optimistic Outlook But Enduring Racial Division."

Writing Assignment #5:

Write down some of your observations about (1) the survey questions themselves, (2) the distribution of responses, and (3) what you think the differences in responses means.

Now READ Chapter 4, pages 224-26

Writing Assignment #6:

Study the three survey questions in footnote 78 on page 227. Choose one of these questions and analyze it in terms of its assumptions and perspectives (like the analysis of the questions on pages 218-20 and 224-26). Pay very close attention to the language used in the question. Write out your analysis.

Now READ Chapter 4, pages 227-34

Writing Assignment #7:

Take another look at the reference group assignment you wrote earlier for this session. Add some final paragraphs in which you describe these groups with particular attention to the "other factors" that influence opinion (i.e., age, gender, occupation, economic status, marital status, education, religion, geography, social distance and critical incident).

Then reflect on this question: In what particular ways do the following factors influence the opinions on race matters held by your reference groups?

1. Material interests of your racial group
2. Sympathies and resentments toward other racial groups
3. Commitment to principles of equality, economic individualism and limited government
4. The way(s) in which a race-related issue is "framed"

Write down your thoughts.

1. Share what you discovered about yourself and the ways you self-identify as a result of doing the autobiographical exercise. How much of these descriptions focused on roles, behaviors and activities, and how much focused on character and identity? Was there any reference to race (one’s own or that of others) in the autobiography?
2. Discuss the pros and cons of appropriating and expressing a racial identity.
3. Share your insights from the analysis of the survey questions. What did you learn about racial attitudes, beliefs and opinions and the ways they are expressed and measured?
4. Identify a race-related issue that has been discussed in political forums (e.g., affirmative action, racial profiling, Human Genome Project, census category of "other," etc.), and explore the ways the issue is "framed." Pay close attention to language, logic, assumptions and principles.