Detailed Study Guide Flashcards: Race, Immigration, and Civil Rights

A comprehensive set of Q&A flashcards based on the provided notes.

What is racial formation?

Process by which social, economic, and political forces determine the content and meaning of racial categories (Omi & Winant).

What is racialization?

Process of assigning racial meaning to people, practices, or groups that were not previously categorized as such.

How is ethnicity defined?

Cultural identity based on shared language, history, traditions — not biological race.

What is racial etiquette?

Social rules governing racial interactions; reflects and reinforces racial hierarchies.

What is the Psychological Wage of Whiteness?

W.E.B. Du Bois’s idea that white people receive social status and privileges that compensate for low wages.

What does social construction of race mean?

Race is not biological but created and maintained by social processes and institutions.

What are the three levels of discrimination?

Individual: personal prejudice; Organizational: policies within institutions; Structural: systemic inequalities embedded in society.

What is prejudice?

Preconceived opinions or attitudes about a group, not based on experience.

What is the Rule of Hypodescent?

One-drop rule; mixed-race individuals classified as the subordinate race.

What is racism?

System of advantage based on race; can be individual or institutional.

What is creolization?

Cultural mixing and creation of new identities, languages, and traditions (Glissant).

What is colorblind racism?

Claiming not to see race, which masks and perpetuates racial inequalities (Bonilla-Silva).

What were Jim Crow laws?

State/local laws enforcing racial segregation in the U.S. (late 1800s–1960s).

What is assimilation?

Process by which minority groups adopt the dominant culture’s traits.

What is settler colonialism?

Colonization that displaces Indigenous populations to permanently occupy land.

What are reparations?

Compensation for past harm; can be individual (direct payments) or collective (community programs).

How are Human Rights vs Civil Rights defined?

Human rights: universal protections for all people. Civil rights: protections granted by citizenship in a nation.

What is segregation / residential segregation?

Forced separation of racial groups, often enforced by law or housing policy.

What is the Plenary Power Doctrine?

Supreme Court doctrine giving Congress and the President broad authority over immigration.

What is Immigration as a race-making institution?

Immigration law shapes racial categories and hierarchies.

What is naturalization?

Process of becoming a citizen.

What is Jus Soli / birthright citizenship?

Citizenship granted to anyone born in the country.

What is the Model Minority Myth?

Stereotype portraying Asian Americans as successful, obedient, and problem-free — used to downplay racism and pit groups against each other.

What is the Yellow Peril?

Racist fear of Asian immigration overwhelming white society.

What did the 1712 Act for the Better Ordering & Governing of Negroes and Slaves do (SC)?

Restricted enslaved Africans’ movement and rights.

What did Dunmore’s Proclamation (1775) offer?

Freedom to enslaved people who joined the British.

What did the Naturalization Act (1790) specify?

Citizenship limited to free white persons.

What did the Indian Removal Act (1830) do?

Forced relocation of Native tribes (Trail of Tears).

What did the NC law banning teaching slaves to read (1830) do?

Criminalized literacy for enslaved people.

What was People v. Hall (1854) about?

California Supreme Court ruled Chinese witnesses can’t testify against white defendants.

What is Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) known for?

African Americans (free or enslaved) not U.S. citizens.

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1875 do?

Outlawed racial discrimination in public accommodations (later struck down).

What is the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)?

First federal law banning immigration by race/nationality.

What is Elk v. Wilkins (1884) about?

Native Americans not citizens by birth if tribal.

What did Tape v. Hurley (1885) decide?

Chinese American girl denied public school; CA must provide schooling.

What was the Dawes Act (1887)?

Allotted tribal lands to individuals to encourage assimilation.

What did the Louisiana Separate Car Law (1890) require?

Segregated train cars (led to Plessy).

What did Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) establish?

"Separate but equal" upheld segregation.

What did US v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) decide?

Birthright citizenship for children of immigrants.

What were the California Alien Land Laws (1913/1920)?

Barred aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land.

What was Takao Ozawa v. US (1922) about?

Japanese immigrant ineligible for naturalization (not white).

What did Bhagat Singh Thind v. US (1923) decide?

High-caste Indian man deemed not white under law.

What did the 1924 Immigration Act do?

Established quotas favoring northern Europeans.

What was the Roberto Alvarez v. Lemon Grove case (1931) about?

First successful school desegregation case (Mexican American children).

What did Executive Order 9066 (1942) authorize?

Japanese incarceration during WWII.

What did Mendez v. Westminster (1947) achieve?

Struck down segregation of Mexican American students in CA.

What did the McCarran-Walter Act (1952) do?

Ended racial restrictions on immigration but kept quotas.

What is Brown v. Board of Education (1954) known for?

Overturned Plessy; segregation unconstitutional.

What was the Bracero Program (1942–64)?

Brought Mexican laborers to U.S. temporarily.

What did the Civil Rights Act (1964) accomplish?

Outlawed segregation and discrimination in public spaces.

What did the Voting Rights Act (1965) do?

Banned discriminatory voting practices.

What is the Hart-Celler Act (1965) about?

Abolished quotas based on national origin.

What is IRCA (1986)?

Granted amnesty to many undocumented immigrants; penalized employers of undocumented workers.

What did Proposition 187 (CA, 1994) attempt to do?

Deny public services to undocumented immigrants (struck down).

What did Shelby County v. Holder (2013) decide?

Weakened Voting Rights Act protections.

What is Omi & Winant’s view on race?

Race is a social construct, shaped by racial formation processes.

What does Beverly Tatum say about racism?

Racism is systemic; only those in power can perpetuate institutional racism.

What does Pem Buck claim about early laws?

Early laws gave privileges to poor whites to create racial divisions.

What does Paula Rothenberg say about laws?

Laws are tools to implement racism.

What is Bonilla-Silva’s concept of colorblindness?

Colorblindness is a new form of racism.

What does Glissant’s creolization emphasize?

Identity is hybrid and dynamic.

What did James Baldwin say about Black English?

Black English is a distinct language shaped by oppression.

What does Deb Miranda highlight about California Indians?

Faced genocide and land theft; erasure of history.

What is the Boarding School Healing Project advocating?

Collective reparations needed for Native boarding school abuses.

What does E. Michael Madrid note about Mexican American schooling?

Mexican American school segregation is often ignored in history.

What does Erika Lee say about immigration myths?

"They keep coming" myth fuels anti-immigrant sentiment.

What does Ian Haney López link citizenship laws to?

Racial definitions.

What does Juan Gonzalez discuss regarding immigration enforcement?

Separates families.

What does Aviva Chomsky explain about undocumented status?

Many become undocumented due to changes in law, not illegal entry.

What does Yuri Kochiyama argue about Japanese incarceration?

Unjust; parallels with other racial injustices.

What is the purpose of the model minority myth according to Noy Thrupkaew?

Used to divide minorities and obscure inequality.

Emancipation Proclamation 1863

An executive order by President Abraham Lincoln that freed enslaved people in Confederate territories during the Civil War.

Indian Citizenship Act 1924

Legislation that granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States, recognizing their rights as citizens.

James Jones

(on Tuskegee Syphilis experiment, 1932-1972)

Tuskegee Syphilis experiment, 1932-1972

• Black men denied treatment to “study” syphilis.

• Major violation of informed consent and public trust.

Natalia Marques

Environmental racism and access to clear water; Flint (2014); Standing Rock (2016)

Chase Puentes & Nicolette Worrell

• Activists advocating for racial justice and immigrant rights. They focus on environmental issues and community organizing.

No MAs Bebes

A campaign promoting the rights of migrants and equitable treatment in society. Documentary : Mexican American women sterilzed without consent in the 1970s, highlighting systemic abuses and health disparities impacting Latinx communities.

ACLU

A nonprofit organization dedicated to defending individual rights and liberties, particularly those outlined in the U.S. Constitution. They focus on issues like free speech, reproductive rights, and racial justice. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) works to protect civil rights through litigation, advocacy, and education, often engaging in high-profile cases that challenge governmental overreach.

Dorothy Roberts

is a legal scholar and activist known for her work on race, reproductive rights, and child welfare. She critically examines the intersections of race, gender, and class in policies affecting mothers and children.

Myla Carpio

is an activist and advocate for immigrant rights, focusing on issues such as equitable treatment and access to resources for marginalized communities.

Michelle Alexander

• New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration = new racial caste system.

• Stages: Roundup → Conviction → Invisible punishment (housing, jobs, voting).

• Mass incarceration functions like old Jim Crow laws.

Angela Davis

• Prison Industrial Complex: prisons tied to profit, corporations, cheap labor.

• Argues for abolitionist alternatives: restorative justice, community-based solutions to crime and incarceration.

Robin Kellry

• Racial tax: Black people pay more in policing, housing, labor.

• “Thug Nation” → criminalization of Blackness.

• Critiques broken windows policing & state violence.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Racism = system of advantage maintained by power.

• White privilege has shifted forms but persists historically (slavery → Jim Crow → mass incarceration).

Informed Consent

• A process by which individuals are fully educated about a procedure or treatment before agreeing to participate, ensuring they understand the risks, benefits, and alternatives.

Mass Inarceration

• A systemic issue in the United States characterized by the disproportionately high imprisonment rates of African Americans and other minority groups, often linked to systemic racism and socio-economic factors.

Prison Industrial Complex

Corporations profit from private prisons

Broken WIndows Policing

harsh punishment of minor offenses → criminalizes poor/Black communities.

Abolition

dismantling prisons and policing, replacing with restorative systems.

1974 Relf v. Weinberger

• Their mother, who was illiterate, was asked to sign a consent form that she thought was for birth control shots (Depo-Provera), but instead it was for sterilization.

• Without fully informed consent, the sisters were surgically sterilized by a federally funded family planning clinic.

• revealed that thousands of poor women and girls—especially women of color—were being sterilized without proper consent through federal programs.

• The lawsuit forced the government to implement stronger protections around informed consent and banned sterilization of minors, making it a landmark victory in reproductive rights history.

• A demand to prohibit the use of federal funs for sterilizations

• A demand to halt the practice of threatening to take away welfare benefits if a women did not “consent” to a sterilization.

1978 Madrigal v. Quilligan

Forced sterilizations of Latinas challenged. Many women came into the hospital to deliver babies and often while in labor, in pain, sedated, or unable to understand English were pressured or misled into signing consent forms for tubal ligations (sterilization).

• Women later reported they didn’t know they had been sterilized until much later, or believed the procedure was reversible.

• Although they lost the case it lead to doctor better informing their patients and other new rules like-

• Informed constant must be acquired

• There must be a 30-days waiting period between giving contact and getting the operation

• Interpreter must be provided if needed

Buck v Bell (1927)

Socirty could prevent people who were deem “ Unfit” ( poor , disabled, mentally ill) from having kids. Many states passed sterilization laws targeting those in state institutions. In an 8–1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Virginia sterilization law. The Court ruled sterilization did not violate the 14th Amendment’s Due Process or Equal Protection Clauses, as long as proper procedures were followed.