Gender, Race, and Justice - CJUS 4363

Exam #1

Define Intersectionality:

The concept that various social identities, such as race, gender, class, and sexuality, do not exist independently but overlap and interact to create unique and often compounding experiences of discrimination and privilege.

What is the difference between the UCR and NIBRS?

UCR is the Uniform Crime Reports and NIBRS is the National Incident-Based Reporting System. Both of them are designed to collect data for reported crime. The UCR was very vague and didn’t encompass every variable. NIBRS was created to be more specific when identifying and reporting crime.  

What’s the difference between self reporting and NCVS?

Self reporting and NCVS rely solely on people actually reporting crime. The National Crime Victimization Survey calls people and asks about victimization, but as they call more and later on, they are less likely to hear from people.

Who was Friedrich Blumenbach and what was his stance on race?

Friedrich Blumenbach was a German anthropologist who created one of the earliest classifications of race:

Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Malayan, and American.

Who was Fredrick Hoffman and what did he say about race?

Hoffman was an American statistician who did not have a favorable outlook on African Americans, and said, “African Americans were a diseased and dying population group.”

Who was Christoph Meiners and what was his stance on race?

Meiners believed white people were the only “beautiful” race and said African Americans were an “Ugly black race.”

Who was C. Loring Brace and what was his stance on race?

C. Loring Brace was a biological anthropologist who claimed "North American and European racial categories were discordant” and said that race was created as a social construct and not based on biology. 

What is white solidarity?

The understanding among white people do ignore demographic changes and not holding other white people accountable for racism. 

What is Meritocracy?

A frame work that upholds the belief that success is based SOLELY on individual effort. This concept ignores concepts such as generational wealth, white white people are more likely to have. 

What is Aversive Racism?

Whites say they have many friends of color, or have a person of color as a partner, or grew up with lots of people of color.

Describe the role of biology/DNA as racial difference.

It has been proven that DNA between races does not have much of a difference, and that the concept of race does not come from biological data, but is a social construct. 

What is the Human Genome Project?

A massive, international scientific research effort to map and sequence all of the genes in the human genome. 

Describe Bacon’s Rebellion.

This rebellion involved both black and white participants, uniting together against the colonial elite. It’s failure was important as it led the Virginia elite to intentionally create a racial divide, further solidifying their power.

What is the Dred Scott decision?

This was a court case called Dred Scott v. Sandford that ruled that people of African descent were not and could not be citizens of the United States, declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, and stated that Congress could not prohibit slavery in U.S. territories.

Explain the concept of “colorblindness” when it comes to race. 

The concept of colorblindness is essentially ignoring the privilege white people have rather than them addressing concerns in front of them.

What is implicit bias?

An attitude, stereotype, or prejudice that affects an individual's understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. 

Describe what a racial microaggression is.

A subtle, often unintentional, verbal, behavioral, or environmental slight that communicates hostile, derogatory, or negative racial messages to a person of color. While the perpetrator may not be aware of the impact of their actions, the cumulative effect of these daily slights and insults can be devastating to the recipient's mental and physical health.

What is racial justice?

The systematic fair treatment of people of all races, leading to equitable opportunities and outcomes.

Describe the concept of structured racism with the Fish, Lake, and Ground Water examples.

1. Fish is correlating to a person. This would be blaming the individual for their shortcoming, and not society or other factors. 

2. Lake is correlating to the place. This would be blaming the area that you’re in, and blaming the environment for structured racism. 

3. Ground water is correlating to internal factors. Racism is a structure, not an event, built on years of societal norms that favor white people over people of color. 

What is racial coding?

Race-neutral terms that are used to activate racial stereotypes and biases.

Describe the Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws.

1. Black Codes were a set of restrictive laws passed in the post-Civil War South.

2. Jim Crow Laws were state and local statutes that enforced racial segregation and discrimination.

What is Gerrymandering?

The manipulation of an electoral constituency's boundaries so as to favor one party or class. Suppressed voting for black Americans. 

What is redlining?

The discriminatory practice of denying financial services, such as mortgages and insurance, to residents of specific neighborhoods based on their race or ethnicity, regardless of their individual qualifications. Literally drawing areas where people of color could and could not live. 

Describe Brown v. Board of Education.

The Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools by race was unconstitutional, ending the "separate but equal" doctrine.

What are the percentage distributions of the US population for Macro-racial categories?

60% White, 20% Hispanic, 13% Black, 5-7% Asian/Native American.

What is Othering?

The process of defining and labeling individuals or groups as fundamentally different from, and often inferior to, the dominant or "in-group."

What is reverse racism?

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a dominant or privileged racial or ethnic group. 

Describe the difference between Stereotype, Prejudice, and Discrimination.

1. Stereotype: An oversimplified and generalized belief about a particular group of people

2. Prejudice: Unreasonable FEELINGS, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature.

3. Discrimination: ACTIONS put into practice.

What is Internalized Oppression?

When people start to believe they are what other people say they are. Connect this to labeling theory.

What is the GI Bill and how does it relate to race?

A 1944 act providing benefits like education and home loans to World War II veterans, but its implementation was racially discriminatory, preventing many Black veterans from accessing these benefits due to segregation and systemic racism.

Describe the “White Savior” concept.

A narrative or complex in which a white person is portrayed as rescuing people of color from their problems, often implying that the white individual is a hero and the people of color are weak or incapable of saving themselves.

Describe white benevolence.

The concept of a form of paternalistic racism where individuals, often within "helping professions" like education, healthcare, and social work, maintain racial hierarchies under the guise of being helpful or kind. 

List the 11 cardinal rules on rules of engagement found in White Fragility by Diangelo.

1. Do not give me feedback on my racism under any circumstances.

2. Use proper tone, otherwise the feedback can be dismissed.

3. There must be trust between us.

4. Our relationship must be issue-free.

5. Feedback must be given immediately.

6. You must give feedback privately no matter where it happened. 

7. You must be as indirect as possible. 

8. As a white person, I must feel completely safe during any discussion of race.

9. Highlighting my racial privilege invalidated the form of oppression that I experience.

10. You must acknowledge my intentions (always good) and agree that they cancel out my behavior.

11. To suggest my behavior had a racist impact is to have misunderstood me.