+1 (845) 317-8489 [email protected]

Answer the following true/false, short answer, and short essay questions in the required length. Provide an explanation for each of your T/F answers. Answers that are correct but not complete will get only partial credit:

 

Use your assigned sources when answering each question. Cite sources and page numbers at end of each answer(e.g., Bell: 22-23; 25). For online articles use the following format (Levine: paragraph 3).  For PowerPoint slides: (King: Lesson 3 PowerPoint slide).  For films: (Genie: 20 minutes in).

 

Be sure to insert your answers into this document immediately below each the following questions:

 

From Mon, Oct 25. People Like Us: Social Class in America

 

1. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false. [HINT: Be sure to answer and explain both parts of the question].

 

T/F.  According to “The Trouble with Tofu” segment from the video, People Like Us, the type of bread you eat tells a lot about your social class, and the higher a family’s income, the more white bread they eat. 

 

 

2. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false.

 

T/F.  “Tammy’s Story” from the video People Like Us, is a good example to support the belief that people are poor because they are lazy and don’t want to work.

 

 

3. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false.[HINT: Be sure to answer and explain both parts of the question].

 

T/F.  Every social class defines class in the same way, but the working class or “proletarians” are the most uncomfortabletalking about social class, according to the online essay “A Touchy Subject.” 

 

 

From Wed Oct 27: Poverty in America

 

4.  Short essay.  10 points. Answer all parts of the following question in one or two complete and cohesive paragraphs using examples and analysis from the required material in your answer. 

 

What percentage of Americans lived below the poverty line in 1959, according to your text, p.189-190?  What was the “official” poverty rate in 2019, according to the 24/7WallSt article? What is the more accurate US poverty rate for 2019, according to the article?  What government programs drive the more accurate Supplemental Poverty Measure, according to the article? Was the US poverty rate for 2020 predicted to go up or down, according to the article? Why? Explain. 

 

 

5.  Short essay.  10 points. Answer all parts of the following question in one or two complete and cohesive paragraphs using examples and analysis from the required assignments in your answer. 

 

How was the "poverty line" or "poverty threshold" originally calculated, according to your text, p.190? What was the 2010 poverty line dollar amount for a family of four with two adults and two children, according to your text, p.190? What was the 2018 poverty line dollar amount for a family of four with two adults and two children, according to the NPR segment/transcript? Does this poverty line amount sound like it’s enough to cover everything a family of four needs to survive in our society? Why or why not? Explain. Are government safety-net programs important in helping to keep millions of people from falling into poverty, according to the article? Why or why not? Explain.

 

 

6.  Short answer.  5 points. Answer all parts of the following question one complete and cohesive paragraph using examples and analysis from all the required assignments in your answer. [HINT: Be sure to include all the explanations listed in the assigned PowerPoint slide.]

 

What are the “blame the victim” explanations for poverty as discussed in your text, online assignments, and the assigned PowerPoint slide? Describe and explain how each works to blame poor people for their poverty in America. Do you agree with these explanations of poverty?  Why or why not? Explain.

 

 

7.   Short answer.  5 points. Answer all parts of the following question one complete and cohesive paragraph using examples and analysis from the required assignments in your answer. [HINT: Be sure to include all the explanations listed in the assigned PowerPoint slide.]

 

What are the “blame the system” explanations for poverty discussed in your text and the assigned PowerPoint slide? Describe and explain how each works to blame the way society is structured for creating and maintaining poverty in America. Do you agree with these explanations of poverty? Why or why not? Explain.

 

 

8. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false, using examples and analysis from the required material in your answer.

 

T/F.  Relying on donations by the local community is an effective way of feeding the hungry during down times, according to the Blue Collar, Bare Cupboards article. 

 

 

From Fri Oct 29: What is Race?

 

9. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false, using examples and analysis from the required assignments in your answer. Be sure to answer both parts of the question.

 

T/F.  According to your text, race is more of a biological reality than a social construction, AND this has been proven by research from the Human Genome Project. (p. 212-213).

 

 

10. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false, using examples and analysis from the required assignments in your answer.

 

T/F According to your online reading, “Caucasian” is the most accurate and appropriate term to use when categorizing White people.  

 

 

From Mon Nov 1: Ethnic Notions

 

11.  Short Essay.  10 points. Answer all parts of the following question one or two complete and cohesive paragraphs using examples and analysis from the required material in your answer. 

 

Describe the “Sambo and the “Mammy caricatures depicted in the film, Ethnic Notions, and explain how they functioned to justify and normalize slavery before the Civil War. Then describe the “Savage Brute caricature and explain what White supremacist behaviors it justified after the Civil War, according to the film.

 

 

12. True or False?  5 points.  Answer the following T/F question and explain in a few sentences why it is true or false, using examples and analysis from the required assignment in your answer.

 

Racist caricatures about Black people are obsolete in today’s society, according to the Henry Louis Gates interview. 

 

 

From Fri Nov 5: Medical Apartheid

 

13.  Full essay.  15 points. Answer all parts of the following question two or three complete and cohesive paragraphsusing examples and analysis from the required assignments in your answer. 

 

Why are African Americans more likely than any other group to develop and die of cancer?  Explain and provide two important factors from the Medical Apartheid interview. Why do Black Americans deeply mistrust American medicine, according to the interview? What was "scientific racism," according to the interview? When was it popular? What did it espouse about differences between Blacks and Whites? How did it benefit the White medical establishment? Explain and provide at least two examples (besides the Tuskegee Study) of the history of racist experimentation in the US, as discussed in the interview.

 

14.  Short essay.  10 points. Answer all parts of the following question in one or two complete and cohesive paragraphs using examples and analysis from the required assignments in your answer. 

 

What was the Tuskegee Study? Where did it take place? How long did it last? What did the researchers want to find out?  In what ways did "scientific racism" play a role in how the study was created and conducted?  What were the core assumptions of the White dominated US Public Health Service about Black people? Explain. Who were the "research" subjects? What were they told they were getting "treatment" for?  What were researchers actually doing to the subjects and why?  Why is the study considered to be so controversial and infamous today? Explain using material from the “Medical Apartheid” interview and The Deadly Deception video. What is institutional discrimination or institutional racism, according to your text? In what ways is the Tuskegee Study a good example of institutional discrimination or systemic racism?