Week 10 Quiz

Which statement matches how sociologists, and the Census Bureau, describe race?

Select one.

• A biological category fixed by ancestry that stays the same across countries
• A socially constructed category whose boxes differ across societies and censuses
• A shared heritage of language, religion, customs, and ancestry passed down
• A category defined by whether a group is smaller than half of a society

In an illustrative congregation, members share a religious tradition, a set of holidays, and an ancestral homeland, and they teach these to their children. Which concept describes what they share?

Select one.

• Ethnicity, because they share a culture and heritage they pass down
• Race, because they share a category of perceived physical traits
• A minority group, because they hold a subordinate position in society
• A dominant group, because their ways are treated as the standard

In an illustrative factory town, 60 percent of residents work the lines, rent from the company, and cannot vote for the town board. The other 40 percent own the factory and hold every board seat. Using Wirth's definition, which group is the minority group?

Select one.

• The factory owners, because they make up fewer than half of the town
• Neither group, because a minority group must be a tiny share of a town
• The line workers, because Wirth's test is unequal treatment, not size
• Both groups equally, because each one depends on the other

Which of these illustrative cases describe discrimination, an action, rather than prejudice alone? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• A landlord refuses to rent to every applicant from one group
• A coworker privately believes a stereotype but treats every customer the same
• A hiring manager gives one group's applicants shorter interviews
• A student feels uneasy around one group but never acts on it

An illustrative store clerk holds no prejudice against any group but follows the owner's instruction to watch customers from one group more closely. Which of Merton's four types is the clerk?

Select one.

• Prejudiced discriminator, because the clerk treats one group's customers unequally
• Unprejudiced nondiscriminator, because the clerk holds no prejudice at all
• Prejudiced nondiscriminator, because the instruction came from the owner
• Unprejudiced discriminator, because the action is unequal but the attitude is not

An illustrative delivery company fills every opening through referrals from current drivers. No one involved holds a prejudice, yet over several years almost every hire comes from the neighborhoods where current drivers live. Which concept best describes this pattern?

Select one.

• Institutional racism, if the referral rule itself keeps producing unequal results by group
• Individual racism, because each driver who makes a referral acts on a personal prejudice
• Prejudice, because the company's referral rule is a belief about one group
• Assimilation, because new drivers take on the company's routines over time

Which work of W. E. B. Du Bois names the problem of the twentieth century as the problem of the color line and describes double consciousness?

Select one.

• The Philadelphia Negro, his empirical community study
• The Souls of Black Folk, in its Forethought and first chapter
• Human Nature and the Social Order, on the looking-glass self
• "The Problem of Minority Groups," on unequal treatment

In an illustrative town, the grandchildren of a newer group speak only the main language, celebrate the main holidays, and are hard to tell apart from everyone else. Which pattern of intergroup relations does this show?

Select one.

• Pluralism, because both groups keep their own cultures as equals
• Segregation, because the groups are kept physically and socially apart
• Assimilation, because the minority group took on the dominant culture
• The contact hypothesis, because the groups now meet every day

In the 2020 Census, the race shares (the "alone" categories plus Two or More Races) add to 99.9, and Hispanic or Latino (of any race) was 18.7%. A classmate adds the two to get 118.6 and says the Census counted too many people. What is the best read?

Select one.

• The race shares are wrong, because shares must add to exactly 100
• The Hispanic share should be subtracted from the White alone share first
• The Census counted some people twice, and the extra 18.6 proves it
• The two questions overlap, so their shares were never one pie

In the 2020 Census, 10.2% of the population reported Two or More Races, against 2.9% in 2010. Which statement reads the change correctly?

Select one.

• It rose 7.3 percent, so the population became that much more mixed in ten years
• It rose 7.3 percentage points, partly from improved question design and coding
• It rose 7.3 percentage points, which shows the census measures race by ancestry
• It rose 3.5 percentage points, because 10.2 divided by 2.9 is about 3.5