Major Issues in Race and Ethnicity - Essay Example

Unit: STRUCTURED QUESTIONS ON RACE AND ETHNI To which school of thought does Gobineau belong and explain your answer. Arthur Gobineau belongs to the school of thought of the theory of polygenesis. This theory maintains that the different human races were from different ancestral origin. This theory provides races as distinctive species. This is because of his argument on attraction and repulsion which were the impulses acting on the human beings. He argues that civilization took place when the humans obeyed the attraction law and mixed with people of different races, which he claimed to have formed the white race. On establishment of civilization, race was degenerated by further mixing hence fall in blood quality. Furthermore, any further intermixing with the yellow or black races will lead to decline. He claimed that the race of the white will never stop so long as blood is still composed of the original mixture of the people. 2. Explain two problems with Gobineau’s views. In his views, Gobineau is selective. He view French peasants and concluded that most of them are totally not interested in what has civilization and are capable of only moving towards the direction taken by the civilized. This made his views to be ignored by all his French colleagues. Another problem involves the means by which evolution might operate. Some of the problems could not get solutions until the rediscovery of the principles by Mendel. 3. Explain to which school of thought Pouchet belongs. Pouchet belongs to the school of thought of heterogenesis. He stated that heterogenesis was production of freshly organized being and also a principle of nature. According to him, he believed that living organisms originated initial generations of plants and animals and not got from raw matter. 4. Discuss one problem with Pouchet’s view. Pouchet’s view is seen as preconceived ideas benefiting the spontaneous generation; which is the principle that living organisms can develop independently with no parents who originates from either organic or inorganic matter. The history accounts that Pouchet concluded without completion of the experiment. 5. How did Darwin explain physical differences in humans? To bring out the physical differences in the humans, Darwin used the theory of sexual selection to come up with differences between races. This theory was looked in a way by which adaptation for high chances of successful mating can act against adaptation for high chances of survival. The reason for the difference in people from different continents is because of mating preference differences. The difference also came by way of shared ancestry with one parent stock. 6. Discuss one criticism of Darwin’s view. Darwin had no deductive origin from which to deduce the quantitative efficiency of a discerning process in the production of evolutionary change. Darwin was not willing to pressure his theory past what the most vigilant application of the human’s success is modifying domesticated animals and plants would validate. He was misled continuously to undervalue the swiftness with which evolutionary changes can be caused by natural selection. 7. Explain which school of thought Knox belongs to. The school of thought of Knox is in the belief that race is everything? According to him, civilization, literature, art and science all depends on race. Knox was therefore responsible for contribution to a distorted view of race hence putting racism in a respectable position. 8. Discuss two criticisms of Knox. Knox did not support why he stands for race to be anything. He should have provided evidences for why he takes race to be literature, art or civilization. Furthermore, Knox does not give any information on the origin of race. He therefore takes race that something that already came into existence. 9. Explain how the evidence put forward by Jones supports the view that human socially construct race. Jones brought the evidences of Native Americans and Africans being backward races. He referred to them as unfortunate and naive sufferers of the history. These races have been lagging behind in the early human development as compared to other European cultures that grow beyond them. According to Jones, all races could finally be equal culturally, but had the belief that respect should exist on the social restraints and biological one inherited. 10. Explain what point is made by Benedict. Benedict was trying to bring the point that all human beings are equal and came from one set of ancestors. Benedict was trying to encourage all the races to join together and stop war between them. She claimed the people to be of one family, with the same teeth, many bones, little muscles and many molars. She believed we originated fro the same ancestors in spite of color, head shape, hair texture. 11. Statement of agreement by Gould (1981) and Jones (I981) There are distinct, genetically different racial groups who can be identified through skin colour. 12. Meaning of saying race is socially constructed. A race is simply what a particular society sees as race. 13. Discuss in details the explanation from the one suggested by Jenson (1969) for the lower IQ scores of black children. Children of the black family had lower IQ scores as compared to the children from the white family. This incidence was first related to the environment factors, which Jensen saw to be capable of providing explanation to the intelligence gap. An example was give concerning the Negroes, who was living in living in an environment of poorer conditions as compared to the whites and hence depressed. Jensen meant the environment in which children suffer, having less contact with the adults. These children were viewed by the educators as disadvantaged and grew in an environment conditions near to the bad. The blacks living in ghetto faces more challenges from the hunger, prejudice and welfare dependency. Having considered the slavery effects, poverty and segregation on black children, Jensen concluded of these children being born with lower IQs. 14. Explain the six types of racism discussed by Mark Halstead and discuss which types of racism are expressed by the political views of John Tyndall (1977), Enoch Powell(1969and 1976), Margaret Thatcher (1978) and John Townsend (1989). Pre-reflective Gut racism: this constitutes emotional origin and can be seen in both individuals and groups. It has psychological roots and may involve rejection, anxiety or ignorance. Post-reflective Gut racism: this involved with provision of justification on racial privilege continuation and may include development of racial ideology superiority and domination. Cultural racism: it is applied to bring attention to move in facial point of more racism from physical characteristics like; religious, practices, morals, languages, social customs, behaviors, manners, leisure activities and languages. It includes prejudice against someone because of his or her culture. Institutional racism: this refers to the manner by which arrangement in the institutions and resources distribution stand to strengthen the benefits of white majority. Paternalistic racism: this is whereby the black people freedom is limited by the intentioned ruled made by the whites. It includes new procedures and practice and a more clear-cut manipulating of control. Color-Blind racism: also unintentional racism and it is racial because it may lead to racial injustice besides having undesirable results. For John Tyndall, the type of racism expressed is paternalistic racism due to the introduction of a legal system for resettlement that involved returning of immigrants to their homeland. For Enoch Powell, the racism type is post-reflective gut, as it involved encouraging provision of unequal services to some individuals because they are not of your race. This was seen when Powell went opposed the UK race Relation Act 1965. For Margaret Thatcher, the type of racism was cultural racism since she was against the Asian immigration claiming that too much Asian in the land will replace the Europeans. For John Townsend, the racism type was pre-reflective gut racism since he had the fear of the illegal immigrants changing the structure of the country like it was once done by the legal l immigrants. 15. Explain why the 1917 Army Beta test is an example of institutional Racism. The 1917 Army Beta test formed various barriers to the black race. The authorities were testing the level of literacy and individual and group examinations were given. This was a barrier to the black because most of them had never held pencil in their life hence high level of illiteracy. Many of the blacks were immigrants with little or no mastery of the English language besides limited knowledge of the American society. 16. Explain in detail one other case of institutional racism. Major cases of recent institution racism have been observed in civil departments. An example is the 2007 incidence, where, William Bamattre, the LAFD Chief, was retired by the LA mayor on observation of know-towing to ethnic pandering in response to law suits upsetting his sector. Blacks and women’s payout had reached 7.5 million for cases asserting harassment and racism, and also array collapse. Read More