University of Connecticut Spring 2023 SOCI 1501 – Race, Class, and Gender Final Exam Due Friday, May 5 - 8:00 am This exam covers material from the beginning of the course. It is broken into parts so that I can give you choices on what questions to answer while also having you discuss course material more broadly. Part I: This should be up to a page long. 1. What is meant by a sociological perspective? What do sociologists look at to understand social issues? Apply it to an issue and compare it to a personal troubles perspective. (10 points) Part II: Answer two of the following questions. Your answers should be no more than 2 pages. Each one is worth 15 points 1. Using lectures and readings build a case against a biological reductionist argument for gender inequality. What function does a biological reductionist argument for gender serve? Lorber, Kimmel, West, Frye, and class lectures could be used. 2. How do the ideas in Tatum’s “Defining Racism”, Lopez’s “Beyond Hate”, and BonillaSilva’s Color Blind Racism build a comprehensive, sociological definition of racism? 3. Mantsios, in his piece “Class in America” briefly touches on the effect of our lack of awareness about class. But class position effects a number of things in our lives. What are three of those aspects of our lives influenced by class? Pick two of his eight realities of economic inequality and discuss how they undermine the four myths he says most Americans believe. 4. What is meant by pathologizing the poor? What explanation does that perspective give us for the cause of poverty? But are the poor a monolithic group? What are some sociological explanations for poverty? How do we know that the solution to poverty is not just getting a job? Part III: Answer the following questions. Each is worth 15 points. 1. Use at least two of the readings in Part VIII, discuss ways in which race, class, or gender hierarchies are maintained and reproduced. I would suggest focusing on readings #1-5; 8, or 9. 2. Readings in Part IX present ways of fighting for social justice. Using at least two of the readings, discuss which ideas you find the most useful or inspiring and why? Part IV: Essay Questions: Select one of the following essays. You are being graded for the course material you include in your answer. Your answer should be around 2.5, no more than 3 pages long. Each is worth 30 points. 1. Omi and Winant make the argument that race is a sociohistoric concept. Illustrate this understanding of race as a social construction using the wealth of information in their piece as well as Buck’s and Brodkin’s. 2. In what ways does the policing of brown and Black people constitute a form of structural discrimination? Include Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow”, Lockhart’s “Living While Black and the Criminalization of Blackness” as well as lecture material on the drug war for your answer. What are some solutions? 3. What issues would you discuss to convince someone that sexism was still a serious problem in the United States? Use lecture material as well as readings (don’t forget online readings).
