The purpose of this project is to give you an opportunity to share what you have learned about race, immigrant assimilation, and the effects of prejudice on minority (or marginalized) groups.
Think of this project as a take-home test that has three parts. The first part focuses on race and the ideas we have about it. The second part focuses on how European immigrants who arrived in the U.S. between 1820 and 1920 (and their children, grandchildren, and further generations) assimilated into American society. The third part asks you to make connections between the effects of prejudice on groups and your life.
Here’s what you need to do:
Read through the rest of these instructions;
OPTIONAL RESOURCE, THIS IS NOT REQUIRED FOR OUR CLASS: Watch a 60-minute documentary (or read the transcript) on the ideas we have about race versus the scientific evidence about race;
Watch two videos about how cognitive prejudice (stereotypes) can undermine performance at school and at work;
Read (or listen to) the PowerPoint slides that review relevant topics from the first three weeks of our class;
Use this information, plus any notes you have on the first three chapters of our textbook, to answer three questions (see below).
Format and length guidelines:
Your responses should be three to six pages long (total).
Use 12-pt font, either Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman.
Use double or 1.5 line spacing.
In Blackboard you can attach a Word file or copy and paste your essay directly into the submission box in Blackboard. *I advise writing and saving your work in a word processing program to avoid losing your work if Blackboard malfunctions.
How you will be graded:
You fully address each question (this means you address each of the prompts below the main question, each prompt begins with bold text);
You give specific examples from our course materials including the assigned videos to support your points;
You cite your source when using specific examples. You can use a specific style (such as MLA or APA) for this, or you can use the following format:
Documentary on race: (Race: Episode 1)
Textbook: (Healey and Stepnick, p #)
Video 1: (Video 1)
Video 2: (Video 2)
Questions:
(10 points)
Imagine you are talking with a classmate in another class, and you refer to race as “socially constructed.”
Your classmate responds, saying “That doesn’t make sense. Race isn’t something people just made up. I can see it in the color of someone’s skin or the shape of their eyes. Race is real. People can’t just wake up one day and decide to be a different race.”
How would you use the information from our class (chapter one of our textbook and slides from Week 1) and the information from the 60-minute documentary on race to explain what you mean when you say race is “socially constructed”?
In your answer, be sure to explain how the physical differences we see and the racial categories or racial groups we use in everyday life are different from how biologists measure genetic differences between groups.
In your answer, provide examples that show how race was created by society (by groups of people).
In your answer, explain how “socially constructed” is different from individual choice.
10 points
Summarize the process of assimilation for European immigrants (and their descendants) discussed in chapter two.
In your answer, give at least one example of how similarity to the dominant group in society influenced the assimilation of immigrant groups.
In your answer, give at least one example of how the social class of an immigrant group influenced their assimilation.
In your answer, give at least one example of how one immigrant group influenced the assimilation of another immigrant group. (This could be groups arriving at the same time, or it could be groups arriving one after the other.)
(10 points)
Use the videos on stereotype threat and the material on cognitive prejudice in chapter three to explain how negative stereotypes can make it more difficult for a group to achieve their full potential.
In your answer, be sure to define stereotype threat and explain which groups are vulnerable to stereotype threat.
In your answer, explain why members of minority groups might be more vulnerable to stereotype threat than members of dominant groups.
In your answer, explain how stereotype threat can contribute to the persistence of prejudice
Use these videos from YouTube as sources:
Stereotype Threat: A Conversation with Claude Steele
Stereotype Threat – social psychology in action
