+1 862 207 3288 Short Answer
don’t go over 2-4 sentences
Essay Questions
• Don’t spend time introducing topic
• Each essay is roughly two pages
• No direct quotes, but paraphrase and put author’s last name and year of publication…also if you reference author in text, put year right after like in paper
• No introduction paragraph, no thesis
• Just hit the points, don’t worry about making writing cohesive
• Answer the exam questions to the best of your ability.
• Your responses must be:
o typed,
o double-spaced, with 1” margins.
• The goal of the exam is to assess how well you understand the ideas presented in the readings and lectures and how well you incorporate specific course concepts into your responses.
• However, you are to use no direct quotes.
o Instead, paraphrase and cite the source appropriately.
• You are not to use any sources outside of the materials listed on the syllabus, lecture notes, and media examples from class.
• If you do not know the name of a specific film/media clip shared, describe it to the best of your ability and cite to the lecture date when the material was shared.
• Each short answer question can be answered in approximately two to four sentences.
• Each longer essay question can be answered in approximately one to two pages within a focused, concise, and direct response.
• You will not be graded based on page length, but on the quality of your response. Your essays should directly answer the questions, not simply list examples of the concepts or summarize lectures or readings.
QUESTIONS BELOW
SHORT ANSWERS QUESTIONS (20%):
1) What is anti-indigenous racism, as described by Clark?
a. Use this article (Clark )
2) What does Lipsitz mean by possessive investment in whiteness?
a. Use this article (Lipsitz)
3) Explain why the idea of the Latino threat exists, as outlined by Chávez?
a. Use this article (Chavez)
4) What is “hashtag ethnography,” as outlined by Bonilla and Rosa? List one potential benefit and one shortcoming of this ethnographic method
a. Use this article (Bonilla and Rosa)
ESSAY QUESTIONS: PART I (60%): RESPOND TO 3 OF THE 4 ESSAY QUESTIONS BETWEEN #1-4
1) RACE AND REPRESENTATION
a. Throughout the semester, we have learned about various forms of representations of race. Compare and contrast representations of race in both popular culture/media (e.g. Sze, Clark, Leiva, Kelley, Yuen, Díaz, Chávez) and social science literature (e.g. Kelley, Hannerz, Díaz) we covered in class. A successful answer will also reference at least one example from Week 10 lectures with regard to anthropological/media representations of Native Americans. How can/do popular media and academic literature work with and/or against each other? Based on the critiques of anthropologists by Kelley as well as the analysis of ethnographic practice and media representations in lecture, what are possible solutions to kinds of representations rendered in both media and social science literature? USE THESE ARTICLES
b. (Clark, Leiva, Kelley, Yuen, Straight Outta LA clip=http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=straight-outta-l
2) INCARCERATION AND THE WAR ON DRUGS:
a. Explain “Why mass incarceration matters” (Thompson) by briefly outlining drug laws and mass incarceration grounded in the Thompson article, and also referencing the documentary The House I Live In. How did drug use become racialized? How did actual usage statistics of drug use compare with the government and media portrayals of drug users? Explain how the usage of incarcerated peoples as cheap laborers affected labor conditions outside of prison. Who benefits financially from the expansion of the prison system/prison industrial complex and how is it an extension of neoliberal economic policy? Who is hurt by the prison system? Referencing The House I Live In, consider some of the larger societal questions raised by the crisis of mass incarceration/the war on drugs. Pose two or three larger questions you think we should be considering with relationship to this crisis.
b. USE THESE ARTICLES (Thompson, Omi & Winant, The House I Live In Clip=http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/house-i-live-in/ )
3) IDENTIFICATION/ DISIDENTIFICATION
a. First, based on Rodriguez, briefly state what identity is. Then, briefly outline Muñoz’s notion of disidentification. How does Rodriguez’s explanation of various forms of invisible and contested identities relate to Muñoz’s notion of disidentification? Why do Rodriguez and Muñoz both ground their work in women of color feminism? How did the performance of “realness” in the New York Balls shown in the documentary Paris Is Burning, and as analyzed by Dr. Uri McMillan, work both with and against popular representations of race, gender, and sexuality, and thus serve as a real life performance of disidentification? How does working both with and against social expectations of individuals function as a tool for empowerment? Conclude by either: A: Briefly considering if/how performing “realness” in the New York Balls we saw in Paris Is Burning might be another form of political activity of the kind Woodrow Díaz, Jr., the Brown Berets, and the women in Pardo’s book were engaged in. OR B: Briefly explore how the Moore chapter relates to and/or challenges the notions set forth in the Rodriguez and Muñoz chapters.
b. USE THESE ARTICLES (Muñoz, Rodriguez, Paris Is Burning= https://vimeo.com/96308840
4) COLOR-BLINDNESS:
a. Compare Omi & Winant’s color-blind politics and Bonilla-Silva’s color-blind racism. According to these scholars, what does the idea of color-blindness have to do with neoliberalism? How, according to the course readings, is Obama’s presidency an extension of neoliberal and colorblind ideologies? A successful answer will place ideas of colorblindness and neoliberalism in a historical context with relationship to civil rights, immigration, incarceration, unions/labor, and politics.
b. USE THESE ARTICLES (Bonilla Silva; Omi & Winant)
c. If you want more material I will send the reading for these
i. Lauter; Chávez; Plascencia; Rosa; Thompson; Bonacich and Applebaum; Lewis; Ryan)
5) BONUS (1 page max)
a. Building directly on your earlier answers on media representations, incarceration and neoliberalism, how does immigration and the idea of the Latino Threat (Chávez) fit into these frameworks? How has immigration been affected by media representations of immigrants and discussion of individuals as “illegals”? According to Plascencia and Rosa, what are the problematic elements of the term “illegal” with reference to a person? Rather than offer an alternative term to “illegal” or “undocumented,” briefly consider an alternative conceptualization of citizenship that creates a space in which people might have the same rights as material goods.
