Explain and exemplify the concept of intersectionality using the analysis of the relationship between race/racism and gender/sexism found in Kia Lilly Caldwell’s book Negras in Brazil.
Your answers should be based on course material, conversations with classmates and (in the last essay) your own experiences. And nothing else. Do not use the internet to research answers. It will lead you astray, or worse. Don’t do it. Really. Cite page numbers of quotes you use. You do not need to have a bibliography.
–The exam consists of three sections. We will evaluate each component separately but will also consider the exam as a whole. The best exams will cover a wide range of themes and draw from various authors (particularly the ones we read over multiple days), and show a nuanced understanding of concepts and arguments. **(We will notice if you keep saying the same thing, and using the same authors and ideas to answer various questions, so engage a broad range of texts).
Questions
Part I. Short answers: Choose 4 of 6 from the list below. Answers should be limited to 200 words (less than half a page, single-spaced); so use words efficiently.
1) Many people, in what we might call “common sense” thinking about racism, take racism to refer to personal attitudes and beliefs, a matter mostly of individual ignorance and prejudice. Why, according to some scholars, is this way of thinking about racism insufficient? Draw on at least two texts from the course to make your arguments.
2) Explain the relationship between class/capitalism, racialization, and citizenship as it affects the condition and lives of Mexican/migrants, according to Nicholas De Genova? What does De Genova’s book teach us about the relationship between race and class?
3) Explain and exemplify the concept of intersectionality using the analysis of the relationship between race/racism and gender/sexism found in Kia Lilly Caldwell’s book Negras in Brazil.
4) Contemporary genetic science sometimes involves the use of race/racial categories. According to John Hartigan and/or class lecture how is this science different from the scientific racism of the early 20th century (identify at least 2 differences)? According to other authors (Montoya and/or Reardon and Tallbear), what are problems with contemporary science with regards to race and ethnicity (identify at least 2)?
5) In class and in the readings on whiteness we saw the concept of “marked” and “unmarked” categories. Explain the idea of marked/unmarked using an example (from in class or outside of class). Why is the idea of marked/unmarked important to critical analysis of race and racism?
6) Several readings in the class (by Gusterson, Walley, Rosa & Bonilla, Anderson (Conclusion)) address the election of Donald Trump as president and its implications for how anthropologists should think about race and power in the United States. Drawing on two of these authors, compare their perspectives on what anthropologists should do in furthering the study of race and power in the U.S. in the current moment.
Part II. Essay 1: Choose 1 of the 2 questions below. Your answer should be 1.5-2 pages, single-spaced. The best answers will consider a range of different texts and draw on specific examples to make your arguments.
1) In the first part of this class we spent a fair amount of time looking at Boasian approaches to race and culture. Write an essay that considers the different ways social scientists in the last 25 years (those you read in the second half of our course) have attempted to move “beyond” the Boasian critiques of racial thinking. What topics, methods and analytical strategies have they used to further our understanding of “race” in ways the Boasians
