Definitions and Arguments about Race in America

According to W.E.B. Du Bois, what is race?

"What, then, is race? It is a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life" (53).

Du Bois, W.E.B. "The Conservation of Races." The Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: The Essential Early Essays, edited by Nahum Dimitri Chandler, Fordham University Press, 2015, pp. 5165.

• A group of people with common physical features

• A vast family of human beings with common history and ideals

• A subgroup of individuals linked by descent

• A system of classifying people into superior and inferior groups

What does Jorge J. E. Gracia emphasize in his definition of race?

"A race as a group of people consists of a subgroup of individual human beings who satisfy the following two conditions: [1] each member of the group is linked by descent to another member of the group who is in turn also linked by descent to at least some third member of the group; and [2] each member of the group has one or more physical features that are [i] genetically transmittable, [ii] generally associated with the group, and [iii] perceptually perspicuous" (85).

Gracia, Jorge J. E. Surviving Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality: A Challenge for the Twenty - First Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield 2005.

• Common blood and language

• Distinguishing populations based on skin color

• Genetically transmittable physical features

• Ranking of groups in terms of superiority

Which concept was developed in European and North American science from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries?

• Race as a vast family of human beings

• Race as a division of species into sub-populations

• Race as a system of classifying people

• Race as a subgroup of individuals linked by descent

What additional characteristics were used in the nineteenth century to define racial groups?

• Skin color and head shape

• Language and culture

• Physical features and descent

• Blood and language

According to Hartigan, what does race entail?

"Race entails a system of classifying people into groups, either explicitly or implicitly promoting the notion that these groups are ranked in terms of superiority or inferiority" (2).

Hartigan, John, Jr. Race in the 21st Century: Ethnographic Approaches. New York Oxford University Press 2015.

• A division of species into sub-populations

• A system of classifying people into ranked groups

• A subgroup of individuals linked by descent

• A vast family of human beings

What is a key aspect of the definition of race by Ansell and Solomos?

• Common history and traditions

• Common blood and language

• Genetically transmittable features

• Ranking of racial groups

Which author defines race as a subgroup of individuals linked by descent?

• John Hartigan, Jr.

• W.E.B. Du Bois

• Jorge J. E. Gracia

• Amy Ansell and John Solomos

What does the course aim to develop in students regarding discussions about race?

• Skills to rank racial groups

• Skills to identify genetically transmittable features

• Skills to talk about race respectfully

• Skills to classify people into groups

According to the social construction of race school of thought, race is:

• Based only on geographic regions

• No longer in existence

• A product of the media

• Not biologically identifiable

According to the social construction of race school of thought, race is:

• Based only on geographic regions

• No longer in existence

• A product of the media

• Not biologically identifiable