Final Exam Review Blog

Ahhh... the last blog of the quarter. This is simply an opportunity for you to ask and answer each other's questions and discuss anything that you think will be helpful in preparation for the final. I would suggest looking at your class notes, handouts from class, and your reading assignments, along with your review sheet. This is primarily an open forum for you so check back often during the week and comment/question/ponder/review as much as you would like. You should ask and answer each others questions and you can earn one blog credit for a substantive contribution to the review (Maximum of one blog credit but you can comment as much as you would like, no length requirement to get credit).

One request: please take just a couple of minutes to complete your course evaluation if you have not done so already. I would really appreciate it. Just follow this link to go to Campus Connect.

Good luck with all of your studying!

For Class on 3/9 (Due 3/8 at 8pm): Looking Forward...

We have addressed racial and ethnic politics from many perspectives this quarter. Though we have highlighted many areas of concern we have also discussed many methods used to improve the position, status, and political and economic power of marginalized groups. Although we often find it challenging to view things outside of the modern day perspective, much has changed over time. Consider the following:

In past 4 months: Donald Trump Elected, Inauguration, Immigration/Refugee travel ban, increased efforts to identify and deport undocumented immigrants
3 years ago: Unemployment 6.6% overall, 12.1% for African Americans, 9.1% for Hispanics, 4.8% for Asian Americans, DOW 16,450 (Today Unemployment 4.5% overall, 7.9% for African Americans, 5.6% for Hispanics, 3.0% for Asian Americans, DOW 21,000), Ferguson protests, emergence of Black Lives Matter
4 year ago: The Supreme Court said that schools must apply strict scrutiny when using race or ethnicity based factors in admissions decisions. George Zimmerman Verdict (Trayvon martin Case)
9 year ago: the first nonwhite president was elected
11 years ago: very few of us had ever heard of Barack Obama
16 years ago: 9/11
26 years ago: the Rodney King Case and racially charged rioting
28 years ago: prison population starts to skyrocket
39 years ago: Regents of University of CA vs. Bakke
44 years ago: Roe vs. Wade
49 years ago: modern civil rights movement ends (according to most historians), Martin Luther King killed, major riots, peak of troops in Vietnam
50 years ago: third year in a row of major racially charged riots throughout American cities
52 years ago: Voting Rights Act of 1965, new immigration laws dramatically increase immigration (especially from Asia and Latin America), Black Power movement, Malcolm X killed
53 years ago: Civil Rights Act of 1964
54 years ago: March on Washington, Birmingham protests
62 years ago: Montgomery Bus Boycott
63 years ago: Brown vs. Board of Education
72 years ago: end of WWII
73 years ago: Interment of 110,000 Japanese Americans
97 years ago: Women gain the right to vote
110 years ago: peak of immigration at turn of century
121 years ago: Plessy vs. Ferguson - separate but equal is constitutional
123 years ago: widespread lynching and intimidation
129 years ago: Chinese Exclusion Act
140 years ago: end of reconstruction, early Jim Crow Era (which lasts nearly 100 years)
147 years ago: 15th amendment - black men given right to vote
149 years ago: 14th amendment
151 years ago: 13th amendment - end of slavery
152 years ago: end of Civil War, Start of reconstruction, black codes
156 years ago: start of Civil War
208 years ago: end of slave trade
230 years ago: Constitution written including 3/5 compromise and slavery
241 years ago: Declaration of Independence
398 years ago: first slaves from Africa brought to colonies
410 years ago: first British Colony established
several thousand years earlier: Native Americans living here.

The point: much has changed, and often in a short period of time. Looking forward what do you predict will be the state of racial and ethnic politics in America 5, 10, 20, or even 50 years from now? What can and should be done politically and socially to help?