Question I:
Structural Violence: There are several examples of racism structured into legal and judicial systems (e.g., the 13th Amendment's exception for slavery of prisoners; more severe sentencing for crack use than cocaine use; prisons and immigration detention as sources of capitalist profit; people pleading guilty to crimes that they didn't commit because they can't afford to stay in jail; etc.).
i. Explain the concept of structural violence and provide examples of how racism was/is structured into American society?
ii. Explain why this form of structural violence (structural racism) seems so mundane/normal to many Americans-to the point that some wrongly think that structural racism doesn't exist. Include the concepts of social identity theory, motivated reasoning and tribal thinking.
Question II:
Rational Violence: Bauman argues that for systematized, modern rational violence, you need three factors: 1) visionary/utopian leadership that defines some people as weeds; 2) a bureaucratic system that shields individuals from moral responsibility; and 3) a docile, civilized public. Please explain what Bauman means by each of these three factors and provide examples.
Question III:
Tribalism: Social identity theorists argue that we gain our senses of personal self-esteem from membership in groups whose statuses matters to us. Because individual identity depends on group status, we're motivated to ensure that our groups win when in competition with other groups. In seeking to win, we stereotype/essentialize members of our group in positive ways and members of out-groups in negative ways.
i. How can social identity theory help us understand the enduring, structural nature of racism in the US?
ii. What is motivated reasoning, and what examples are there of people engaging in motivated reasoning to protect their group's interests?
iii. What examples are seen in positive in-group and negative out-group stereotyping?
Question IV:
Group threat: Blumer points toward four things that must be present in a dominant group for group prejudice to become a problem: a feeling of superiority, a sense of intrinsic difference, privileges, and the sense that those privileges are under threat. Marginalized groups only seem threatening when dominant group spokespeople-usually elites-depict them that way, usually through mass media. How do elites use law-and-order rhetoric and dog whistles (words and phrases that are coded to carry racist meanings while providing plausible deniability because they're not explicitly racist) to construct threat for white audiences?
i. How can Blumer help us understand why these appeals were so successful?
ii. Consider, for example, media depictions of blackness; Nixon's Southern Strategy; George Bush's Willie Horton add; etc. Are threatening appeals still successful today?
iii. Are there contemporary examples (e.g., how might Blumer help us understand the reaction of many white people to the Black Lives Matter movement or opposition to immigration)?