MIT21A_226F09_q12 - Oct 19 2009 12 Questions on Wade 1-68 1...

Oct. 19, 2009
12 Questions on Wade 1-68
1. What is your understanding of “race”?
2. What was scientific racism? What components of this “–ism” remain today?
3. Give three examples of racist ideologies in practice, either in history or at present.
Compare them, noting the similarities and the differences.
4. What do you think are useful features of the concept of “race,” if any?
5. If you do not believe there are any useful features of the concept of “race,” what are our
alternatives for discussing biological variability among groups of people?
6. What features of the concept of “race” are not useful, if any?
7. Describe Wade’s critique of “race” as a scientific notion.
8. How has the notion of “race” changed over time in the West?
9. Wade says that “race” is a social/historical construction. Defend this argument. Oppose
it.
10. Discuss the differences between the word “racist” and the word “racial.”
11.