Short or Long Answers
- How did the different systems of slavery experienced by Jews and Blacks possibly influence the mental models, institutions and hence material conditions that they experience today?
- Briefly explain how the concept P = S – (L + CM) influence a large social pattern?
- Using the concept of Collective Action, briefly describe how the power relationship between the students and the police shifted at the UCAL Davis protest.
- Think of Willie Lynch’s strategies for creating a slave. Briefly describe 2 current examples where a similar outcome is produced.
- How does Malcolm’s program, both when he is working for the Nation and after he returns from Mecca, seek to counteract the system created by Willie Lynch?
- How has the level of dehumanization changed from the 1950’s to the present time in the relationship between Homosexuals and Mainstream society?
- Describe an example of a Material Condition that influences behavior on both the macro or group level and the micro or individual level.
- Define the concept of dehumanization. Describe an example of how computing the dehumanization index can help compare two systems or help understand change over time.
- Describe two strategies that groups who have been marginalized or dehumanized can use to reduce or lower their level of dehumanization. Give an example of each.
- Give an example for each of the categories we discussed in class; Fully Human, Not Quite Human and Sub-Human and explain why your examples belong in the category that you assigned them to.
- Explain how the system of childrearing and parenting in this country influences many women to choose to abort a fetus that has been identified as having Downs Syndrome. What are two or more changes in the system that would influence some women to make a different choice?
- How does the system of capitalism lead to the inequality of wealth in this country?
Possible Role Power Diagrams
- Draw and describe the Deviance role power diagram for a particular group that creates an unequal power relationship between the dominant and subordinate group. How is power maintained by the more powerful group and how does the less powerful group begin to change the relationship? Explain your diagram.
- Draw and describe the Landowner – Sharecropper diagram. Explain how the landowner keeps the sharecropper’s tied to the land and the changes in the Landowners limits to power compared to the Slavemaster.
- Draw and describe the role power diagram for Husband and Wife either for your grandparents generation or your own. Explain the features of the system that holds it together and how it might break down.
- Draw and describe the Human – Robot diagram, compute the Dehumanization Index and explain how it can serve as an ideal type for the examination of human systems of dehumanization.
Essay:
- How does Malcolm’s trip to Mecca and Africa change the narrative of his political program and life? What elements continue to stay the same from his time with the Nation to is efforts to create the OAAU?
- Apply the ideas reflected in the quote below to Malcolm X and one other example from the course.
“Men (and women) make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” – Karl Marx
Equations:
Profit Equation:
P (Profit) = S (sales) – (L (labor) = CM (cost of materials))
Dehumanization Index – The level of dehumanization
Subordinate Dominant
LD = ((GU * R) – BS + ((EP * BD) – LP) Based on the general Role Power Diagram
LD = Level of Dehumanization
GU = Give Up
R = Responsibilities
BS = Benefits of the subordinate group (the group with less power)
EP = Exercise of Power
BD = Benefits of the dominant group (the group with more power)
LP = Limits to power of the dominant group
