Final Review Blog

If you are looking to review as you are studying for the final feel free to use this space to post questions or thoughts to get ready for the exam . Checking back once a day would be a great idea as you can answer questions from others or get new ideas about how to link concepts from the course. Asking questions based on the review sheet or answering other students' questions will count for a blog post (1 max). Good luck.

For Class on 3/13: Looking Forward...

We have addressed racial and ethnic politics from many perspectives this semester. 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:

1 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)
6 year ago: the first nonwhite president was elected
7 years ago: Unemployment 4.5%, DOW at 14,000 (Today Unemployment 6.6% overall, 12.1% for African Americans, 9.1% for Hispanics, 4.8% for Asian Americans, DOW 16,450 )
8 years ago: very few of us had ever heard of Barack Obama
11 years ago: The supreme court ruled that colleges still had legitimate reasons to use race and ethnicity as factors in college admissions
13 years ago: 9/11
23 years ago: the Rodney King Case and racially charged rioting
25 years ago: prison population starts to skyrocket
36 years ago: Regents of University of CA vs. Bakke
41 years ago: Roe vs. Wade
46 years ago: modern civil rights movement ends (according to most historians), Martin Luther King killed, major riots, peak of troops in Vietnam
47 years ago: third year in a row of major racially charged riots throughout American cities
49 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
50 years ago: Civil Rights Act of 1964
51 years ago: March on Washington, Birmingham protests
59 years ago: Montgomery Bus Boycott
60 years ago: Brown vs. Board of Education
69 years ago: end of WWII
70 years ago: Interment of 110,000 Japanese Americans
94 years ago: Women gain the right to vote
107 years ago: peak of immigration at turn of century
118 years ago: Plessy vs. Ferguson - separate but equal is constitutional
120 years ago: widespread lynching and intimidation
126 years ago: Chinese Exclusion Act
137 years ago: end of reconstruction, early Jim Crow Era (which lasts nearly 100 years)
144 years ago: 15th amendment - black men given right to vote
146 years ago: 14th amendment
148 years ago: 13th amendment - end of slavery
149 years ago: end of Civil War, Start of reconstruction, black codes
153 years ago: start of Civil War
205 years ago: end of slave trade
227 years ago: Constitution written including 3/5 compromise and slavery
238 years ago: Declaration of Independence
395 years ago: first slaves from Africa brought to colonies
407 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 10, 20, or even 50 years from now? What can and should be done politically to help?