SOCI 1501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Bell Hooks, Cultural Appropriation, Bakken Pipeline
STUDY GUIDE FOR FINAL EXAM Race Class Gender, Spring 2018
What was the general context of the reading “Serving in Florida”?
- The author worked a low-wage job as a waitress to experience the struggles of a lower
class person. To show the complicated problems people who are less fortunate go
through… She eventually gives up because of the stress
- Talks of how inaccurate minimum wage is.. No one can live a comfortable life on
minimum wage (few of the other servers/hostesses/cooks can afford a home to
themselves… all live in trailer parks, with family/friends, a motel, or even in a non-
working boat)(most cannot afford car either)
What experiences/struggles did the waitress in “Serving in Florida” face?
- Homelessness/unstable home (Gail lives in her truck, Joan lives and raises her kids in a
mobile home, Ehrenreich cannot afford trailer plot with one job alone).
- Gail couldn’t afford to put down the 2 months payment for the rent of an apartment.
Unplanned expenses can decimate a person’s finance
- They can’t pay for uniform, don’t have regular healthcare, medicine is to expensive to fill
prescription (Gail could not afford necessary estrogen pills)
- Cannot even afford to make large meals and save on food (no stove in motel), must eat
fast food if anything to save money
- The travel to Key West employment (30 miles)
- The waitress job does not pay for her expenses
- Unfair treatment by boss of restaurant (searches workers’ belongings, drug tests,
“carelessly aimless accusations”)
What are the “individual attributes” that some problematic research on class inequality
focuses on?
- An individual attributes approach uses different demographic categories (race, gender,
etc.) or even personal traits (like motivation) to explain class inequality.
What is “Black accommodation”? (Hint: from “Race and the Invisible Hand” reading and
also discussed in class related to Black parents talking to their kids about the police)
- How white networks exclude black men from jobs. Begins early as when young men
avoided training in trades of interest because they were known to hold little promise for
integration and advancement.
What were the different responses students of different races received when trying to
create networks with college professors? (Based on “Race and the Invisible Hand”)
- The teacher chooses to verbally encourage the black students, while providing more
active assistance to white students. These assistance includes: vacancy information,
referrals, direct job recruitment, formal and informal training.
Based on “Race and the Invisible Hand,” exclusionary networks are formed among
people of what group?
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- Black college students. Black graduates trail behind their white peers. They are
employed less often in the skilled trade, especially within the fields for which they have
been trained; they earn less per hour, they hold lower status position, they receive fewer
promotion, they experience more and longer periods of unemployment.
What is fetishization?
- Unhealthy obsession with the other. Simultaneous allure/pleasure and disgust
- “Colorful and exciting get still hated other
In “Eating the Other,” what does bell hooks say about younger white people having
sexual encounters with people of color?
- To these young males and their buddies, fucking was a way to confront the Other, as
well as a way to make themselves over, to leave behind white “innocence” and enter the
world of “experience.” (Rite of passage)
What is cultural appropriation? (from bell hooks’s reading “Eating the Other”)
- Radical white youth who choose to be disloyal to western civilization
Ex. white people dressing up as native people.
How can problematic images of marginalized racial groups contribute to white people’s
perceptions of non-white groups?
- The non-white groups are seen as the other and are then objectified and fetishized
How can problematic images of marginalized racial/gender groups shape perceptions of
oppression and history?
- It distorts oppression, experience, history and reality
How are representations of race and gender constructed in relation to whiteness and
maleness?
- Whites are considered the norm or the ideal and people of color are constructed based
on believed differences from representations of whites
What is the Magical Negro trope? What was the general setting/plot of the movie clip we
watched in class that was an example of the Magical Negro character?
- Its a supporting stock character in American cinema, coming of aid of the white
protagonist
- Black people giving wisdom to the white protagonist
Be able to list all elements of the Magical Negro trope
- Person of color, usually black, sometimes Native American
- Main life purpose is to assist white protagonist
- Disappears, dies, or sacrifices self
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Document Summary
The author worked a low-wage job as a waitress to experience the struggles of a lower class person. To show the complicated problems people who are less fortunate go through she eventually gives up because of the stress. Homelessness/unstable home (gail lives in her truck, joan lives and raises her kids in a mobile home, ehrenreich cannot afford trailer plot with one job alone). Gail couldn"t afford to put down the 2 months payment for the rent of an apartment. They can"t pay for uniform, don"t have regular healthcare, medicine is to expensive to fill prescription (gail could not afford necessary estrogen pills) Cannot even afford to make large meals and save on food (no stove in motel), must eat fast food if anything to save money. The travel to key west employment (30 miles) The waitress job does not pay for her expenses. Unfair treatment by boss of restaurant (searches workers" belongings, drug tests,
