RACE & ETHNICITY EXAM 3 STUDY GUIDE | COMPLETE SOCIOLOGY EXAM
REVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2026/2027
People create and transmit meaning through _____. - ✔✔language
There is power embedded in the process of _____. - ✔✔naming
Exonyms - ✔✔terms for a group created by an outside dominant group
Endonyms - ✔✔terms for a group created by the group members themselves
What is the extent of income inequality, and how does it vary by race, ethnicity, and gender? - ✔✔•
Overall inequality has widened in the United States since 1980.
• In 2014, the top 1 percent of earners earned 20 percent of all income.
• The bottom 50 percent of earners earned 12 percent of all income.
The United States is one of the ______ ______ advanced economies in the world by several measures. -
✔✔most unequal
Income inequality is divided along ______ lines and even further by _____. - ✔✔racial; gender
The black unemployment rate has historically been _____ the white unemployment rate. - ✔✔twice
How do sociologists explain labor market inequality? - ✔✔Differences in human capital explains some
of the labor market inequality BUT the 10-20% that human capital cannot explain is discrimination
(racism)
• Human Capital: Educational attainment, skills, and job experience
How do sociologists explain the earnings gap and differences in unemployment? - ✔✔• Individual
Racism: racially discriminatory actions by individuals such as not calling back an interviewee for a job
because of his race
• Institutional Racism: the policies laws, and institutions that reproduce racial inequalities; setting policy
that reinforces racial disparities
Audit Study: What does this reveal? - ✔✔Lakisha and Jamal needed to send out 15 résumés to get a
callback for employment. Emily and Greg needed to send out 10 résumés.
how does individual discrimination work through implicit bias - ✔✔Thinking something was done/said
by certain races, effects our perceptions/actions
• When we expect excellence, we see excellence.
• When we expect errors, we find errors.
one way individual discrimination works is through ____ ____. - ✔✔implicit bias
• unreasoned judgmental inclinations that operate without our conscious awareness.
unemployment - ✔✔can't find a job but have been actively looking in the past month
, underemployment - ✔✔includes unemployment and those working part-time but could be working full
time
- you have the qualifications but there are not jobs open to you
reasons for unemployment rates - ✔✔• incarceration
• 1 in 3 black men will spend some time in jail
deindustrialization - ✔✔decline in industrial activity in the U.S.
-Changes in the labor market of the United States were particularly detrimental to black men.
skills mismatch hypothesis - ✔✔black men in particular do not have the skills required to work in the
current economy
spatial mismatch hypothesis - ✔✔black families have been excluded from buying homes in the suburbs
where most of the job growth has occurred, creating a disconnect between where blacks live and where
jobs are located
The United States is ____ unequal than it ever has been. - ✔✔more
What is the racial history of health disparities in the United States? - ✔✔James Marion Sims (1813-
1883) -sometimes called the father of American gynecology - used involuntary subjects—many of them
enslaved African Americans—for experiments.
African Americans are _____ likely to die prematurely than whites or Latinos. - ✔✔more
Black women have _____ risks of low birth weight - across education levels. - ✔✔higher
How does segregation lead to health disparities? - ✔✔• *location and access to better food*
-food dessert (no grocery stores w/in 10 miles): happen to be in low- income places
-food swamp (food stores w/ processed and unhealthy): also happen to be in low-income areas.
• *location and access to hospitals or better healthcare*
Latino paradox - ✔✔The observation that even though Latinos have, on average, a lower
socioeconomic status than whites, they have comparable health outcomes to whites.
• Latinas without a HS diploma are less likely than white women with a college degree to have a low-
birth weight baby.
Environmental Racism - ✔✔Institutional policies and practices that differentially affect the health
outcomes or living conditions of people and communities based on race or color.
How is the Flint Water Crisis related to environmental racism? - ✔✔In March 2016, the Flint Water
Advisory Task Force Report found that the residents of Flint, Michigan, a majority-black and
overwhelmingly poor city, had been exposed to environmental and health hazards due to water-supply
decisions made by city officials.
History of segregated schooling - ✔✔• The U.S. government created Indian schools to encourage Native
Americans to leave behind their traditional ways and 'assimilate.'
REVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2026/2027
People create and transmit meaning through _____. - ✔✔language
There is power embedded in the process of _____. - ✔✔naming
Exonyms - ✔✔terms for a group created by an outside dominant group
Endonyms - ✔✔terms for a group created by the group members themselves
What is the extent of income inequality, and how does it vary by race, ethnicity, and gender? - ✔✔•
Overall inequality has widened in the United States since 1980.
• In 2014, the top 1 percent of earners earned 20 percent of all income.
• The bottom 50 percent of earners earned 12 percent of all income.
The United States is one of the ______ ______ advanced economies in the world by several measures. -
✔✔most unequal
Income inequality is divided along ______ lines and even further by _____. - ✔✔racial; gender
The black unemployment rate has historically been _____ the white unemployment rate. - ✔✔twice
How do sociologists explain labor market inequality? - ✔✔Differences in human capital explains some
of the labor market inequality BUT the 10-20% that human capital cannot explain is discrimination
(racism)
• Human Capital: Educational attainment, skills, and job experience
How do sociologists explain the earnings gap and differences in unemployment? - ✔✔• Individual
Racism: racially discriminatory actions by individuals such as not calling back an interviewee for a job
because of his race
• Institutional Racism: the policies laws, and institutions that reproduce racial inequalities; setting policy
that reinforces racial disparities
Audit Study: What does this reveal? - ✔✔Lakisha and Jamal needed to send out 15 résumés to get a
callback for employment. Emily and Greg needed to send out 10 résumés.
how does individual discrimination work through implicit bias - ✔✔Thinking something was done/said
by certain races, effects our perceptions/actions
• When we expect excellence, we see excellence.
• When we expect errors, we find errors.
one way individual discrimination works is through ____ ____. - ✔✔implicit bias
• unreasoned judgmental inclinations that operate without our conscious awareness.
unemployment - ✔✔can't find a job but have been actively looking in the past month
, underemployment - ✔✔includes unemployment and those working part-time but could be working full
time
- you have the qualifications but there are not jobs open to you
reasons for unemployment rates - ✔✔• incarceration
• 1 in 3 black men will spend some time in jail
deindustrialization - ✔✔decline in industrial activity in the U.S.
-Changes in the labor market of the United States were particularly detrimental to black men.
skills mismatch hypothesis - ✔✔black men in particular do not have the skills required to work in the
current economy
spatial mismatch hypothesis - ✔✔black families have been excluded from buying homes in the suburbs
where most of the job growth has occurred, creating a disconnect between where blacks live and where
jobs are located
The United States is ____ unequal than it ever has been. - ✔✔more
What is the racial history of health disparities in the United States? - ✔✔James Marion Sims (1813-
1883) -sometimes called the father of American gynecology - used involuntary subjects—many of them
enslaved African Americans—for experiments.
African Americans are _____ likely to die prematurely than whites or Latinos. - ✔✔more
Black women have _____ risks of low birth weight - across education levels. - ✔✔higher
How does segregation lead to health disparities? - ✔✔• *location and access to better food*
-food dessert (no grocery stores w/in 10 miles): happen to be in low- income places
-food swamp (food stores w/ processed and unhealthy): also happen to be in low-income areas.
• *location and access to hospitals or better healthcare*
Latino paradox - ✔✔The observation that even though Latinos have, on average, a lower
socioeconomic status than whites, they have comparable health outcomes to whites.
• Latinas without a HS diploma are less likely than white women with a college degree to have a low-
birth weight baby.
Environmental Racism - ✔✔Institutional policies and practices that differentially affect the health
outcomes or living conditions of people and communities based on race or color.
How is the Flint Water Crisis related to environmental racism? - ✔✔In March 2016, the Flint Water
Advisory Task Force Report found that the residents of Flint, Michigan, a majority-black and
overwhelmingly poor city, had been exposed to environmental and health hazards due to water-supply
decisions made by city officials.
History of segregated schooling - ✔✔• The U.S. government created Indian schools to encourage Native
Americans to leave behind their traditional ways and 'assimilate.'
