1. Identify the largest racial and ethnic groups in your state. Use information from the census bureau or the internet to describe the sizes of the major racial and ethnic groups in your state. Would you say your state is very diverse? What else can you tell us about the racial and ethnic diversity of your state.
2. Based on the definitions of the key concepts “race”, “ethnicity” and “ethnic groups” in the lesson/textbook chapter explain why in your view, African Americans are considered a a) racial and b) ethnic group?
3. Hypothetical Question. In 1972, Miss Salalai was crowned Miss North Carolina during the state’s annual beauty pageant. However, many residents protested her selection because they felt she did not reflect the appropriate “physical image” of American people. Miss Salalai was a Cherokee Indian who had moved to Raleigh from her reservation and was integrating into mainstream society. By contrast there were no such widespread protests when Annabel Stewart a Scottish immigrant who spoke with a heavy Scottish accent won the beauty pageant a year earlier. What does this controversy around a beauty pageant tell you that “race is socially constructed?”
4. The Asian American population, currently one of the fastest growing minority group in the USA, is projected to rise to 35.8 million by 2060 tripling their 2000 population. What in your view would be the impact of these changes in the number of Asian immigrants on ethnic stratification in American society?