Discussion Questions for Week 7

Discussion Questions
1. How did race relations take on different forms in the North and the South?
2. Would it have been easier to be black in the North or the South? Why?
3. If slavery never occurred and Africans came to the United States by their own will, would they be more receptive to assimilation than the Mexican immigrants?
4. What are the visible effects of the racial practices of the 20th century in our society?
5. Will people forget the past relationships between blacks and whites now that we have elected President Barack Obama as our first African American president? Has this election changed perspectives on social practices such as affirmative action?
6. Why was it so difficult for Mexican immigrant women to assimilate into American culture?
7. Was it appropriate for the government to initiate the assimilation of Mexican immigrant women?
8. Was the Americanization of Mexican immigrant women a way to fill the domestic labor role in the West that black women usually fulfilled in the South? If the Mexican woman went to the South, would the employers be more inclined to employ her or a black woman?