- 1. An Asian woman has been raising her hand at a meeting of white feminists planning a march to protest the “glass ceiling” in corporate management positions. When they finally recognize her, it turns out she wants to know when the group will discuss oppressive labor conditions in the garment industry. Is she being divisive?
- 2. Suppose the group responds that the agenda should reflect only items that concern all women “as women” and not ones that have to do with small factions, such as seamstresses in the clothing industry. Is the group implicitly adopting a middle-class white agenda?
- 3. Should minorities make an effort to “fit in” in social and work situations? Why or why not? Wouldn’t this just be a lot of extra work?
- 4. If blacks or Chicanos sit at separate tables in the cafeteria, is that self-segregation? Should whites politely ask if they can join them?
- 5. Should minorities make an effort to do business with minority firms? Assume that Firm A and Firm B offer the same product or service, but one is run by Mr. Gonzalez and the other by a person whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower. Which one should the person of color patronize?
- 6. A politician is born in the United States to a white mother and a black father from Kenya. His parents separate while he is young, and he is raised, first, by his mother and then, when she dies, by his white grandparents, who send him to elite schools. He speaks unaccented English, wears impeccable clothing, and exercises every day. Is he white, black, or neither?
- 7. Can a white person ever pass as black? Why would he? (See chapter 5.)
- 8. Can an assimilated minority-group member work within the system to bring about reform in a way that a rebellious outsider cannot?
- 9. Consider Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati’s notion of performative identity in the workplace, as well as Kenji Yoshino’s concept of “covering,” in which gays and lesbians work hard to conceal their identity from others. In performative identity, according to Carbado and Gulati, some workers of color carry the heavy burden of reassuring their coworkers on a daily basis that they are not threatening, uncouth, incompetent, and jivey. They do all this, of course, in addition to their assigned work, a type of double duty not expected from others. Should minorities indignantly refuse to do this, and what if it endangers their standing at work?