For this week’s writing assignment you will write on the issue of race. Class lecture, the assigned Feagin & Feagin chapters, and the film “Race: the Power of an Illusion – The Story We Tell” will be your sources. In your essay please address the following questions:

1: What is the definition of race? What are its origins? How is race distinct from ethnicity even though many people use the terms interchangeably?
2: What does it mean to say that race is an “illusion” or a “social construction?” What is a simple test of whether a phenomenon has objective reality or is socially constructed? Please provide a specific example.
3: How does race play a very real role in the structuring of human societies and, by extension, the world in which all live? Specifically, what is the relationship between ideas of race and structured inequality in highly racialized societies like the United States?
Remember: these writing assignments are your opportunity to synthesize the lectures and discussions in the classroom with what we are reading outside of the classroom. They are also designed to help you create a study guide that you can use as you prepare for the essay exams.How will these writing assignments be graded?