CL 2/13

Questions Concerning Plessy v Ferguson, or The Mis-measure of Man:

• The people referred to during: The Mismeasure of Man who are they? Are they important? Are we going to re-visit them?
• Specific Vocabulary words, meanings, and usage of words I’m not used to.

Questions Over; The Mismeasure of Man :

1. How does Gould define biological determinism? (page 52)
2. What are the two major sources of data that have supported this theme known as biological determinism? (page 52)
3. What have biological determinists invoked when it comes to the issue of race? (page 52)
4. According to Gould on page 53, biological determinism is useful for:
   1. Groups in power
   2. Groups not in power
5. According to Gould on page 53, for the adherents of biological determinism, changes to a social and political system based on a racial caste system seen as an extension of nature is:
   1. Inconsequential
   2. an enormous costs for individuals psychologically
   3. an enormous costs for society economically
   4. Both 2) and 3)
6. Gould’s arguments against biological determinism begin by attacking which two fallacies? (page 56)
   1. Reification and ranking
   2. Geocentrism
7. In the last paragraph of page 56, what does Gould write is his book is about (his explanation continues onto page 57)?
8. Finish this sentence, which can be found on page 59: “In most cases discussed in this book, we can be fairly certain that biases—though often expressed as egregiously as in cases of fraud—were unknowingly __________________________________________________.”
9. On page 60, Gould describes biological determinism as a theory of limits. What does he mean by that?

My Answers:

1. Behavioral norms, social and economic differences between human groups, about races, classes, and sexes, arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, is an accurate reflection of biology. – Page 52.
2. Craniometry ( measurement of the skull) and styles of psychological testing. – Page 52.
3. Determinists have often invoked the traditional prestige of science as objective knowledge, free from social and political taint. – Page 52.
4. Groups in Power – Page 53.
5. Both 2 and 3.
6. Reification (our tendency to convert abstract concepts into entities), and ranking (our propensity for ordering complex variation as a gradual ascending scale). Page 56.
7. “This book, then, is about the abstraction of intelligence as a single entity, its location within the brain, its quantification as one number for each individual, and the use of these numbers to rank people in a single series of worthiness, invariably to find that oppressed and disadvantaged groups—races, classes, or sexes—are innately inferior and deserve their status.” Page 56-57. In short terms as he says himself, the book is about the mismeasure of man.
8. ” influential and that scientists believed they were pursuing unsullied truth.” Page 59.
9. It takes the current status of groups as a measure of where they should and must be. This includes the ‘rare exceptions’ as well.

Questions over Plessy v. Ferguson :

1. According to Brook Thomas, the editor of Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents, what were the problems with laws designed to keep races separate (hint: it deals with the concept of skin color and “passing”)? (page 3)
2. What did Albion Tourgee want the Supreme Court to do when it came to segregation laws? (page 4)
3. Why was Homer Plessy chosen as a test case? (page 4)
4. Why did Justice John Ferguson rule in favor of Daniel F. Desdunes riding a train over state lines but against Homer Plessy, who rode a train within the borders of Louisiana? (page 5)
5. What is the difference between a social right, a political right, and a civil right? (page 12)
6. Why does Congress pass a civil rights act? (page 13)
7. According to Charles Walter Collins, what did the 14^th Amendment do? (page 14)
8. Which group was the first to bring a case before the Supreme Court citing a violation of their rights under the 13^th and 14^th Amendments (hint: it wasn’t African Americans)? (page 18.)

My Answers:

1. They were designed to keep people separate, since there was already havoc about categorizing people as white or black.
2. He wanted them to declare these laws as unconstitutional.
3. Because he had ‘mixed blood’ and could pass as ‘white’.
4. Because Daniel F. Desdunes was the son of one of the leaders of the New Orleans citizen committee.
5. Social Right: Is not secured by law. Political Right: Is secured by law. Civil Right: Nonpolitical rights upheld in citizens of a particular country. They are the middle ground between political and social rights.
6. They believe that some social rights are so important that they should receive legal protection.
7. Shifted The Court of final appeal from the State to the federal supreme court.