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Catch-All/Student Discussion Questions

Some discussion topics and questions from Amy Wax’s book

  1. Amy Wax and other scholars who make the kind of argument she makes about the cultural contributions to racial disparities often take some heated criticism. It’s important to recognize however that this same argument is made by some black cultural commentators and celebrities. The now fallen Bill Cosby was perhaps the best known example (see him for example here on Meet the Press about a decade ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itWCvkK44lE), but there are others. Here for example is Denzel Washington saying similar things:  https://youtu.be/O0dCvQdt5XI?t=178. Why do you think there is such resistance to such arguments?
  2. The cultural explanation of the racial disparities is complicated. In this article, a black female writer describes the way in which a white audience and critics cheer celebratory representations of misogyny and nihilistic male violence in the recent film about the rap group NWA. Wax points out that remedies to black social inequalities will require changes in black cultural practices by blacks.  How much of a role do you think is played in the perpetuation of some of these cultural practices by the fact that middle class white audiences frequently glorify and cheer the popular cultural manifestations of these practices?

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