Business Question

GB772—Module 1 Course Prep Template
Guidance:
Here is a link to the McNamee textbook:
The Meritocracy Myth (Fifth Edition) (2024)
As you read the assignment, answer the following questions. Then submit your answers.
You may take material directly from the book, but if you do, use quotation marks.
Feel free to paraphrase. Or submit a combination of direct quotes and paraphrasing.
Do your best to make the material your own, to incorporate it into your thinking.
The answer lengths I propose (bullets or sentences) are estimates. You may always write more.
McNamee Textbook, Preface and Chapter 1—The American Dream: Origins and Prospects
1. What is the American Dream? 1-2 sentences.
2. What is meritocracy? 1-2 sentences.
3. What are the four tenets of the American Dream? 4 bullet points.
4. The American Dream stems from four origins—(1) Religious Origins, (2) Political Origins, (3) Economic
Origins, and (4) Cultural Origins.
Pick one of the four origins. Read carefully, then summarize the origin you chose using approximately 5 bullet
points.
5. McNamee states that the chances of achieving aspects of the American Dream have dimmed, especially for
younger generations. He describes: (1) Home Ownership, (2) Better Opportunities for the Next Generation,
(3) Chance to Get Rich, and (4) Secure and Comfortable Retirement.
Pick one of the four aspects. Read carefully, then summarize the aspect you chose using approximately 5
bullet points.
McNamee Textbook, Chapter 2—On Being Made of the Right Stuff: The Case for Merit
6. Read pages 20-25. What role do innate talents and abilities play in a meritocracy? 3-4 sentences.
7. Read pages 25-29. What role does having the right attitude play in a meritocracy? 3-4 sentences.
8. Read pages 29-31. What role does working hard play in a meritocracy? 2-3 sentences.
9. Read pages 31-32. What role does moral character play in a meritocracy? 2-3 sentences.
10. What is McNamee’s main point in the section entitled “The Myth of the Most Qualified?” 3-4 sentences.
GB772—Module 2 Course Prep Template
Guidance:
As you read the assignment, answer the following questions. Then submit your answers.
You may take material directly from the book, but if you do, use quotation marks.
Feel free to paraphrase. Or submit a combination of direct quotes and paraphrasing.
Do your best to make the material your own, to incorporate it into your thinking.
The answer lengths I propose (bullets or sentences) are estimates. You may always write more.
Allan G. Johnson, The Trouble We’re In
1.
As you read The Trouble We’re In, indicate, after or below each statement, whether the statement is
true or false.
According to sociologist Dr. Allan G. Johnson:
(a)
Even though the characteristics in the diversity wheel may not tell us who we are as individuals,
in the privacy of our hearts and souls, the characteristics matter a great deal in our society
because they locate us in relation to other people and the world in ways that have huge
consequences.
(b)
The trouble around diversity is produced by a world organized in ways that encourage people to
use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress,
value or devalue, leave alone or harass.
(c)
With regard to difference, most of what we experience as “real” is a cultural creation. In other
words, it’s made up, even though we don’t experience it that way.
(d)
Race and all its categories have no significance outside of systems of privilege and oppression,
and it is these systems that created them.
(e)
Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because
of the groups they belong to, rather than anything they’ve done or failed to do.
(f)
Privilege includes both unearned entitlements and conferred dominance.
(g)
Regardless of which group we’re talking about, privilege allows people to assume a certain level
of acceptance, inclusion and respect in the world, to operate within a wide comfort zone.
Privilege increases the odds of having things your own way, of being able to set the agenda in a
social situation and determine the rules and standards and how they’re applied.
(h)
We don’t have to be special or even feel special in order to have access to privilege, because
privilege doesn’t derive from who we are or what we’ve done. It is a social arrangement that
depends on which category we happen to be sorted into by other people and how they treat us as
a result.
(i)
A corollary to being privileged without knowing it is to be on the other side of privilege
(oppression) without necessarily feeling that.
GB772—Module 2 Course Prep Template
(j)
Even though the privilege attached to race, gender, class (and more) doesn’t work out for
specific individuals, the privilege itself still exists as a fact of social life.
(k)
For every social category that is privileged, one or more other categories are oppressed in
relation to it. The concept of oppression points to social forces that tend to “press” upon people,
and hold them down, to hem them in and block their pursuit of a good life.
McNamee Textbook, Chapter 9—An Unlevel Playing Field: Racism, Sexism, and Other Isms
2. Read pages 174-176. Describe race and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. occupational sector. 5 bullet points.
3. Pick two additional topics from this list and summarize each one. 5 bullet points for each topic.
A Note on Asian Americans and Jewish Americans
The Gender Income and Wealth Gaps
Old Boy Networks
Family Versus Career
The Second Shift
Sexual Harassment
Heterosexism
Ableism
Ageism
Religious Discrimination
Lookism
4. Read page 199. What is intersectionality and why does it matter? 2-3 sentences.
Robert Livingston, Where Race and Gender Intersect
5. Dr. Robert Livingston is a social psychologist. Summarize his article. 15 bullet points.