Worksheet: Sociology 3945--"The Two Nations of Black America"

1. Who is the narrator of this video, and what is his position at Harvard? Describe his background, including his growing up years and his experiences with the black power movement as an undergraduate at Yale?

2. What is the social class split that this video argues has been occuring within the black community in the U.S. and what are its sources?

3. How does sociologist William Julius Wilson assess the relative importance of black, lower-class culture vs. unequal opportunity in terms of generating deviant behavior in poor black communities? What evidence does he cite in the video?

4. Why have conditions worsened for inner-city blacks despite the civil rights legislation of the 1960s?

Group Project: Sociology 3945 --"The Two Nations of Black America"

1. Describe the split that has developed in the African American community since the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

2. What are some of the explanations of this split (theories about why it happened) on the part of the people featured in this video?

3. Summarize the arguments about the relative importance of race vs. class?

4. Why does it matter whether the situation of poor black Americans is more a matter of race or of social class?

5. Do you think that people of ability(those DuBois called "the talented tenth") who succeed in the larger society have an obligation to the less fortunate? Is this particularly true for minorities or is it true for everyone? If you think they do, how do you see that obligation?