Social Problems

This is an open book, open note, take home final essay exam.  You may use any and all sanctioned course material (text, reader (White Fragility), articles and video on Moodle) in answering each question (aka, No Google or Wikipedia!)   Answer each item as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible, making certain to cite all direct quotations and statistics with quotation marks, the author and page number.   Each can be answered in two lengthy paragraphs , keeping in mind that each question constitutes 25% of the final exam grade.    This final should be typed, double-spaced, and uploaded to Moodle. Please use the text book that can be found online. Also use sources that supports your answers which can be found on my course portal. I will include my login credentials to the course so you can use the sources that are given there. Articles/videos/etc. Include the White Fraglility book as well. Please please do a good job. It is my final. Also, please do the extra credit. Textbook: Eitzen, D. Stanley and Maxine Baca Zinn and Kelly Eitzen Smith.  2018.  Social Problems (14th Edition).  Pearson.  eText ISBN: 9780134637808, 0134637801 Login info:  https://moodle.adelphi.edu/course/view.php?id=123375 Alisapersaud Persaud7497 1.  Chapter 8 discusses the concepts of Race and Ethnicity in the US.   What is the sociological definition of race?  What does it mean when sociologists describe race as a “social construct”?  Now define ethnicity.  Explain racial inequality from the three different theoretical perspectives: deficiency theories, bias theories and structural discrimination theories.  Which theoretical grouping is the most valid, according to your text?  Why?  2.  Describe what the authors refer to as “growing racial conflict” in the US.  How do they explain this phenomenon?  Cite an example from class (articles, video clips and/or films) which illustrates the problem.  3.  Another social problem that has been used as a political football in this country concerns healthcare delivery and insurance.  What makes the US Healthcare system so unique among nations?  Do we really have “the best healthcare in the world”, as some in the mainstream media assert?  What is the factual evidence for this? Begin by describing the unique health care crises facing the country.  In other words, what, according to experts who study the problem, are the key problems with the approach embraced by the US pre-2010 (and to a large extent, through today)?   What was/is the Affordable Care Act?   Why was/is it so controversial?  What lessons might be learned from studying other countries’ approaches to healthcare delivery and insurance?   4.  Now that you’ve read Ch 11, and read articles/watched videos on the subject, what do you believe are some of the most significant problems facing the criminal justice system today?  Elaborate on at least two problems here.   Explain crime from the two differing perspectives:  Person Blame vs. Societal/Structural Approach.  Which one do the authors lean toward when explaining crime rates?    Extra credit:  Choose one of the following essays to earn up to 5 extra credit points. A.  Describe the historical origins and trajectory of the US’s War on Drugs.  What, according to the text’s authors, have been some of the consequences of official drug policies in the US and elsewhere (in other words, what are the major critiques of US drug policy)?  Why do some sociologists/criminologists claim that the drug war is racist?  Describe at least one “solution” to this problem. B.  Describe the cultural and structural forces that contribute to the Environmental Crisis.   Begin by briefly describing what we know about climate change and its ramifications for the earth, and us, from peer reviewed climate scientists.   How and why did this matter of scientific inquiry become so polarizing?   Next, elaborate on the cultural and structural variables that make potential solutions even more difficult.  What are some solutions posited by your authors (somewhere in your answer I’d like you to describe the difference between individual-level, societal-level, global-level solutions to the crisis).  Which offer the most promise?