Paper instructions:
The fight for civil rights is often a struggle for social,
economic, and political visibility. By maintaining
negative stereotypes built around minority groups, the
hegemonic structure (usually, white heterosexual men)
creates an alternate image of these groups. As Pascoe
and Canaday have demonstrated, legislation and its
enforcement have a way of making certain groups
invisible to the broader society. Through this process,
exclusion of minority groups is seen as the product of
nature rather than politics. In order, to gain visibility,
and through a kind of “decloaking” process, these
groups must work to reframe social ideas and
prejudices. How groups choose to do this seems to
offer different types or rates of success. Why do some
groups receive first-class citizenship quickly—for
example, the Irish, Italians, Greeks—while other
groups seem to labor so long to lift off the weight of
prejudice and second class citizenship? Throughout this
course we have looked at the barriers to first-class
citizenship and the strategies used in the attempts of
minority groups to achieve equality. For this final exam
essay, you have two options for examining the
strategies used in fighting for and gaining civil rights.