History

    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.

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