1. What is the difference between race and ethnicity? What are the similarities? How have biological and cultural explanations helped to create racial and ethnic differences? 

2. Barack Obama is the son of a white mother and a black African father, but more often than not he is referred to as black. What does this suggest about the nature of race in the United States? What are the consequences of this perception? 

3. What criteria do sociologists use to define a majority group? 

4. How do majority groups maintain their positions of privilege? 

5. What are some mechanisms that minorities have used to resist racism? 

6. What is institutional racism? What are some examples of institutional racism? 

7. In what ways is institutional racism more problematic than individual racism? 

8. How would you characterize majority–minority relations on a global level? What sorts of advantages do majority groups have on the global level? 

9. How is globalization changing the nature of ethnicity on a global scale? In what ways have ethnic groups been able to use advances in communication and media to retain their ethnic identity?

10. Do you agree that globalization is creating a universal culture? Why or why not?