CL 2/13

The Mismeasure of Man

1. Gould defines biological determinism as “worth can be assigned to individuals and groups by measuring intelligence as a single quantity”. “It is shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between human groups—primarily races, classes, and sexes—arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society.”(pg. 52)
2. Craniometry and psychological testing.
3. “Traditional prestige of science as objective knowledge, free from social and political taint”(pg. 52)
4. Groups in power
5. An enormous costs for individuals psychologically and an enormous costs for society economically.
6. 1. Reification and ranking
7. This book is about intelligence and how intelligence has not been measured correctly. A person’s worth has been determined by intelligence and ranked. Groups that are higher in society have gotten more favor when it comes to intelligence.
8. … influential and that scientists believed they were pursuing unsullied truth.

9. “It takes the current status of groups as a measure of where they should and must be (even while it allows some rare individuals to rise as a consequence of their fortunate biology)”(pg. 60)

Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents

1. Racial mixture created problems with laws designed to keep races separate.(page 3)
2. Albion Tourgee wanted the Supreme Court to declare that segregation laws were unconstitutional (page 4)
3. Homer Plessy chosen as a test case, because he was mixed. He was only 1/8 African and he spoke French. He was born free in 1862. (page 4)
4. Why did Justice John Ferguson rule in favor of Daniel F. Desdunes riding a train over state lines, because he said that law was unconstitutional on interstate trains. However, he said that since Plessy was on a train within the state, that the state had power to control their railroad.(page 5)
5. Political rights are secured by the law, and social rights are not. Civil rights are the middle ground between the two.(page 12)
6. Some social rights are really important that they need legal protection (page 13)
7. Charles Walter Collins said that the 14th Amendment shifted the court of final appeal from state to federal Supreme Court (page 14)
8. White butchers(page 18.)