Research Paper: Racial/ethnic relations in a film or documentary
Please read the directions carefully and cover all points attached to each section. Select a movie or
documentary that deals with racial/ethnic relations. You are free to choose the film, but race/ethnic
relations must be THE CENTRAL theme in the film or documentary. We will workshop papers
twice during the course of the semester. Once on November 11 and once again the week before
finals in class. This means that you should have some parts of the paper written or at least outlined.
Please bring these hard copies to class. The final paper is due finals week December 7th at
midnight.
The paper should be 3-4 pages in length, typed and double-spaced. You must include citations to
theories, and attach a works cited page using ASA (the American Sociological Association) style of
formatting. Please refer to the quick tips for ASA style, which is also posted on canvas. Make sure
to read through your paper and correct for grammatical errors and typos. These are easy points
and it is worth reading your paper several times.
1. Description of the film or documentary
a. Provide a general summary of the film. Describe the major characters in the film (5
points)
b. Were there aspects of racial stereotypes or bias that emerged in the film? Discuss
them (10 points).
2. Racial/ethnic relations
a. What is the relationship between dominant and minority groups? Would you
characterize that relationship as pluralistic, assimilationist, secessionist, or militant?
Explain and provide examples from the film (10 points).
b. In what ways does the dominant group shape structures of inequality? In what ways
are those structures also supported by ideological justifications (10 points).
3. The construction of race/ethnicity
a. How does the film deal with the idea of race? Do they treat it as a biological
construct or something that is socially constructed? Explain and provide examples
from the film. (10 points)
4. Connections to class concepts
a. Describe TWO concepts in class that we discussed that show up in the film (i.e.
threat narratives; residential segregation; exchange theories etc)? Outline the
concepts in your own words and then use examples from the film. What I DO
NOT want to see is a simple cut/paste of the lectures. (20 points)
5. Remaining points are allocated to coherent writing, spelling, sentence structure (10 points)