Controversial Topic Posit

Assessment Instructions

Preparation

For this assessment, you will choose one of the four following controversial topics from your Taking Sides text and write a position paper of 3–5 content pages (plus title and references pages) that answers the question posed by the title.

• D’Angelo, R., & Douglas, H. (2017). Taking sides: Clashing views in race and ethnicity (11th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Available in the courseroom via the VitalSource Bookshelf link.
  • Do we need a common identity? (pages 19–37).
  • Is racial profiling defensible public policy? (pages 117–126).
  • Is the mass incarceration of Blacks and Latinos the new Jim Crow? (pages 222–235).
  • Is gentrification another form of segregation? (pages 236–246).

To further prepare you can choose to:

• Review Issues Summary [DOCX] to help you select your topic.
• Review Riverbend City: Arguments, Counterarguments, and Rebuttals. Your answers in the media piece will help you with this assessment.
• Review the media piece about how to define what constitutes Reliable Evidence.

Instructions

Using the Capella library and other appropriate sources, explore scholarly research on both sides of your selected issue.

Develop your position on the question using the corresponding Taking Sides essay as a foundation.

Organize your paper as follows:

• Title page.
• Introduction.
• Your position and arguments.
• Evidence to support your arguments (i.e., data and research), including how the evidence supports the arguments.
• Counterarguments to your position.
• Rebuttals to those counterarguments.
• Evidence to support your rebuttals (i.e., data and research), including how the evidence supports the rebuttals.
• Summary and Conclusion.
• References.

This APA Style Paper Template [DOCX] is provided for your convenience.

Additional Requirements

• Remember that the content of your paper must be 3–5 pages in length.
• In addition to the essay, use a minimum of 5 resources, at least 2 of which are peer-reviewed academic articles.
• Follow APA style and formatting guidelines throughout.
• Set your paper in Times New Roman, 12 point.
• Review the scoring guide before submitting your assessment to ensure that you meet all criteria. Refer to the helpful links in Resources as you complete your assessment.

Consider saving this assessment to your ePortfolio.

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Controversial Topic Position Paper Scoring Guide

CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED Describe a controversial topic and key current issues related to the topic.Does not describe a controversial topic and key current issues related to the topic. Describes a controversial topic, but does not capture key current issues related to the topic. Describes a controversial topic and key current issues related to the topic.Analyzes a controversial topic and key current issues related to the topic. Describe own personal or professional position on a topic supported by psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity.Does not describe own personal or professional position on a topic supported by psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity.Describes own personal or professional position on a topic without support of psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity.Describes own personal or professional position on a topic supported by psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity.Describes own personal or professional position on a topic supported by psychological theories as well as research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity. Identify counterarguments to own position, using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the counterarguments.Does not identify counterarguments to own position, using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the counterarguments.Identifies counterarguments to own position, but does not use psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the counterarguments. Identifies counterarguments to own position, using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the counterarguments.Identifies counterarguments to own position, using psychological theories as well as research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the counterarguments. Identify rebuttals to counterarguments using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the rebuttals.Does not identify rebuttals to counterarguments using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the rebuttals.Identifies rebuttals to counterarguments but does not use psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the rebuttals.Identifies rebuttals to counterarguments using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the rebuttals.Identifies rebuttals to counterarguments using both psychological theories and research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support the rebuttals. Assess the strength of the original position using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support own views.Does not assess the strength of the original position using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support own views.Reasserts but does not assess the strength of the original position using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support own views.Assesses the strength of the original position using psychological theories or research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support own views.Assesses the strength of the original position using psychological theories and research in culture, ethnicity, and diversity to support own views Cite scholarly evidence correctly according to APA guidelines.Does not cite scholarly evidence correctly according to APA guidelines.Cites scholarly evidence with some errors in APA style and format.Cites scholarly evidence correctly according to APA guidelines.Cites scholarly evidence in APA style and format, without error. Write in a manner that is scholarly, clear, and free of grammatical, spelling, and APA formatting errors.Does not write in a manner that is scholarly, clear, and free of grammatical, spelling, and APA formatting errors. Writes in a manner that is inconsistently scholarly, clear, and free of grammatical, spelling, and APA formatting errors. Writes in a manner that is scholarly, clear, and free of grammatical, spelling, and APA formatting errors.Writes in an exemplary manner that is exceptionally scholarly, clear, and free of grammatical, spelling, and APA formatting errors.

Issues Summary

I. Do We Need a Common Identity? (pp 19-37)

YES: Patrick J. Buchanan, from “Nation or Notion?” The American Conservative (October 4, 2006)

NO: Michael Walzer, from “What Does It Mean to Be an ‘American’?” Social Research (Fall 1990)

ISSUE SUMMARY

· YES: Patrick J. Buchanan, a syndicated conservative columnist and author of The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilizations (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002), argues that America needs one common identity. He views attempts to change America’s historic identity as fraudulent.

· NO: Michael Walzer, professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, makes the pluralist argument that America cannot avoid its multicultural identity. He explores the ways in which citizenship and nationality are compatible with the preservation of one’s ethnic identity, culture, and community.

II. Is Racial Profiling Defensible Public Policy? (pp 117-126)

YES: Scott Johnson, from “Better Unsafe Than (Occasionally) Sorry?” The American Enterprise (2003)

NO: Wade J. Henderson and Karen McGill Lawson, from “Restoring a National Consensus: The Need to End Racial Profiling in America,” The Leadership Conference (2011)

ISSUE SUMMARY

YES: Scott Johnson, conservative journalist and an attorney and fellow at the Clermont Institute, argues in favor of racial profiling. He claims that racial profiling does not exist “on the nation’s highways and streets.”

NO: In the report, “Restoring a National Consensus,” Wade Henderson and Karen McGill Lawson argue that racial profiling is an unjust and ineffective method of law enforcement that makes us less, not more, safe and secure. However, profiling is pervasive and used by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels.

III. Is the Mass Incarceration of Blacks and Latinos the New Jim Crow? (pp 222-235)

YES: James Kilgore, from “Racism and Mass Incarceration in the US Heartland: Historical Roots of the New Jim Crow,” Truthout (2015)

NO: James Forman, Jr., from “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow,” Racial Critiques (2012)

ISSUE SUMMARY

YES: James Kilgore, through a study of the Midwestern criminal legal system, argues that anti-black racism, especially in the Midwest, resulting in high rates of incarceration, is determined by a number of factors. Decades of segregation and deindustrialization have contributed to mass incarceration. He argues that mass incarceration will not end unless there is a restructuring of the regional economy along with an attack on white supremacy.

NO: James Forman, Jr., a clinical professor of law at Yale Law School and a noted constitutional law scholar, affirms the utility of the new Jim Crow paradigm but argues that it has significant limitations. It obscures significant facts regarding the history of mass incarceration as well as black support for punitive criminal justice policy among other deficiencies.

IV. Is Gentrification Another Form of Segregation? (pp 236-246)

YES: Jeremiah Moss, “On Spike Lee and Hyper-Gentrification,” Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York (March 5, 2014)

NO: Justin Davidson, “Is Gentrification All Bad?” New York Magazine (February 2, 2014)

ISSUE SUMMARY

YES: Jeremiah Moss, an urban-based writer, views gentrification as a destructive process through which African Americans and others are displaced by affluent whites. He is concerned that communities with a rich culture and stability are experiencing a significant uprooting of their homes and communities due to gentrification.

NO: Justin Davidson, a writer for New York Magazine, sees many positive outcomes that result from gentrification. Among these are economic development, neighborhood revitalization, and improvements in standards of living.

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