1. False: Among the core American values identified by sociologists is the belief that one's own racial or ethnic group should be valued above all others. Inherent in this belief may be the assumption of racism÷that members of racialöethnic categories other than one's own are somehow inferior.
2. True: Although some people associate all rap music with "gangsta rap," which glorifies violence, drug use, and hostility toward women, other forms of rap music discourage such behavior and draw attention to the severe economic barriers that increasingly divide poor African Americans in central cities from middle- and upper-middleclass African Americans.
3. True: The Confederate flag has become an emotional symbol that continues to divide whites and African Americans in the South.
4. False: Hatred for members of other racial and ethnic groups÷like other forms of prejudice and discrimination÷is learned from the individuals with whom we associate. It is not rooted in human biology.
5. True: Polls show that high rates of immigration are related to an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment.
6. False: Although the desire to protect the supremacy of the English language in the United States dates back to colonial times, the framers of the Constitution chose in 1780 not to establish a national language. They thought that a national language was inconsistent with the cultural composition of the new nation.
7. True: Individuals speaking languages other than English have been the victims of verbal and physical abuse by individual bigots and members of hate groups, who view such persons as "outsiders who should go back home."
8. False: Recent polls have shown that as the United States has increased in diversity, most dominant group members are not becoming more tolerant. Three examples demonstrate this point: recent demands in this country that immigration laws be more strictly enforced, renewed interest in establishing English as the "official" language of the United States, and pressure to eliminate affirmative action programs that might otherwise benefit minority-group members.

Sources: Based on Harvard Law Review, 1987; Herek and Berrill, 1992; Dyson, 1993; and Levin and McDevitt, 1993.

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