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Academic Year 2005/2006

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
AFAM 227 FA

In this course we will study the social construction of race and ethnicity. We will explore key concepts such as prejudice, discrimination, segregation, racism, class, gender, status, migration and immigration, identity, civil rights, and color-blindness. The United States is the product of myriad social forces that have produced a unique nation-state that is racially and ethnically diverse. This course will focus on the experiences of several groups including: whites, blacks, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos. We will use the perspective of historical sociology to examine the experiences of these different groups and to understand different opportunity structures and outcomes in the pre-industrial, industrial and postindustrial periods of American society. This will allow us to uncover the ways in which processes such as settlement and conquest, slavery, formal and informal segregation, migration and immigration, social movements, persistent class and gender inequalities, and recent patterns of intermarriage and multiracialism have affected the status of race and ethnic relations among and within racialized groups in the United States.

MAJOR READINGS

Tomas Almaguer, RACIAL FAULT LINES: THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF WHITE SUPREMACY IN CALIFORNIA. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Yen Le Espiritu, ASIAN AMERICAN PANETHNICITY: BRIDGING INSTITUTIONS AND IDENTITIES. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.
Doug McAdam, POLITICAL PROCESS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK INSURGENCY, 1930-1970. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Clara Rodriguez, CHANGING RACE: LATINOS, THE CENSUS, AND THE HISTORY OF ETHNICITY IN THE U NISED STATES. New York: New York University Press, 2000.
Stephen Steinberg, THE ETHNIC MYTH: RACE, ETHNICITY, AND CLASS IN AMERICA. 3rd ed. Boston: Beacon, 2001.
Erica Chito Childs, NAVIGATING INTERRACIAL BORDERS: BLACK-WHITE COUPLES AND THEIR SOCIA L WORLDS. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments will include short written assignments, a term paper, and exams.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS AFAM    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Brown,Eric    
Times: ..T.R.. 09:00AM-10:20AM;     Location: FISK302;
Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 40)
SR. major: 6   Jr. major: 6
SR. non-major: 3   Jr. non-major: 3   SO: 7   FR: 15

Special Attributes:
Curricular Renewal:    Writing
Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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