S335: Race and Ethnic Relations
Fall 2007
Section 26196
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-10:45am
Ballantine Hall 103
Instructor: Rashawn Ray
Office: Memorial Hall—Room M15 1021 E. 3rd St. (Located on Mezzanine Floor)
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:30am-1:00pm or by appointment
Email:
rajray@indiana.edu (Please include S335 in the Subject of the email)
Mail: Ballantine Hall 747—Box under “Ray” (Open Monday-Friday 8am-4pm)
Phone: 812-855-4127 (The Sociology Main Office Staff will give me the message)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Race continues to be at the center of American life and shapes life chances and social interactions. This course examines the major theoretical and empirical approaches regarding race/ethnicity and the current state of race relations in America. We will explore the main assumptions that construct individuals’ perceptions of what race is and how race matters. Using various sociological theories, social psychological theories, and subcultural approaches, this course will give students a historical and present day frame with which to view race and ethnic relations. We will highlight how race/ethnicity continues to act as a boundary that forms meaningful social groupings and divisions. We will regularly discuss assigned readings, which consist of sociological articles and books as well as popular magazine articles, while integrating aspects of mainstream media (movies, songs, and television programs) to add context to our discussions.
Requirements
1. Readings—Two texts and several articles are required reading for this course. Books are available at the IU Bookstore. You will be expected to read the assigned readings before the assigned date and come to class prepared to discuss the material. Except for the required texts listed below, the readings for each week are available on Oncourse at www.oncourse.iu.edu
Kozol, Jonathon. 1991. Savage Inequalities. New York: HarperCollins
Oliver, Melvin and Thomas Shapiro. 1995. Black Wealth/White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge
2. Attendance—Class attendance is expected. Students are also expected to be on time and not leave early. Some of the material covered in class will not be covered by the readings. Therefore, attendance is vital to discuss the connection between theories and concepts and to be prepared for exams. Students may have four unexcused absences, excluding university-approved absences and religious holidays. For each additional absence past four (regardless of the reason), there will be a one-step reduction in your course grade (e.g., from an A- to a B+). If you are late to class or leave early, you will be marked absent for half of the class. Two late classes equal one absence. If you miss class, you are responsible for the material covered in class and announcements made in class. If you are late for class, it is your responsibility to make sure I mark you as late instead of absent.
3. Active Participation—I want to hear your opinions and comments. I strongly encourage you to share your insightful, as well as mind-boggling thoughts. All viewpoints are welcome in class and all of us will be respectful of each other as we discuss race and ethnic relations candidly.
4. Weekly Reflection Statements—Students will be expected to post a reflection statement about the reading for the upcoming class by 5pm the day before class. Each statement should be no shorter than 150 words and no longer than 300 words. You will be broken into two groups (DuBois and Garvey). Members of the DuBois group post their statements by 5pm on Monday and members of the Garvey group post their statements by 5pm on Wednesday. Failure to post your weekly reflection statement by 5pm will result in no credit for that week. Each reflection statement is worth 4 points. You are required to post 10 reflection statements. The reflection statements will be graded on your ability to—1) Summarize the main points of the reading, 2) Critique the reading (What do you think? From your perspective, was the main point right or wrong?), 3) Offer alternative explanations if you disagree with the readings, and 4) Answer the questions posed in class and/or posted at www.EngageDiversity.net/
5. Exams—There will be three in-class exams (September 27, November 1, December 13) that will be based on the assigned readings and class lectures. The exams will consist of multiple choice, true/false, and/or short answer/essay questions. The exams will be the entire class period. Each exam is equally weighted. Makeup exams will not be given except under extreme, unusual, and documented circumstances. To be fair to the students who took the exam as scheduled, makeup exams will be much harder exams.
Grading
Exam 1: Thursday,
September 27 120 points
Exam 2: Thursday,
November 1 120 points
Exam 3: Thursday,
December 13 120 points
Weekly Reflections 40 points
Total Possible: 400 points
Final Grade Calculations in points:
A+ 97-100% (386-400) C+ 77-79% (306-317)
A 93-96% (370-385)
C 73-76% (290-305)
A- 90-92% (358-369) C- 70-72% (278-289)
B+ 87-89% (346-357) D+ 67-69% (266-277)
B 83-86% (330-345) D 63-66% (250-265)
B- 80-82% (318-329) D- 60-62% (238-249)
F 0-59% (0-237)
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
Students will receive an automatic F in the
class and be reported to the college and Dean of Students. Do not copy others’ work or help others
cheat. Do not falsify or lie about
emergencies or provide false documentation for any matter. Additional information about academic
misconduct can be found at http://dsa.indiana.edu/Code/
SPECIAL NEEDS
Students with special needs that
might impact their ability to complete the requirements for the course should
inform me as soon as possible and provide appropriate documentation. This information will be kept confidential
and I will do my best to accommodate special needs.
Course Schedule
All readings are on Oncourse except for
Kozol’s Savage Inequalities,
which we will discuss on September 25,
and Oliver and Shapiro’s Black Wealth,
White Wealth, which we are scheduled to discussed on November 15. These books
are available in the IU book store.
8/28 Race
and Ethnicity Defined
The science of race video
Start
Reading Kozol—Savage Inequalities
8/30 Science
of Race
Drake—Black
Folks Here and There: An Essay of History and Anthropology
Implicit Association Tests
9/4 Social
Construction of Race
Zuberi—Racial
Domination and the Evolution of Racial Classification
The
Willie Lynch letters
9/6 Exploitation
of Race
Public
Sale of Negroes
Should
States Apologize?
Roots movie
9/11 Birth
of a Nation
Wellman-
Prejudiced People Are Not the Only Racists in America
9/13 Racism,
Discrimination, and Prejudice
Blumer—Prejudice
as a Sense of Group Position
Pager—Mark
of a Criminal Record
9/18 Race,
Law, and Civil Rights
Eyes
on the Prize
Ditamaso,
Parks-Yancey and Post—Whites Views of Civil Rights
Eyes on the Prize documentary
9/20 Victimization vs. Empowerment
King—Letters
from Birmingham
Jail
Malcolm
X—The Ballot or the Bullet
Black
Panther Party—What We Want
Angela
Davis—Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation
The
National Black Political Convention—The Gary
Declaration
9/25 Race
and Education
Kozol—Savage
Inequalities
Holzman—The
Effects of Segregation on Black Boys
US Supreme Court Ruling regarding Race in
Placement of Schools
9/27 EXAM 1
10/2 Intergroup
Relations
Schuman,
Steeh, and Bobo—Racial Attitudes in America
Schuman and Krysan—Historical Note on Whites' Beliefs about Racial
Inequality
Race: The Power of Allusion documentary
Concepts: Intergroup relations, intergroup
attitudes, ingroup, outgroup, proportional representation
10/4 Ethnic
Conflict
Dixon—The Ties that Bind and Those that Don’t
Crash movie
10/9 Group
Threat Theory and Contact Theory
Quillian—Prejudice as a Response to Perceived Group Threat
Quillian—Group Threat and Regional Change in Attitudes toward
African-Americans
Bobo, Lawrence and Vincent L.
Hutchings. 1996. “Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer's
Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context,” American
Sociological Review 61(6): 951‑972.
10/11 Perceived
Discrimination, Relative Deprivation, and Unjust Treatment
Feagin—The
Continuing Significance of Race: Anti-Black Discrimination in Public Places
Rosenbloom
and Way—Experiences of Discrimination among African American, Asian American,
and Latino Adolescents in an Urban High School
10/16 Whiteness
McIntosh—White
Privilege
Myers—White
Flight
Frankenberg—Whiteness
as an “Unmarked” Cultural Category
White
Privilege Documentary
10/18 Affirmative
Action
KatzNelson—When
Affirmative Action was White
Start reading Oliver and Shapiro—Black Wealth, White Wealth
10/23 Racial
Attitudes—Motivation and Perseverance
Hunt—African
American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality
What Black men think documentary
10/25 Racial
Attitudes and Stereotypes
Jackman and Crane—Some of My Best
Friends are Black
NBA
or NFL
Race and Kids documentary
10/29
Racial Attitudes and Public
Discourses
Steeh
and Schuman—Did White Racial Attitudes Change in the 1980s?
USC
Greek dialogue
Barack the Magic Negro Video
Black is Beautiful: The N Word documentary
11/1 EXAM
2
11/6 Immigration,
Assimilation, and The New Racial Structure
Bonilla-Silva—Rethinking
Racism
Bonacich—Middleman
Minorities
Alba, Richard and Victor Nee. 1997.
“Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New Era of Immigration,” International
Migration Review 31(4): 826-874.
11/8 Media,
Culture, and Sports
Hoberman—Darwin’s Athletes
Dyson—The
Culture of Hip Hop
Neal—Hip
Hop’s Gender Problem
Remember the Titans movie
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes
11/13 Race,
Gender, and Sexuality
Rosow
and Ray—Getting off and Getting Intimate
11/15 Lookism,
Tokenism, and Skin Color
Takaki—Asian
Americans: Myth of the Model Minority
Beauty Privilege documentary and Beauty
Commercial
11/20 Race,
Class, and Status
Oliver
and Shapiro—Black Wealth, White Wealth
11/22 No
class! Thanksgiving Break
11/27 Neighborhoods
and Communities
Massey and Denton—American Apartheid
11/29 Health
Disparities
Racial Discrimination Tied to Breast Cancer
Risk
12/4
Race and the Criminal Justice System
Mauer—Race
to Incarcerate Ch.7-8
Dilulio—Instant
Replay: Three Strikes was the Right Call
Sentencing
Project
Schools
and Prisons
Race to Execution documentary
12/6 Everyday
and Collective Acts of Resistance
12/13 EXAM 3
Finals
Week—10:15am-12:15pm