SOCI 217: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Fall 2018 Course Syllabus Instructor: Shawn Ratcliff, M.A. Contact: sratcliff@huskers.unl.edu Office: 736 Oldfather Hall

Class Time: T/R 12:30-1:45 Class Locations: 141 Morrill Hall Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 2:00pm-3:00pm or by appointment

Required Materials

Gallagher, Charles A. ed. 2011. Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity.

External readings as necessary (See Canvas and class handouts)

COURSE DESCRIPTION Over the course of United States history, definitions of race and ethnicity have developed and shifted. Race does not exist in any identifiable physical or biological sense yet we still struggle with classifications of race and determining how many “races” exist. Despite the social construction of race, racial classifications lead to real effects in the lives of people as individuals and as members of society. Learning about the development of race and ethnicity in the United States allows us to not only ask “how” race matters but also “why” race still matters. This course does not seek to compare different racial/ethnic group experiences but instead will draw on an intersectional approach on race/ethnicity and social institutions.

COURSE OBJECTIVES 1. Creating, and honing, the ability to critically analyze topics regarding race and race

relations. 2. To understand how history has informed definitions of race, and how race works

within social institutions. 3. To develop interpersonal communication skills through in-class discussion and

writing skills through writing assignments.

COURSE POLICIES

Attendance Policy: Attendance in this class is required, and students are expected to have completed the assigned readings prior to class. This class will be fast-paced, with multiple in-

class assignments and activities over the course of 3 weeks. Additionally, attendance will be taken everyday through different assignments at the beginning of class. Course instruction will consist of a mixture of lectures, class discussion, small group work, films, and additional class activities. If you must miss class or enter late/leave early, I request you e-mail me one class period in advance. Recording Policy: So as to create a classroom environment in which everyone may feel comfortable participating in discussions, it is expected that no audio or video recordings of class will be made without the prior knowledge and consent of the instructor. Students with disabilities for which reasonable accommodation would include making such recordings should work with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office and the instructor to make arrangements. Classroom Conduct: Unless you have informed me ahead of time, I expect you to arrive to class on time and to not leave early. Please turn off all cell phones prior to the beginning of our schedule class time. Texting or taking phone calls during class is not permitted. I expect you to be prepared upon arrival to class; this includes being attentive and participating in class discussions. Laptop usage is permitted if related to the course (e.g., assignment or note taking). If you choose to use your laptop during class, please be respectful of myself and other students in this course and do not engage in distracting behavior (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). I reserve the right to request laptops not be brought into the classroom should they serve as a disruption. Due to the nature of this course and course content, we may discuss topics where individuals have conflicting viewpoints. I encourage all students to participate in class discussions and critically engage with the material learned in this course, however, respectful discussion is a requirement in this course in both your in class participation and written assignments. Diverse viewpoints yield dynamic and enlightening discussions but it is important to maintain respect despite different opinions. All faculty, staff, and students are responsible for understanding and complying with harassment policies. For more information please visit http://www.unl.edu/equity. In addition, response-based writing assignments will also be used as a platform to voice your opinions and to promote engaged learning of the course material. Academic Integrity: All work that you turn in should be your own work. When you place your name on an assignment or exam, I interpret this to mean that you have received no unauthorized assistance on an assignment or test. Unauthorized assistance includes but is not limited to: cheating on an exam, turning in assignments/exams as your own work when it is not, and plagiarism (presenting someone else’s published ideas as your own, we will discuss proper academic citation in this course). These acts will not be tolerated and will be handled according to university policy. For more information, visit http://stuafs.unl.edu/ja/code/three.shtml (Section 4.2) Americans with Disabilities Act: Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the instructor for a confidential discussion of their individual needs for academic accommodation. It is UNL policy to provide flexible and individualized accommodation to

students with documented disabilities that may affect their ability to fully participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. To receive accommodation services, students must be registered with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office, 132 Canfield Administration, 472-3787 voice or TTY. For further information regarding UNL policies in this regard, please visit http://www.unl.edu/equity/ or call (402) 472-2322. SSD works with students to develop academic accommodations to meet their needs, including for mental health disabilities such as depression and anxiety. It is the policy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to provide individualized accommodations to students with documented disabilities that may affect their ability to fully participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. To receive accommodation services, students must be registered with SSD. Gender-Neutral Bathrooms: The following webpage provide a list of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus: involved.unl.edu/unl-gender-neutral-bathrooms. The closest ones are Morrill Hall 208C and 208D, or Andrews 138. Lactation Rooms: There is a private lactation space in 727A Oldfather, and a family room on the ground floor (North side, room 105). Additional information about lactation spaces is available at http://www.unl.edu/chancellor/policymemoranda/20090901-Lactation-Policy.

ASSESSMENT AND ACE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES The goal of this course is to provide you with an overview of this particular substantive area within the discipline of Sociology. This also includes learning about the theories and methods used to conduct research in this substantive field. The course will expose you to current research and literature and to new directions the field is taking. Throughout the semester, you will practice analyzing the readings and other course materials critically, using your ever growing substantive and theoretical know-how. This class will facilitate Learning Outcomes #6 (using knowledge, theories, methods, and historical perspectives appropriate to the social sciences to understand and evaluate human behavior) and #9 (exhibit global awareness or knowledge of human diversity through analysis of an issue).These learning outcomes will be achieved in the following manner:

Provide opportunities to increase your knowledge of nationality and race relations as well as sociological perspectives on nationality and race relations.

Examine racial and ethnic inequality in Nebraska, the United States, and around the world.

Focus on specific racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States and understand present relationships by assessing past patterns of minority group and dominant group relations.

Facilitate these goals through lecture, readings, class discussion, in-class activities, and researching a specific issue of racial/ethnic relations or inequality in the United States.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS Attendance and Participation: As mentioned previously, attendance will be taken everyday. Due to the short nature of this course, you will be allowed one absence throughout the duration of this course. Attendance will total 15% of your final grade. Pop Quizzes: Randomly throughout the semester, I will give pop quizzes to make sure that students are keeping up with the readings and engaging with the materials. Although I anticipate only 4-5 pop quizzes through the semester, much of this is dependent upon the interaction and engagement in the classroom. If it is clear that students are not engaging with the material, I reserve the right to increase the number of pop quizzes (alternatively, reduce them if students are doing well with the readings). Pop quizzes will account for 15% of your final grade. Group Recordings: With such a large course, it is difficult to foster detailed and strong discussion as a group. That is why students have been broken into groups, at random, and will be asked to provide four different recorded discussion sessions. Students may rent equipment from the library multimedia center (https://libraries.unl.edu/multimedia-equipment-software), free of charge, or use their computers to record the discussions (ensure it has audio and video capabilities and works). These discussions will center on specific discussion questions that will be provided in ample time to record your discussion sessions. Currently, there are three that have clear assignment due dates. Your first one will be due on 09/18/2018 by 11:59pm to Canvas and will be discussion centered on the theoretical perspectives discussed in detail. Your second one is due depending on the sign-up sheet (passed around in earlier days of class). Whatever unit you chose, the discussion will be due the following class after that unit is completed (for example, if you choose to do Race and Immigration, it will be due on 09/25/2018 at 11:59pm). Your group will be responsible for coming up with the questions for this (2nd session) discussion session. Your third (Intersectionality) and fourth (Social Movements/Social Change) discussion sessions are listed below on the syllabus’ course outline. Each session will account for 5% of your total grade, for a total of 20% of your final grade. There is a peer-review component of this for you to provide feedback on your fellow peers’ and your personal performance. Book Review: Although this course provides you with much detail about historical and contemporary dynamics related to race and ethnicity in the United States, I do not have enough time to go into every single topic in great detail. Therefore, students will be asked to choose a book from the list below (other books may be considered but must be approved by the professor). Students will be asked to inform the professor of what book they will be doing the book review on by 09/20/2018 at 11:59pm. Once this is completed, you will have until the end of the semester to complete the book review. More instructions for the book review will be provided towards the middle of the semester (see Canvas for details). The books you may choose include:

Intersectional Inequality: RACE, CLASS, TEST SCORES, AND POVERTY by Charles C.

Ragin and Peer C. Fiss

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by

Andrea Ritchie

Against Wind and Tide: The African American Struggle against the Colonization

Movement by Ousemane Power-Greene.

Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black

Women by Mignon Moore

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance – a New History of

the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L.

McGuire

The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty by Jill Quadagno

The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-Wing Movements and National Politics by Rory

McVeigh

The book review will account for 15% of your final grade, and will be graded off of a rubric that will be provided to you towards the middle of the semester. Exams: The course has three major exams, all of which will be taken in the UNL Learning Commons Testing Center (https://dlc-reserve.unl.edu/). Exams will be closed book and based on both lecture and reading materials. Class will be cancelled the day that the exam opens, leaving normal class time open for students to take the exams in the commons. It will be open for 72 hours (3 days) and will then close. The final exam will be open the entire week of finals. Each exam will have a time limit of ~1.5 hours, and the final exam will have a 2 hour time window. ALL EXAMS ARE CUMULATIVE, MEANING ANYTHING THAT HAS BEEN COVERED UP TO THAT POINT IS FAIR GAME. Each regular exam will be 10% of your final grade and the final exam will be worth 15% of your final grade. This means that exams are worth 35% of your final grade.

Assignment Table

Assignment Percentage

Attendance and Participation 15%

Pop Quizzes 15%

Group Recordings 20%

Book Review 15%

Exams #1 and #2 20%

Final Exam 15%

Total 100%

Grading

A+ 96% C 73% A 93% C- 70% A- 90% D+ 66% B+ 86% D 63% B 83% D- 60% B- 80% F =<59.9% C+ 76%

Grades will not be rounded for this course. If you receive a 79.9% in the class, this

means that you have earned a C+ in the class. Throughout the semester, I will offer a number of opportunities for students to achieve extra credit and increase their overall grades. As the instructor, however, I reserve the right to make grade adjustments based on overall improvement (or lack thereof) in the course. Improvement based on a student’s tremendous dedication and in exams or papers may be taken into consideration but this is based on the instructor’s discretion. Grades will not be discussed over e-mail. Please make an appointment with your instructor or visit office hours to discuss grades.

Course Outline

General Topic Date Readings Assignments Group Assignments

Introduction

8/21/2018 Snipp. “Defining Race and Ethnicity.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 4 Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Theoretical Perspectives

8/23/2018 Van den Berghe. “Race and Ethnicity: A Sociobiological Perspective.” Blumer. “Race and Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 15

8/28/2018 Chapter from “The Scholar Denied” by Aldon Morris 8/30/2018 Wilson. “From Racial Oppression to Economic Class

Subordination.” Wilson. “The Declining Significance of Race: Revise and Revisited”

9/4/2018 Bonilla-Silva. “Racialized Social System Approach to Racism.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 5

9/6/2018 Omi and Winant. “Racial Formations.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 4 Lisa Wade. “The US Census and the social construction of race.” (https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/10/02/the-census-and-the-social-construction-of-race/)

9/11/2018 Lee and Bean. “Beyond Black and White: Remaking Race in America.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 11

Gallagher. “Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the Color Line in Post-Race American.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 12 Reyna. “Looking “Illegal”” Contexts (https://contexts.org/articles/looking-illegal/)

9/13/2018 Exam #1

Historical Trends and Social Institutions

Race and Immigration

9/18/2018 Waters. “Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 44 Cornelius. “Impacts of Border Enforcement on Unauthorized Mexican Migration to the United States.” Group Recording #1

9/20/2018 Steinberg. “The Melting Pot and the Color Line.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 41 Marrow et al. “Is unauthorized immigration an economic drain on American communities? Research says no.” Contexts (https://contexts.org/blog/unauthorized-immigration-local-economies/)

Identify Book for Book Review

Race and Neighborhoods

9/25/2018 Chapter from Connolly in A World More Concrete Lincoln Journal Star. “Report: Blacks can Afford only one-third of Rental in Lincoln.”

9/27/2018 Zenk et al. “Why Are There No Supermarkets in My Neighborhood? The Long Search for Fresh Fruit, Produce, and Health Food.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 25

Kleman. “Crime is Even Lower in Diverse Immigrant Neighborhoods.” Contexts

Race and Education

10/2/2018 Drotning. “Education Changes Neighborhood Segregation.” Contexts (https://contexts.org/articles/education-changes-neighborhood-segregation/)

10/4/2018 Grant. “Black Females “Place” in Desegregated Classrooms” Soc.

of Education Kumasi. “Critical Race Theory and Education: Mapping a Legacy of Activism and Scholarship.” Beyond Critique: Critical Social Theories and Education

Race and Work

10/9/2018 del Rio, Coral, and Olga Alonso-Villar. 2015. “The Evolution of Occupational Segregation in the United States, 1940-2010: Gains and Losses of Gender-Race/Ethnicity Groups.” Demography 52:967-988 Braverman. “Kristen v. Aisha; Brad v. Rasheed: What’s in a Name and How it Affects Getting a Job” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 31

10/11/2018 Kandel and Parrado. “Hispanics in the American South and the Transformation of the Poultry Industry.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 35

Race and SES/Wealth

10/16/2016 Shapiro. “Transformative Assets, the Racial Wealth Gap, and the American Dream.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 7

Herring and Henderson. 2016. “Wealth Inequality in Black and White: Cultural and Structural Sources of the Racial Wealth Gap.” Race and Social Problems

10/18/2018 Newman and Ellis. “There’s No Shame in My Game”: Status and Stigma among Harlem’s Working Poor. Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 33

Race and the Criminal Justice

System

10/23/2018 Alexander. “The New Jim Crow.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 27 Cole. “No Equal Justice: The Color Punishment.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 26 Kramer, Remster, and Charles. “Black Lives and Police Tactics Matter.” Contexts (https://contexts.org/articles/black-lives-and-police-tactics-matter/)

10/25/2018 Tiger. “Race, class, and the framing of drug epidemics” Contexts (https://contexts.org/articles/race-class-drugs/) Pager. “The Mark of the Criminal Record.” Rethinking the Color Line Ch. 29 Chapter from “Locked Out” by Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen

Intersectionality

10/30/2018 Crenshaw. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics.” Read ½ of Book

11/1/2018 Collins, Patricia Hill. “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images” Ch. 4 from Black Feminist Thought.

11/6/2018 Feree and Hall. 1996. “Rethinking Stratification from a Feminist Perspective: Gender, Race, and Class in Mainstream Textbooks.” American Sociological Review “Young Women of Color and Shifting Sexual Identities.” Contexts (https://contexts.org/articles/young-women-of-color-and-shifting-sexual-identities/)

11/8/2018 Exam #2

Race, Liberation, and Social Movements

Black Liberation: Historical and Contemporary

11/13/2018 Chapter from “The Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970” by Doug McAdam Oliver. “The Ethnic Dimensions of Social Movements.” Mobilization

Group Recording #3 11/15/2018 Chapter from “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” by

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Immigrant Rights

11/20/2018 Burciaga and Martinez. “How do Political Contexts Shape Undocumented Youth Movements? Evidence from Three Immigrant Destinations.” Martinez. The Immigrant Rights Movement: Then and Now. Mobilizing Ideas Blog

11/27/2018 Nicholls. “The Worst and Best of Times: Contrasting Strategies of the Immigrant Rights Movement, 2000-2014” Mobilizing Ideas

Osman. “Do Black Lives Matter in the Immigrant Rights Movement? (Opinion)” Al Jazeera Media Network (https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/black-lives-matter-immigrant-rights-movement-171210095207677.html) Hung. 2015. “Self-Determination and Intersectionality in the Immigrant Rights Movement.” Dialogo

White Supremacist Organizing and

Racist Organizations

11/29/2018 Chapter from The Tea Party and the Making of Republican Conservatism by Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson

12/4/2018 Ferber. “White Supremacists go to College: New Tactics, Same Old White Supremacy.” Mobilizing Ideas (https://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/white-supremacists-go-to-college-new-tactics-same-old-white-supremacy/#more-11607) Yazdiha. “What the Alt-Right Tells us about the Strategic Uses of (Racial) Identity.” Mobilizing Ideas (https://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2017/11/13/what-the-alt-right-tells-us-about-the-strategic-uses-of-racial-identity/#more-11532) Boutcher, Jenkins, and Van Dyke. 2016. “Strain, ethnic competition, and power devaluation: white supremacist protest in the U.S., 1948-1997.” Social Movement Studies

Peer Evaluations Due Group Recording #4

12/6/2018 Final Exam/Book Reviews Due