Sociology
332
Majority/Minority Relations
Seminar on Race
Professor Amory Starr
Fall 2002
MW 4:10-5:50
Shepardson 102
Help:
·
e-mail: amory.starr@colostate.edu
or phone 491.5951
·
office hours:
MW 11-12 in Clark Building B243
· TA Tanya Kaanta tamu@lamar.colostate.edu
·
office hours:
 |
NEW IMPROVED CALENDAR, no longer on webct, easy to access and read! (please note that the one drawback of the new calendar program is that you get "this page cannot be found" a lot. just hit back and then click on what you want again. it will come up.) also note that your friends can use this calendar too, since there is no login required!
Schedule of Readings & Due Dates (done through third topic)
bookstores: amazon, alibris, powell's
topic 1 (aug 28 - sept 18): patricia williams' The Alchemy of Race and Rights
brief on this topic due wednesday sept 18
topic 2 (sept 23- oct 9): urban poverty and race, ghettos (what are they and why are they still here?), and the third worldization of US cities
books:
American
Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass by Douglas S.
Massey, Nancy A. Denton (Contributor) (Paperback - September 1994) Harvard
Univ Pr; ISBN: 0674018214; Reprint edition (September 1994)
Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City by Mike Davis, Roman
de la Campa (Paperback - July 2001) Verso Books; ISBN: 185984328X; Rev&expand
edition (July 2001)
Walden Bello, "The Third Worldization of America" from Dark Victory 1994.
Jonathan Kozol, excerpt from Amazing Grace and more Kozol here
Mike Davis, "Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control, the Ecology of Fear"
Holly Sklar's "The Snake Oil of Scapegoating"
Institute for Research on Poverty, "Who was Poor in 2000?"
Check out the Village of Arts & Humanities
Randy Albelda, "What Welfare reform has Wrought"
Urban Institute's National Report Card on Discrimination in America (recommended pages: 7-10, 32-38, 47-57, 69-88)
Marc Cooper, "The Heartland's Raw Deal: How Meatpacking is Creating a New Immigration Underclass" The Nation 3 February, 1997.
Christopher Cook , "From Welfare to Profit Shares Capitalizing on the "opportunity of a lifetime" ZMag, September, 1997. (this is the Tyson-workfare article)
D. Stanley Eitzen, Upward Mobility Through Sport? The myths and realities, ZMag March 1999.
brief due: oct 14
topic 3 (oct 14- oct 30): race & criminal justice
books:
Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis by Parenti, Christian. Verso (09/2000) ISBN: 1859843034.
Race to Incarcerate, Marc Mauer for the Sentencing Project, New Press (08/1999) ISBN: 1565844297.
online readings
explore http://www.radiovolta.org/criminalinjusticelinks.html,
Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans, "The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy"
Angela Y. Davis, "Masked Racism:Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex" Colorlines Fall 1998
Angela Y. Davis, "Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation" ANARCHIST BLACK CROSS Web Ssite
AngelaY. Davis, Cassandra Shaylor, "A Question of Control" San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 2000
Cassandra Shaylor, Four Years in Solitary Confinement - San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 2000
Silja J.A. Talvi, "Public Interest Law - An interview with Ellen Barry" - Z Mag Online, July 2000
Expose of US CIA role in crack supply. this San Jose Mercury News broke this story and this website collects those articles and other resources
Mike Davis "Hell Factories in the Field: A Prison Industrial Complex"
brief due: nov 4
topic 4 (nov 4 - nov 20): hip hop
Microphone Fiends: Youth Music & Youth Culture, ed. Andrew Ross, Tricia Rose, Andrew Rose. Routledge, 1994.
Bomb the Suburbs, William Upski Wimsatt. Soft Skull Press, 2001.
optional
additional readings online
explore the Hip Hop Congress
and Brown Pride Online
Zulu Nation
grafitti
site Art
Crimes
see our very own underground hip hop page
brief due:dec 2
topic 5 (dec 2- dec 11): militant movements
Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party, ed. Kathleen Cleaver & George Katsiaficas . Routledge 2001.
online readings
Black
Panther Party, "Black
Panther Party Platform and Program", also known as the "10-point
program", October 1966. for history see: The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation,
the Stanford University Black
Panther Party Research Project,Sundiata Acoli's 1995 "Brief
History of the Black Panther Party"
Young Lords Party, "13-Point
Program and Platform"
Palante Webiste list of articles
on the Young Lords Party
"COINTELPRO: US Domestic Covert
Operations against La Raza"
Union Del Barrio is
a current radical Chicano group
New Internationalist,
"SIMPLY... A history
of Pan-Africanism". Issue 326 (August 2000).
militant racist organizations: US
The National
Alliance
Aryan Nations/Aryan National
Alliance
American Nazi Party
White Aryan Resistance
World Church of the Creator
groups which fight neo-nazis
ARA Network FAQ
Mpls Anti-Racist
Action
brief due : F dec 13
Introduction
Goal: To develop a multi-level relationship to issues of race in our society. In order to develop scholarly, personal, and civic relationships to issues of race we will approach the topic from popular as well as academic perspectives.
Regarding
race: Several premises
underlie this course: {1} Race is an issue that affects all Americans. {2}
We are going to assume that everyone here is interested in the U.S. being
a non-racist multi-cultural society. This course is focused on figuring out
how that might be achieved. {3} Race is very complex and we need to explore
that complexity in order to begin to develop appropriate personal and political
responses to this challenge. That complexity includes examination of the meanings
of whiteness and the possible roles of white people in dealing with race.
{4} This will not be easy. In the process of trying to learn, we will be talking
about issues that will make us all uncomfortable. The discomfort is not wrong;
it is important because it means that we are moving into new awarenesses
and moving to deal with this vital and difficult issue. Please phone or come
talk with us at any time about your concerns regarding the course, the format,
or the discussions.
Seventy-five
million Africans died during the centuries-long transatlantic slave trade.
The logics of empire are still with us, bound to the cultural fabric of our
daily being-in-the-world; woven into our posture toward others; connected
to the lenses of our eyes; folded into the sinewy depths of our musculature;
dipped in the chemical reactions that excite and calm us; structured into
the language of our perceptions. We cannot will our racist logics away. We
need to work hard to eradicate them. We need to struggle with a formidable
resolve in order to overcome that which we are afraid to confirm exists, let
alone confront, in the battleground of our souls….[McLaren 1997: 21]
Given
the constant suffusion of race throughout society, in the daily dance of life
we constantly make racially meaningful decisions. [López 1996: 193]
Regarding
sociology: Sociology
is a liberal field, which means that since its founding it has attempted to
"improve" society. This has meant different things to different
people, but all see that it is important to analyze how we are living, using
data and theory in order to come up with suggestions for change.
Regarding
teaching: Recently it
has become widely accepted in sociology that "objectivity" is not
a possible position, that all researchers and teachers have a position, whether
they hide behind objectivity or not. Moreover, I understand my responsibility
as a public intellectual and a teacher as a commitment to expose students
and fellow citizens to marginalized viewpoints with which they might not otherwise
have contact.
"But
you must not expect me to provide A Balanced View. I am not a sociological
book-keeper. Moreover, "balanced views" are now usually surface
views which rest upon the homogenous absence of imagination and the passive
avoidance of reflection. A balanced view is usually, in the phrase of Royden
Harrison, merely a vague point of equilibrium between platitudes.…Yet perhaps…I
can remind you of the kinds of problems you might want to confront."
[C. W. Mills, "Culture and Politics" 1959: 243]
Obviously, I do not expect you to be objective either. I also don’t expect you to agree with me or to like the readings. Whatever your point of view, you can learn from analyzing new materials and debating with me and with your peers. Therefore, I expect everyone to engage critically with new data, articulate your views, and dialogue respectfully with your fellow students. These are basic citizenship skills. I know that many of you are shy about speaking in front of other people. This is a very important skill and I am very concerned that women in particular are not able to give voice in public. It is very important that all of you find your voices.
Please
also be clear that there are some times when I will have to correct students
or tell you that an explanation of a text is inadequate. While I respect your
personal opinions (about which there is no correct answer), it is important
for me to clarify and correct our readings of academic work and research reports.
Democracy: I attempt to build a democratic environment
in the classroom. Of course this is not entirely possible when you and are
both accountable in different ways to a non-democratic institution. Therefore,
we have democratic aspects of the class. First, I give my students collective
bargaining rights. This means that there is a forum through webct for
students only, which will enable you all to discuss your grievances and elect
representatives who can come bargain with me for changes in the course. Second,
in this course we will have a participatory process for choosing topics to
cover. I will then select appropriate readings on those topics. Third, much
of our time in the classroom will be run democratically. It is up to all of
us to maintain the quality of that space by gently suggesting that folks who
talk too much make space for others and by encouraging quieter voices to share
their thoughts. This is your education — your time and space. I am here to
help and guide you, but you must assert yourself in order to ensure that you
get what you want out of this course and out of our time together. This also
means that it’s very important to tell your fellow students and me when you
don’t understand something so that we can make sure to cover that issue more
fully.
Your grade: 80% of your grade comes from a writing assignment. You may choose one of three options for doing the writing in this course. You must choose your option early on in the course and stick to it. You may either: [1] turn in a brief on each book we read (the number of books is to be determined), [2] write a paper/proposal/chapter/article in stages during the course; [3] take a final exam; or [4] do 60% of your grade on a series of "spontaneous" writing assignments and 20% of your grade on a very short final paper on a topic agreed upon with the professor or TA. 20% of your grade is based on ten reports on outside activites listed on the course calendar. Activity reports must be handed in at the class immediately following the activity. Whichever option you choose for writing, be aware that no student will earn an A in the course who has not participated constantly in class discussion and no student will pass the course who has missed class regularly.
Outside
Activity Reports: One paragraph, turned in the next class
period after the event. You may write up to ten of these. You find the events
on the webct calendar page. Events
will include movies, guest speakers, meetings, and activist events.
A
brief is a responsible summary of the main argument the text. (When
you feel frustrated about having to do this, remind yourself that what is
crystal clear about the text to you now, having just read it, will be precious
to you later, when you really don’t want to have to read it again!) A responsible summary is not you ranting about how you don’t like the text. Such ranting is of very little use to you later,
when you need to demonstrate that you know what the author said! A responsible summary is also not an analysis
of a paragraph or a page, it is a summary of the overall argument, which reminds
you (at the very least) of the question or issue that drives the text, the
analytic tools it uses, and its conclusions. One really useful exercise I do in writing
briefs is that immediately after
I finish reading, I write a summary from memory.
Then later I use my notes to correct, complete, and expand the summary.
You may rant about the texts in the final paragraph of the brief, but
remember you’ll also be able to do this in class.
Briefs
should generally be one page single-spaced, but write as much as you need
to get the job done. go up to two pages.
Papers:
Must
be turned in at least 4 times during the course, with a one week space between
each turn-in time. this means that you must have a draft by week 11 at the
latest. You would be much better off starting earlier…
The
final exam: Is by far the most difficult option. It will
be an open-book, closed-notes, in-class essay exam. It will draw heavily on
the analyses we do in class discussion. You
can earn up to five points on the final exam.
2. the paper needs to address a specific question. here are some suggestions:
what are some of the
the current forms that racism takes in American life?
what are some solutions that have been proposed to address racism in American
life?
how is America dealing with diversity?
can hip hop be a form of politics?
how have discrimination and segregation changed since the civil rights movement?
how do people of color see themselves in America?
what is important to understand about people of color in American cities?
what are 5 federal policies which would vastly improve the lives of people
of color in the US?
why are people opposing the "prison industrial complex"?
please start emailing your topic ideas to tanya and/or me as soon as possible so we can help you formulate an appropriate question. once we agree on a question, please stick to it.
3. the paper must use
materials from every TOPIC in attempting to answer the question. this means
that even if you do a paper on hip hop, you must include insights from Patricia
Williams and from each of the other topics we discuss. the topics, again are:
patricia williams book,
the alchemy of race and rights
race & the city
criminal justice & race
hip hop & race
militant movements
all of the topics will have insights for your question, even if your question is focused on one topic (like hip hop).
4. what the paper should look like: your term paper should clearly state the question and what is at stake in your question. this should be done in 1-2 paragraphs. then it should move steadily through 8-10 different readings/materials from the course, stating how each contributes to answering your question.
5. avoid grandiose introductions and conclusions and statements like "since the beginning of time". also please avoid making statements about "human nature" since that is not within the purview of the course. finally, while you may want to look up the word 'grandiose' in the dictionary so that you will understand my point here, dictionary definitions of race, racism, etc. are not appropriate for a paper in a class which has explored the nature of race and racism in great depth and from a whole variety of angles.
6. you should turn drafts of the paper in three times, oct 14, nov 4, and dec 2. those dates are immediately following our conclusions of sections 2, 3, and 4. this will encourage you to be working through how the materials from each section impact your paper. the final paper is due on the last day of the course, dec 11, unless Tanya decides to set an alternative due date based on her schedule.
7. if you are doing a combination term paper and other writing assignments, your term paper should be a short, compressed version of the above. you should probably turn it in one time before the final due date to get some feedback. you still need to get your topic approved by tanya or me.