Soc 156
Race/ethnicity in US Life
Professor Aziza Khazzoom
Spring 2004
Tues, Thurs 3:30-4:45, Haines 220
Khazzoom@soc.ucla.edu · 261A Haines 310-825-1281 · office hours Monday 11-1
TAs: Nori Millman nmilman@ucla.edu Faustina DuCros fdcros@ucla.edu
Introduction
In the class, we will consider the following broad questions, among others:
But the most important question we consider will be the following:
It is helpful to think of the course as divided into two parts, each of which provides one kind of answer to the question of why we care about race/ethnicity. Weeks 2 through 5 can be labeled largely Marxist, because they explore the notion that what is at stake is economics, or more generally competition for scarce resources, and at least Wilson and Bonacich tie ethnic/racial relations to the means of production. Weeks 6 through 10 are more Weberian, in that they often assert that what is at stake is some form of social honor. This half of the course considers race/ethnicity as something that shapes an individual’s definition of the situation, interpersonal interaction, culture, and identity. It is in this half of the course that gender shows up. In both sections, race/ethnicity sometimes looks like a social construction and sometimes looks like a given; similarly, it sometimes looks more fluid and sometimes more stable.
The all-important issue of assignments and grades
Grades are important to undergraduates, and I don’t mind grade-consciousness. Grades are markers that will determine your futures, and you have the right to know exactly how you got a grade. The TAs will try to make it as clear as possible to you why you got a grade, and please do not hesitate to talk either to them or to me until you have understood both how you got the grade you got and how you can improve the next time.
Grades are based on three factors: attendance (10%), in-class exams (50%), and a final exam (40%).
Your TAs will take roll during section. To get an A, you can miss only one section. After that, I reduce your attendance grade by a full grade per missed class. If you consistently arrive late, the TA may begin reducing your grade for lateness as well. If you miss class due to the following reasons, and only the following reasons, you will be excused: death or major hospitalization in your close family, and severe illness, either your own or your dependent. You always need proof in order to be excused, such as a doctor’s note.
There will be seven 15-minute, exams during the quarter. The lowest grade among the seven will be dropped. Two of these seven exams will each consist of one brief essay question, about which you should not write more than a page. Five will be multiple choice exams. Both the essay and multiple choice exams will concern only the reading that was due that day; thus as long as you do the reading you are prepared. Moreover I will not hunt down obscure sentences and test you on them, and you do not need to memorize the reading in order to get an A. Questions in the exam will concern the kinds of questions you should always ask when you are reading, such as what are the central arguments of a piece, what is the methodology, what are the major findings, why the author thinks s/he has proven his/her argument, etc. Consider the following questions when you study:
Again, remember to pay a great deal of attention to data and methodology. You should know what data the author uses, and how s/he uses it.
These exams will be closed-book.
Unlike the in-class exams, the final exam will be an essay exam, and it will be a take-home. You will be allowed to choose three questions from a total of four. The questions will ask you to compare and contrast readings in order to address some larger issue.
The exam will be available online, from the class website, on Friday June 11 at 5:00 pm. It should be submitted TO YOUR TA, ELECTRONICALLY, one week later (i.e. June 18, 5:00 pm). Since you are submitting it by e-mail, the TA will know exactly when you sent it.
To do well on the exam, you must include the following in your answers. First, remember that the biggest task is to demonstrate your knowledge of the materials from the course. So the most important thing is to pick appropriate readings, pick enough of them, and describe them accurately. If you don’t fulfill these requirements, your highest grade will be a D, no matter how clever your arguments are. However even if you do fulfill those basic requirements perfectly, if that’s all you do, the maximum grade you can get is a B+ (and that is if everything is absolutely perfect). To do better than a B+, you need a coherent argument, it needs to be a solid, well conceived argument, and your discussion of the reading needs to substantiate the argument. Normally, a paper with an excellent argument and appropriate reading choice that has some nominal inaccuracies in the summary of the readings will obtain an A- or a B+, depending on how serious the inaccuracies are.
Obtaining materials
You need to obtain two books on your own, either by buying them (the ASUC has copies) or by getting them from the reserve desk at the library. They are: The Declining Significance of Race, by William Julius Wilson, and The Ethnic Myth by Stephen Stienberg. Two other books will be available at ASUC later on in the quarter: Racial Fault Lines, by Tomas Almaguer, and Screening the Los Angeles Race Riots, by Darnell Hunt.
Other readings can be accessed electronically through the library, or purchased as a reader from Westwood Copies, on Weyburn and Gayley, 310-208-3233. Because I do not know how many students will want readers, given that the readings are available online, Westwood is printing up very few advance copies. You should call to make sure they have copies before you go out there. The line at Westwood is normally short.
I. WHAT IS RACE ETHNICITY?
Tuesday, April 6, 2004: Definitions
No reading
Thursday, April 8: Beyond simple definitions: is race/ethnicity about biology, culture or identity? Is it a social construction or is it "primordial", and are those two mutually exclusive? Is the outcome that needs explaining, or the thing sociologists are tracking, the persistence of race or its disappearance?
Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism. "What is ethnicity?", pages 10-12
Cornell and Hartmann, Ethnicity and Race; Making identities in a changing world: Chapters 1 and 3 (pages 1-13, 39-71). If you need more information about how to distinguish race, ethnicity, and nation, read Chapter 2 also.
II. WHAT IS AT STAKE? ANSWER #1: "IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID"; RACE/ETHNICITY SHAPES THE DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES
A. Two economically oriented histories of race/ethnicity in the US, and one that argues for the independent effect of ideology.
Tuesday, April 13 A history oriented toward African American experiences.
William Julius Wilson, The Declining Significance of Race preface, intro, Chapters 1-4 (ix-87)
EXAM: MC
Thursday, April 15
No reading
Tuesday, April 20: A history oriented toward white ethnic experiences
Stephen Stienberg, The Ethnic Myth Preface, introduction, chapters 1, 2, (xiii-xv, 3-74).
EXAM: MC
Thursday, April 22:
No reading
Tuesday, April 27: A history oriented toward Latino/a and Asian American experiences. 125 pages
Tomas Almaguer, Racial Fault Lines Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 6, 7 (p. 1-74, 153-204)
EXAM: ESSAY
Thursday, April 29:
No reading
B. The race/class debate
Tuesday, May 4: Answer: it’s class.
William Julius Wilson, The Declining Significance of Race Chapters 5-8.
Thursday, May 6: Answer: it’s race.
Stanley Lieberson, "A Piece of the Pie: Blacks and white immigrants since 1880", Pp. 580-592 in David B. Grusky, ed. Social Stratification. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press 2001.
EXAM: MC
C. The race/class debate as a debate about culture
Tuesday, May 11: it’s not culture.
Stephen Stienberg, The Ethnic Myth chapters 3,5,6.
D. Is segregation good for minorities?
Thursday, May 13
Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, "American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass" Pp. 660-669 in David B. Grusky, ed. Social Stratification. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press 2001.
Alejandro Portes and Robert D. Manning, "The Immigrant Enclave: Theory and Empirical Examples" Pp. 568-579 in David B. Grusky, ed. Social Stratification. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press 2001.
EXAM: MC
III. WHAT IS AT STAKE? ANSWER #2: SOCIAL HONOR, IDENTITY, INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION
Tuesday, May 18
Mary Waters, "The intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in identity development of Caribbean American teens" Pp 65-81 in Leadbetter and Way, eds, Urban Girls. NYU Press 1996.
Thursday, May 20
Minnie Bruce Pratt. 1984. "Identity: Skin Blood Heart", in Bulkin, Pratt and Smith, Yours in Struggle. Long Haul Press.
Tuesday, May 25
Darnell Hunt, "(Re)Affirming Race: ‘Reality,’ Negotiation, and the ‘Trial of the Century’. The Sociological Quarterly, 1997, 38, 3, summer, 399-422
EXAM: ESSAY
Thursday, May 27
Patricia Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights pages 1-50
Tuesday, June 1
Mary Romero. 1997. "Life as the Maid’s Daughter: an Exploration of the Everyday Boundaries of Race, Class and Gender", Pp. 195-209 in Mary Romero, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Vilman Ortiz, Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the US.
Thursday, June 3
Mari Yoshihara, Embracing the East: white women and American orientalism. Oxford press. 2003 Chapters 1, 3 (Pp. 15-44, 77-100).
EXAM: MC
Tuesday, June 8
Min Zhou and Carl Bankston III, Growing up American Russel Sage Foundation, 1998. Pages 1-14, 83-92, 160-184, 224-232.
Thursday, June 10
Yen Le Espiritu. 2001. "We Don’t Sleep Around Like White Girls Do". Signs 26(2).