Professor Roger Waldinger
Department of Sociology
UCLA
Hershey Hall 2525
Winter 2000
Telephone: 206-9233

Sociology 261: Ethnic Minorities
Hershey 1628
Monday, 2-4:50
Revised

************************************************************************
OUR FIRST MEETING, ON JANUARY 10, WILL BE A SUBSTANTIVE
MEETING. PLEASE COME PREPARED TO DISCUSS THE ASSIGNED
READINGS. A READER WILL BE AVAILABLE AT QUINX COPY, 1154
WESTWOOD, AS OF WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2000. SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS. ************************************************************************

Notwithstanding the title listed just above, I've designed this course to survey the empirical literature on "Race and Ethnicity in 20th century America". While the course is geared toward preparing graduate students in sociology for a field exam in race and ethnicity, and as such it complements Sociology 235, "Theories of Ethnicity", it stands on its own. The scope of the readings should make it valuable to any graduate student planning further work in this field -- whether in sociology or in a related social science field. Likewise, the issues that we will discuss can be discussed without previous exposure to theoretical writings on race and ethnicity, although broader reading in the field will help in placing our concerns in broader perspective.

As you can tell from the readings listed below, this will be a demanding course. The demands of the course follow from my intellectual goals, outlined below: you need to read broadly in the field to approach the specific questions that interest you with any reasonable degree of depth. I also want to encourage you to read classic works, that may no longer be fashionable, but remain very rich. These will be complemented by recent publications that shape current debates. Likewise, I want you to consider group experiences that may no longer be at the top of today's research agenda, but remain very relevant to the intellectual questions with which today's research is concerned.

Beyond the pragmatic concerns, this course has been designed with several intellectual goals in mind. I want to encourage comparative analysis, since in my view, the root questions in this field are comparative: that is to say, we are interested in variations among ethnic categories and groups. To emphasize comparison is not to neglect or to diminish the importance of studying individual groups; indeed, successful comparisons must be built on detailed knowledge of the experience of particular groups or populations. In the end, however, I would contend that the ultimate goal of individual group studies is to be able to place the particular experience in a larger, comparative context.

A concern with comparison leads to an interest in historical analysis. Historical analysis is desirable on analytic grounds, since many of the core theoretical issues -- having to do with assimilation or with ethnic group formation -- concern change over time. The dominant empirical issues in the field are also often explicitly historical -- for example, how do the new immigrants of today compare with those who arrived earlier in the century? or how does the experience of African-Americans contrast with that of immigrants?

Finally, the course takes a skeptical view toward the "groupist" assumptions that govern the U.S. research field in the field. Whether and when we are talking about "groups" in any meaningful sense will remain an abiding interest, though one that we are unlikely to successfully resolve. Likewise, I will encourage you to entertain considerable doubts regarding the central concepts around which the field has been organized. I begin by drawing your attention to the misleading notion with which this course is entitled ("ethnic minorities" - as if we could discuss "minorities" without reference to the "ethnic majority" with which the "minorities" interact). However, we should also exercise some critical distance from the core concepts of "race" and "ethnicity", whose conceptual status certainly deserves a second look. I should note that my own views on these matters are probably at considerable variance from most of the U.S. practioners in this field: so caveat emptor!

While I've tried to structure a course that addresses central issues in the field, it reflects my own interests as well as my admittedly uneven knowledge of the field. Some important issues have been left out -- notably those pertaining to inter-group conflict and relations. The social-psychological dimension to racial and ethnic patterns is also noticeably absent from the course. These are important areas and I would urge you, if and when you have some free time, to familiarize yourself with the relevant literature.

Course requirements: The basic requirement is to do the readings. There are plenty of them and you need to stay on top of the material at all times. To encourage you to do so, I will schedule two, take-home, "mock field exams", one after the fifth week of the course, and the second, after the tenth week. Each exam will have two questions.

My teaching style is to have a structured discussion. This means that everyone participates; those who don't raise hands can expect to be called on, in every class.

I will ask each student to write one memo addressing key issues in one week's readings. These memos should be submitted at the beginning of each class, for distribution to all the students. Although the memos will be ungraded, they will help shape our discussions.

Readings: This course will rely on a series of books, available at the ASUCLA bookstore and on a reader, available from QUINX COPY, 1154 Westwood Blvd, 888-824-1441. There is a small number of readings, needed for later segments of the course, that I have not had time to copy; these will be made available in the department office.

Sociology 261: Race and Ethnicity in American Life (aka "Ethnic Minorities")

Week 1: Concepts

Gerald D. Berreman, "Race, Caste, and Other Invidious Distinctions in Social Stratification," Race, 1972

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, "Rethinking Racism," American Sociological Review, V. 62, 3, 1997

Nathan Glazer and D.P. Moynihan, Ethnicity, Cambridge: Havard University Press, 1975, Chapter 1.

William Petersen, "Concepts of Ethnicity," in Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980

Werner Sollors, Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture, New York: Oxford, 1986, Chapter 1

Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, New York: Routledge, 1986 (1994): pp. 9-23; 47-76.

Thomas Erikson, Ethnicity and Nationalism, London: Pluto Press, 1991, Chapter 1

Lawrence Hirschfeld, Race in the Making, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998, pp. 1-14.