Teaching and Learning Guide for: Race and Ethnic Relations

Abstract

SyllabusThis course will explore the concepts of race and ethnicity and the dynamics of inter‐group relations. It will cover the main historical and global processes that have led to the formation of ethnic groups and racial minorities. In the process, we will examine several groups, historical periods, and geo‐political issues in detail. Class sessions will consist primarily of group discussions, supplemented by lectures, films, and in‐class projects.Goals statements Develop working understanding of basic theoretical issues associated with race and ethnicity in sociology. Develop working understanding of how these theoretical issues effect policy, national and international discourse, and inter/intra‐group relations. Develop working understanding of how economic policies and institutions, political systems, and social institutions effect race and ethnic relations. Develop an understanding of how theories are used to interpret race and ethnic relations. Develop understanding regarding how the processes of racialization and/or ethnicity produce and sustain segregation, discrimination, and inequality. Develop understanding regarding how political processes are affected by systems of racialization (Massey and Denton). Develop understanding of overt and covert racism, and how they explain current racial trends in both US and international contexts. Recommended reading David R. Roediger, Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White. Marylyn Halter, Shopping for Identity: The Marketing of Ethnicity. Lecture and discussion topics: Week 1 Introduction to Race and Ethnicity Course Expectations, initial orientation to the subject matter, goals Race and Ethnicity in Global Terms Rodney D. Coates, ‘A Simple Typology of Racial Hegemony’, Societies Without Borders, 1 (2006). (Distributed on blackboard) Week 2 Global Race and Ethnic Relations – Rwanda Viewing of Hotel Rwanda – In Class Never Again: The World's Most Unfulfilled Promise (Links through blackboard) What are the lessons of Rwanda? Week 3 – Global Race and Ethnic Relations – Chechens and Russia Q&A: The Chechen conflict Conflict in Chechnya From the Chechens themselves Week 4 – Global Race and Ethnic Relations – Middle East Israeli and Palestinian Conflict Iraq Conflict – Civil War in Iraq Week 5 – Ethnicity in America – The Making of Whiteness Seeing Race in New Immigrant History (Roediger: 1–56) Week 6 – Ethnicity in America – The Making of Whiteness continued In Betweeness (Roediger: 57–110) Week 7 – White on Arrival In Betweeness (Roediger: 111–132) The Ironies of Immigration Restriction (Roediger: 133–156) Week 8: Entering the White House Finding Homes in an Era of Restriction (Roediger: 157–199) Week 9 Race and Ethnic identity within Corporate and business systems Industrialization, Unions and Politics (Roediger: 199–234) Creating and Manufacturing Racial and Ethnic Identity (Halter: 1–40) New forms of racism Week 10 Rodney Coates, Covert Racism in the U.S. and Globally Eduardo Bonilla‐Silva, Color Blind Racism Week 11 Picca and Feagin, Two‐Faced Racism (Handout) Marketing Race and Identity around the Globe (Halter: 42–96) Week 12 Ethnic by Design (Halter: 104‐end) Racial and Ethnic Relations – Where do we go from here Week 13 Rodney D. Coates, ‘From Civil Rights to Social Justice’ (New Black, UK: Elsevier, forthcoming)