Catalog Description

Hours: 54 lecture
Description: Examines the historical and contemporary impacts of the social constructs of race and ethnicity in the United States. Closely analyzes racial and ethnic inequalities within social institutions such as politics, economics, education, housing, health and medicine, and criminal justice. Explores anti-racist movements, strategies, and practices to eliminate racial and ethnic inequality. (C-ID SOCI 150) (CSU, UC)

Course Student Learning Outcomes

  • CSLO #1: Apply Critical Race Theory and critical analysis to issues of race and ethnicity in society.
  • CSLO #2: Explore how social institutions and the manipulation of social power have created and maintained racial and ethnic inequality in the United States.
  • CSLO #3: Examine the intersection of race and ethnicity with other identities affected by hierarchy and oppression.
  • CSLO #4: Analyze resistance to racial and ethnic oppression over time.

Effective Term

Fall 2024

Course Type

Credit - Degree-applicable

Contact Hours

54

Outside of Class Hours

108

Total Student Learning Hours

162

Course Objectives

The student will:
1. apply sociological theories to issues of race and ethnicity;
2. explore how social institutions were designed and continue to operate in ways that result in inequality between racial and ethnic groups in the United States;
3. analyze how the manipulation of social power has impacted race and ethnic relations over time;
4. examine the origins and outcomes of prejudice, discrimination, ethnocentrism, eurocentrism, color blindness, white supremacy, and racism in the United States;
5. analyze the intersection of race and ethnicity with other social identities such as gender, sexuality, class, national origin, immigration status, ability, age, and religion; and
6. assess historical and current forms of resistance to racial and ethnic oppression.

General Education Information

  • Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability
    • AA/AS - Behavioral Sciences
    • AA/AS - Multicultural Studies
  • CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval)
    • CSUGE - D Social Sciences
    • CSUGE - D3 Ethnic Studies
    • CSUGE-D0 Sociology/Criminology
  • Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval)
    • IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval)
      • IGETC - 4 Soc./Behav Sciences
      • IGETC - 4C Ethnic Studies
      • IGETC - 4J Sociology/Criminlgy

    Articulation Information

    • CSU Transferable
    • UC Transferable

    Methods of Evaluation

    • Classroom Discussions
      • Example: Students will discuss in class or on discussion boards the causes and effects of racial and ethnic inequality and propose possible solutions. Will be graded using a rubric developed by the instructor and shared with students.
    • Essay Examinations
      • Example: In an essay, students discuss how and why the Indian Allotment Act was a failure for indigenous peoples in the U.S. Essay will be graded using a rubric developed by the instructor and shared with students.
    • Objective Examinations
      • Example: Raul is African American, but he has many other social identities in addition to his racial identity. He is also a young, middle-class college student who identifies as bisexual. Rather than thinking of any particular racial group as a monolithic category, scholars who take an intersectional approach pay attention to: a. how an individual's multiple identities intersect and result in overlapping and interdependent experiences of oppression and privilege. b. prioritizing identities and social locations by economic importance. c. how individuals manage narratives about their lives. d. understanding which type of oppression is more important than others.

    Repeatable

    No

    Methods of Instruction

    • Lecture/Discussion
    • Distance Learning

    Lecture:

    1. After a lecture about the effects of individual, internalized, institutional racism and structural, students will discuss in small groups the advantages and disadvantages they have experienced in their own lives based on their race and/or ethnicity to reveal that race and ethnicity have dramatic and varying effects on how individuals live their everyday lives. Each group reports out to the larger class the highlights from their small group discussion that the group is comfortable sharing. A class discussion will follow. (Objectives 4, 5, and 6)
    2. Instructor will show short clips about how various races are portrayed in the media and students will engage in an analytical discussion about the influence of the media and other forms of popular culture in forming their own ideas about race and ethnicity from childhood through adulthood. (Objectives 2, 4, 5, and 6)
    3. Instructor will provide data about minimum sentences for several different crimes in the U.S. Also included will be arrest rates, conviction rates, and sentencing lengths for those crimes disaggregated by race, gender, and social class. Students will then engage in an activity analyzing the similarities and differences in what they see, including the "fairness" of the minimum sentence lengths of some crimes compared to others and their origins in historical methods of racial and ethnic oppression. After the class activity, students will be given an assignment summarizing their discoveries about racial inequities in the criminal justice system. (Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)

    Distance Learning

    1. Via online lecture (written/oral/video) instructor will integrate short clips about how various races are portrayed in the media and students will engage, via discussion board and/or video chat technologies in an analytical discussion about the influence of the media and other forms of popular culture in forming their own ideas about race and ethnicity from childhood through adulthood. (Objectives 2, 4, 5, and 6)

    Typical Out of Class Assignments

    Reading Assignments

    1. Access recent articles on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website to prepare for class discussion about hate groups in the U.S. 2. Read various handouts prepared by instructor (examples: various autobiographical short stories from "Many Voices, Many Lives" and "The Social Construction of Race"), and be prepare for classroom discussion. 3. Read chapter om The Invention of Race to prepare for class discussion about how racial discourses devised by philosophers, writers, and scientists rose to prominence and helped form classification systems riveted in white supremacy.

    Writing, Problem Solving or Performance

    1. Refute the view expressed by some that affirmative action imprints on its recipients a stigma of self-doubt. In addition, discuss how stigma also plays into people's perceptions of affirmative action hiring. 2. Define the terms "coded language" and "discursive co-optation." Provide examples of organizations using these methods to further their own political agendas and prevent racial equity. 3. Using either yourself or a friend as an example, define and explain what real versus pseudo change is regarding race relations, cultural labor, and racial intelligence. How would you suggest moving someone from the ability of enacting pseudo change to affecting real change?

    Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.)

    1. Group Skits: Divide the class into five groups, one for each of the five racial fallacies. Students prepare skits demonstrating several examples of the fallacy in action as well as counter the fallacy with facts and logic that prove they are untrue. 2. Classroom Activity: Divide the classroom into several groups, with each selecting one dominant institution in society based on the various fields of life: school, church, the family, music and museums, government, etc. Ask each group to come up with 5 tools to bring real change to the ways in which racial oppression operates in this institution. What can be done to eradicate racism in this institution?

    Required Materials

    • Race in America
      • Author: Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer
      • Publisher: Norton
      • Publication Date: 2020
      • Text Edition: 2nd
      • Classic Textbook?: No
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • How to be an Antiracist
      • Author: Ibram X. Kendi
      • Publisher: One World
      • Publication Date: 2019
      • Text Edition: 1st
      • Classic Textbook?: No
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The New Jim Crow
      • Author: Michelle Alexander
      • Publisher: The New Press
      • Publication Date: 2012
      • Text Edition: 1st
      • Classic Textbook?: No
      • OER Link:
      • OER:
    • The Matrix of Race: Social Construction, Intersectionality, and Inequality
      • Author: Rodney D. Coates, Abby L. Ferber, and David L. Brunsma
      • Publisher: Sage
      • Publication Date: 2017
      • Text Edition: 1st
      • Classic Textbook?: No
      • OER Link:
      • OER:

    Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.