Cultural Diversity in the United States
ISS 2160, LIT 109Willie L. Baber ()
Fall, 2005B133 Turlington Hall, 392-6646
Period 3, 9:35-10:35 Office Hours: MW 11:30-12:30 or appointment
See section Information, below
Texts:
Abbott, Edwin A., Flatland, Penguin Books, 1987 [1952]
Feagin, Joe R. and Clairece Booher Feagin, Racial and Ethnic Relations, Prentice Hall, 7th edition
Haley, Alex, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Ballantine Books, 1992 [1964]
Shanklin, Eugenia, Anthropology and Race, Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1994
Reader (supplemental articles)
Texts, reader and syllabus are available exclusively at Orange & Blue Textbooks
309 NW 13th Street
Gainesville, FL 32601
352-375-2707
Section information:
TA: Ms. Alana Lynch Section 5155, Friday, period 3, MAT 0016
Section 5158, Friday, period 5, MAT 0016
TA: Ms. Amy CoxSection 5150, Friday, period 3, FAC 0127
Section 5162, Friday, period 5, MAT 0112
Purpose of this Course: This course explores both the contributions and experiences of a variety of racial and ethnic groups, and develops the basic conceptual tools required to enter into a discourse on cultural diversity in the United States. This is an interdisciplinary course, employing perspectives from anthropology, other social sciences or the humanities.
Course Format: This course consists of two lectures and one discussion section each week. Guest speakers may also present some of the perspectives or issues of the course. Two graduate teaching assistants will lead discussion sections, and they will be available for consultation as you move through course material, and develop a required essay. Your essay is not a term paper; think of it as an essay in which you engage your own experiences that relate to the topics of this course. You are to use the theoretical and conceptual tools of this course to bring new insights into your own experiences with cultural diversity, including new analytical tools that you will learn. A draft of your essay is due on November 18th, and a final draft is due on December 15th.
Gordon’s Rule Requirement: This course satisfies the 6,000 words Gordon Requirement. Each student will submit a 16 page rough draft, and then a final essay, in addition to completing the essay portions of each exam.
Exams: Both exams (September 30 and December 7) will be essay with some multiple-choice questions as well. No excused absences except for medical reasons with sufficient documentation.
Class attendance is important: Attendance will be monitored in discussion sections, and lecture material will constitute important “frames” for multiple-choice questions
Class Evaluations: Your final grade for this course will be determined by the following, with total accumulated points divided by the total number of points possible; 90,80,70, 60 percent of points correspond to A, B, C, D grades.
Midterm exam……………… 50 points
Essay daft…………………… 10 points
Essay final draft…………….. 40 points
Second exam………………… 50 points
Class discussion/attendance…..20 points
Total…………………………170 points
August 24: Orientation and Introduction: Culture Theory and Race
August 26: Discussion: discourse on cultural diversity
Readings: Abbott, Flatland, part I
Introduction and/or Preface to Texts:
Feagin and Feagin, Racial and Ethnic Relations
Shanklin, Anthropology and Race
Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Review titles and authors of selections in the Reader
August 29: Social Stratification and Racism
August 31: Biological and sociological “race.”
September 1: Discussion: Racial and ethnic concepts in popular culture
Reading: Abbott, Flatland, part II
Shanklin, chapters 1-3
Feagin, chapter 1
Labor Day, September 5th (no classes)
September 7: Theories
September 9: Discussion: variations in adaptation and conflict
Reading: Feagin, chapter 2
Shanklin, chapters 4and 5
September 12: Slavery and Freedom
September 14: Film: Ethnic Notions
September 16: Discussion: slavery=Racism, or Racism=Slavery
Reading: Feagin, Part II overview and Chapter 3
Item #3, Patterson, “preface” and “The Meaning of Freedom”
Item #4, Nash, “Red, White, and Black: The Origins of Racism…”
September 19: Resistance and Activism
September 21: Film: The Legacy of Malcolm
September 23: Discussion: Malcolm X and resistance
Reading: Feagin, Chapter 7
Malcolm X, Intro-3
September 26: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Protest
September 28: Social Stratification: Gender, Race, and Class
Reading: Item #6, Zinn, et al., “Gender Through the Prism of Difference”
Malcom X, chapter 4-6
Item #2, Baber,“St. Clair Drake: Scholar and Activist”
September 30: MIDTERM EXAM
October 3: Hispanics
October 5: National borders, multilingualism, transnational identity
Reading: Feagin, Chapters 8 and 9
Item #10, Fox, “Acknowledgment,” “Imagining a Nation” (chapter 1) and “Counting” (chapter 2)
October 7: Home coming, no classes
October 10: Native American World Views
October 12: Indigenous peoples and international law
October 14: Discussion: Multilingualism or Official English?
Readings: Feagin, Chapter 6
Item #8, Stiffarm and Lane, jr, “The Demography of Native North
America.
Item #9, Morris, “International Law and Politics: Toward a Right to
Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples”
October 17: Irish and Italian Americans
October 19: Assimilation or acculturation?
October 21: Discussion: Assimilation and cultural survival
Readings: Feagin, chapter 4
Item #7, Mary C. Waters, “Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?”
Malcolm X, chapters 7-9
October 24: Asian Americans
October 26: Orientalism
October 28: Discussion: The “model minority” stereotype
Readings: Feagin, Chapters 10, 11
Item # 12, Zia “From Nothing, a Consciousness,” and “ Surrogate
Slave to American Dreamers”
October 31: Islamic Peoples in the US
November 2: The Jewish American Experience
November 4: Discussion: Religious Diversity in American Culture
Readings: Feagin, Chapters 5, 12,
Item #11, Shapiro, World War II and American Jewish Identity”
Item #1, St. Clair Drake, “God’s Hand in Black History”
November 7: Sexual Orientation and Political Discourse
November 9: Homophobia and HIV/AIDS
Reading: Item #5, Schwartz and Rutter, “The Gender of Sexuality”
Reading: Malcolm X, chapters 10-12
November 11 (no classes), Veterans Day
November 14: The Civil Rights Movement
November 16: Film: Eyes on the Prize
November 18: Discussion: Nationalism versus Integration
Reading: Item #13, Murray “Profiled: Arabs, Muslims, and the Post 9/11 Hunt
for the ‘Enemy Within’”
Malcolm X, 13-15
NOVEMBER 18: A DRAFT OF YOU 16 PAGE ESSAY, INCLUDING NO MORE THAN 2 PAGE OF REFERENCES, IS DUE IN YOUR DISCUSSION SESSION.
November 21: Affirmative Action in Historical Perspective
November 23:One Florida
Readings: Feagin, chapter 13
Malcolm X, 16 through epilogue
November 25 (no classes), Thanksgiving Recess
November 28: Cultural Diversity in anthropological perspective
November 30: Summary and Conclusion
December 2: Discussion: Affirmative action and One Florida
Reading: Feagin, chapter 14
15. December 5: Review session
December 7: Second Exam
A FINAL DRAFT OF YOUR 16 PAGE ESSAY, INCLUDING NO MORE THAN 2 PAGE OF REERENCES, IS DUE ON DECEMBER 15, 2005.
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