SOCIOLOGY (&ASIAN AM) 220: ETHNIC MOVEMENTS INTHE US: ORIENTATIONSOCIOLOGY 220 ANNOUNCEMENTS Syllabi go FIRST to people enrolled in the class Everybody fill out the “first day survey”: attendance, wait list, section changes Be sure name, ID# and email are correct AND LEGIBLE on the survey ALSO put your name on a separate piece of paper and answer the last question as your first “lecture comment”. FIRST SECTION FRIDAY. We will be sending emails about section adds and switches by tomorrow morningPreview course web siteSOME DETAILS Asian American cross-list. Explain. Grading in flux, may need tweakingCOURSE CONTENT (PAGE 1) SM perspective on ethnic movements Collective vs. individual strategies Construction of ethnic identities Effects of economic and political conditions Interests and issues in inter-group conflict Effects of history on the presetCOURSE CONTENT 2 Controversial issues Basic concepts for analysis: interests, values, factual claims, rhetorical strategies, power and resources BOTH sides: try to understand why people advocate different polices Lectures, films, guest speakers, open discussionTEACHING ASSISTANTS Madhu Sardar 8:50 (306) & 9:55 (301) Ellen Dinsmore 12:05 (302) & 1:20 (303) Lindsey Twin 2:25 (304) & 3:30 (305) All sections meet Wednesday & Friday Work on writing Time to discuss issues in small group No Section Wednesday. First Section Friday Sept. 7 Bring to section required ungraded writing about your own ethnic/racial background and experiences. Turn off projectorPHILOSOPHY OF COURSE (PEP TALK) About African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics/Latinos (especially Mexican American), & Asian Americans + their experiences with European Americans Everybody has an ethnicity. I’m white. Read books & articles & now blogs by people from other groups. About history & structures, not being a good person. Key issue: past overt racial structures, present racial hierarchy w/o ideology Recognize legacies of the past PLUS change Role of conscious social change. I learn a lot from students. About who is a “real” American Pep talkFinish projector off by 11:45 1 of 3Personal issues: One thing I've learned is that all Americans have problems with race and ethnicity. There is a real sense in which US is inherently racist, in a way that goes beyond the personal feelings of any particular individual. I want to talk about these as structural, social problems rooted in history and the legacies of history. There's a lot of talk lately about "white men" being picked on, feeling threatened, as the only group it is safe to trash. I think it may help up front if we try to see that every group in America feels this way right now. We all feel stereotyped and put down for what we are. We are all wanting to be appreciated for our unique individuality, at the same time as we want to be able to be proud of our background and roots. Let's just say up front that we all have group similarities and differences. All the whites, blacks, asians, hispanics, native americans in this class; all the men and women, all the heterosexuals and the gays and lesbians in the class; all the Christians, Jews, believers in other religions, and those who do not believe in any religion all want to say to everybody else in the room: Some of us come from wealthy families, and some of us come from poor families; some of us work long hours, and some of us are supported by our families; some of us have parents who went to college, and some of us are the first in our family to go to college; some of us are ignorant and prejudiced, and some of us have a lot of experience working with other racial and ethnic groups. Many of us come from multi-racial families. Some of us are conservative, some of us are liberal, some of us are radical, and some of us don't care about politics at all. Everybody in this class wants to say: please do not assume you know about me from superficial things like my skin color or my accent or my gender. There used to be cartoon on an office door in the sociology offices that captures another important theme. It shows a group of whites sitting around a living room and one person saying: "Why can't we all ignore our differences and just get along?" The next panel is a group of blacks sitting around a living room with one person saying: "Why can't we all accept our differences and just get along?" Almost everybody really wants to get along. But there are emphases about whether we get along by ignoring our differences, or by accepting them. And if we accept them, how can we accept difference in a way that doesn't mean we think less of our own culture?Finish projector off by 11:45 2 of 3 Full professor. Like teaching this course. Grew up in Torrance. No Blacks. Lots of Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans. Knew Buddhists. Class. HS 1963-7. Fair Housing, Watts Riot. JFK. Vietnam War, draft, anti-war protests College Stanford. 1967-71. Riots, King & Kennedy assassinated. Malcolm X. Lots of Black literature. Grad School North Carolina. 1971-76 Shadows of signs on the bathrooms. Segregation remembered. CRM remembered. Inter-racial groups. Black grad students. Shirley Chisholm. Lousiville. 1976-1980. Riots. Neighborhood groups. Students of color Madison since 1980. Seemed very White. Got used to it. Racial disparities work. Expert in social movements. Have been called racist & racially insensitive fairly often. Knowledgeable, still whiteFinish projector off by 11:45 3 of 3 Turn on projectorGRADING (P 4-5 OF SYLLABUS)Papers, 50Lectures, 30Books, 15Section , 5Course meets both ethnic studies & communication-b requirementsNO TESTSGRADING DIMENSIONS Incompatibility between learning & grading, need to balance the imperatives Ethnic studies “e” Focus on learning, not grading: effort & engagement Lecture reactions + books + discussion Exposure to a wide variety of information and points of view, rather than intense mastery of a few ideas OK to disagree with the professor!! Books contribute to learning, are not the center of it Writing “com-b” Focus on learning + certifying (grading) Emphasis on writing & argumentation quality. Graded papers.HOW THE PARTS WORK TOGETHER Books, lectures, papers, discussion section “loosely coupled” (not discussing the same
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