Comparative Race and Ethnic Relations

Catalog description

In 1903, American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois made his prescient statement, on the launch of his seminal book The Souls of Black Folk: “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” Can we make this claim in the Twenty-First Century? To answer this question, we will compare race and ethnic relations in the United States, with a focus on understanding how race and racism shape our lives. We will discuss historical accounts of the social constructs of race and ethnic groups and examine current issues of individual, institutional, and systemic racism, media representations of race and ethnicity, racialized forms of migration, racial inequalities, and environmental racism. We will also make connections between race, gender, and social class to understand how they work together in creating inequalities and shaping our identities.