Integrative Studies in Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
ISS335: National Diversity and Change: The United States
Spring 2002
Monday, Wednesday 10:20am to 12:10am
Room 108 Bessey Hall
Instructor: Brendan Mullan
406 Berkey Hall
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:00noon-1:00pm (or by appointment)
Teaching Assistants:
Brikena Balli;
Amy Fitzgerald;
Catalogue Description: Racial, ethnic, class, gender, and other forms of diversity in the United States. Systems of dominant-minority relations and forms of prejudice and discrimination. Scope of and responses to group inequalities.
Introduction:
The Integrative Studies Program (ISS) at Michigan State University is designed to provide students with a sense of the interrelatedness of knowledge, especially the melding of liberal learning with the professional, technical, and specialized knowledge of the major. The ISS program enables students to understand, to analyze, to synthesize and use data, and to compare social, economic, cultural, political, and environmental phenomena in the United States and the world across time.
The Social Science Integrative Studies core courses seek to:
· to assist students in distinguishing their personal assumptions and opinions from conclusions based upon the critical and analytical exploration of human behavioral patterns and trends
· to expand students’ awareness of the ways that enduring and universal social issues and resolutions can be distinguished from those that are the consequences of specific or transient contemporary conditions
· to include multicultural, international, and national perspectives on human behavior that address the particular challenges and opportunities for a multi-racial and multi-ethnic American society.
Course Description:
The United States is currently experiencing tremendous changes in its racial and ethnic composition. These changes create challenges, chances, and conflicts that will continue well into the new century. The challenges, chances, and conflicts confronting the United States can be conveniently introduced by a simple glance at past, present, and prospective population composition and the implications of this composition in terms of power and resources.
United States Past and Future
Racial Group / 1500 / 1790 / 1880 / 1940 / 1995 / 2050American Indians / 100% / 13%
African Americans / 16% / 12% / 10% / 13% / 14%
White
Non-Hispanic / 70% / 86% / 87% / 74% / 53%
Hispanic / 10% / 23%
Asian
and Other / 4%
Asian or Other / 10%
All Others / 1% / 1% / 3%
Sources: Bureau of the Census, Schaefer, 1999, Day, 1996, Thornton, 1987.
In the late nineteenth century the prominent sociologist and activist W. E. B. Du Bois criticized another outstanding activist, Booker T. Washington, for saying that the races could best work together apart, like the fingers on a hand. Du Bois maintained that Black people had to be a part of all social institutions and not just create their own. Today, among African Americans, Whites, Asian-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and other racial, ethnic, class, gender, and other groups, the debate continues as to the form and function of society. Is it best to integrate everyone into some kind of “whole” (assimilation) or should we maintain and emphasize our group identities as much as we can, while working together cooperatively?
As we will learn, during the late 1990s, President Clinton’s White House Advisory Panel held hearings across the U.S. on how to preserve “One America.” Recent discussions have focused on such terms as multiculturalism and cultural diversity. These terms stress the importance of understanding and respecting the many racial and ethnic groups and subcultures which have contributed to U.S. development. This class will investigate the causes, content, and consequences of the diverse racial and ethnic transformations that the U.S. has experienced in the second half of the twentieth century. We will explore, examine, and explain the debates about and conflict over issues such as prejudice, discrimination, ethnicity, religion, immigration and how these issues affect the major racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
The lectures for this class can be divided into four interlocking parts. First, since any constructive discussion of national diversity and change in the U.S. must be more than simply a descriptive recitation of events, we will begin with a discussion of the relevant theories and operational definitions that ground the study of race and ethnic relations in the social sciences. Second, we will examine ethnic and religious sources of conflict. Diversity in the U.S. can be begun to be understood when we look at the ethnic and religious groups that have resulted from waves of immigration. Third, in order to understand present forms of subordination and discrimination we will examine in detail the history and contemporary status of Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, Mexican Americans, Chinese and Japanese Americans. For each of these groups, social institutions such as family, education, politics, health care, religion and the economy will be the focus of our attention. Fourth, we will continue our discussion of national diversity and change with an examination of subgroups within and across the major racial and ethnic groupings: women, the aged, children, people with disabilities, and gays and lesbians.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Required Texts:
Two books are required for this class.
Racial and Ethnic Relations, (6th Edition) Joe R. Feagin and Clairece Booher Feagin.
Race, Class and Gender in the United States, (5th Edition) Paula S. Rothenberg (editor).
Assignments, Tests, and Students’ Responsibilities.
You are expected to attend all lectures and to complete all reading assignments. All assignments will be drawn from the required text and from the class lecture notes. Students are expected to check their email accounts regularly for news/information about this class. This is your responsibility; information distributed via email will be assumed to have been read by all students enrolled in ISS335:2. The instructor’s email address is and you are requested to put only the number 335 in the subject line of any email messages. Failure to put 335 in the subject line of any email communication will result in your email not being read by the instructor.
A WWW site for this class has been created at http://www.msu.edu/course/iss/335/Spring2002 and we will make extensive use of this web site. Please make sure that your www browser can access this site.
The assignments for this class require you to read and understand the assigned material, to explore further the ideas discussed in class through use of the Internet, and to complete three writing assignments.
Specifically, I expect you to:
1) Read the assigned chapters in the required texts and any supplemental reading material. I expect you to come to class prepared to participate in critical discussions related to the material being covered. Competent participation in these discussions requires the preparation of the assigned readings. Throughout the semester, I will supplement the required readings with citations and suggestions for your own further reading.
2) Throughout the semester you will receive email containing the Internet World Wide Web addresses of sites with content germane to our in-class coverage and discussions. You are expected to visit these web sites to develop a deeper critical understanding of the perspectives under discussion. Each email will contain questions and statements that you should keep in mind and address as you peruse the various web sites.
In-Class Writing Assignments:
There will be 3 required writing assignments. These assignments will be unannounced in-class quizzes and will require a 1-2 page written answer. The questions will be distributed and answers collected during the last hour of three randomly selected class periods. The best 2 of these three unannounced written assignments will count towards 33.3% of the final grade. Including only the two top-scoring unannounced quizzes is designed to accommodate students who may have performed atypically poorly on one quiz or who may have missed one class during which an unannounced quiz was administered. Because of this built-in accommodation THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UPS FOR MISSED UNANNOUNCED QUIZZES.
Tests:
There will be a mid-term examination on Wednesday February 20, 2002 at 10:20am in the classroom in which the lectures are held. This exam will be multiple-choice format and will cover all materials assigned prior to that date. This mid-term will count towards 33.3% of the final grade. The final examination will be on Wednesday, April 24, 2002 at 10:20am in the classroom in which the lectures are held. This exam will be multiple-choice format and will cover all materials assigned after the mid-term exam. The final exam will count towards 33.3% of the final grade.
Miscellaneous Information:
Academic Honesty: The College of Social Science/Department of Sociology adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in General Student Regulations 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades, and in the all-University Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades which are included in Spartan Life: 1999 Student Handbook and Resource Guide and on the MSU Web site.
Plagiarism: (from the Latin plagiarius, an abductor, and plagiare, to steal): Plagiarism is defined as presenting another person’s work or ideas as one’s own. You are expected to do your own work on all assignments. Students who plagiarize will receive a 0.0 on the assignment or will fail the course.
Accommodation for Disabilities: If you are a student with a disability, who requires reasonable accommodations, please call the OPHS Disability Resource Center at 353-9642 or 355-1293 (TTY).
Dropping the Course: The last day to drop this course with a 100% refund and no grade reported is February 1, 2002. The last day to drop this course with no refund and no grade reported is February 27, 2002. Make a copy of your amended schedule to verify that you have dropped the course.
Missing Class: If you miss class to observe a religious holiday, make arrangements in advance with the instructor. If you miss class to participate in a required activity for another course, provide the instructor with adequate advance notice and a written authorization from the faculty member of the other course.
Week of LECTURE OUTLINE Reading
I. Basic Concepts, Theories, and Perspectives
1) 01/07/02
Monday Introduction /Class Administration Syllabus
Wednesday Understanding Race & Ethnic Diversity Feagin, Ch. 1
2) 01/14/02
Monday Understanding Race & Ethnic Diversity Feagin, Ch. 1
Wednesday Theoretical Perspectives Feagin, Ch. 2
3) 01/21/02
Monday Martin Luther King Jnr. Holiday
Wednesday Theoretical Perspectives Feagin, Ch. 2
4) 01/28/02
Monday The Social Construction of Race, Class, Rothenberg, 5-93
Gender & Ethnicity
Wednesday A Nation of Immigrants Feagin, Pp. 65-75
Rothenberg 30-35
Rothenberg 110-111
Rothenberg 231-232
Rothenberg 289-290
II. Sources of Conflict
5) 02/04/02
Monday Immigration: Contemporary Concerns Feagin, Ch. 13
Wednesday Prejudice and Discrimination Rothenberg 183-252
6) 02/11/02
Monday Prejudice & Discrimination Rothenberg 183-252
Wednesday Ethnicity and Religion Rothenberg 321-424
III. Major Racial and Ethnic Groups in the U.S.
7) 02/18/02
Monday Ethnicity and Religion Rothenberg 321-424
Review session
Wednesday Midterm Exam
8) 02/25
Monday English Americans/Anglo-Protestant Feagin, Ch. 3
Wednesday Irish Americans/Italian Americans/Jewish Americans Feagin Chs. 4-6
03/04/02 SPRING BREAK
Week of LECTURE OUTLINE Reading
9) 03/11/02
Monday Economics of Race, Class & Gender Rothenberg 253-319
Wednesday Native Americans Feagin, Ch. 7
10) 03/18/02
Monday Native Americans Feagin, Ch. 7
Wednesday African-Americans Feagin, Ch. 8
11) 03/25/02
Monday African-Americans Feagin, Ch. 8
Wednesday African-Americans Feagin, Ch. 8
12) 04/01/02
Monday Hispanic Americans Feagin, Chs. 9 & 10
Wednesday Hispanic Americans Feagin, Chs. 9 & 10
13) 04/08/02
Monday Asian Americans Feagin, Chs 11 & 12
Wednesday Asian Americans Feagin, Chs 11 & 12
IV. Other Patterns of National Diversity and Change
14) 04/15/02
Monday Women: The Oppressed Majority Rothenberg, 153-159
Rothenberg, 589-595
Rothenberg, 403-409
Rothenberg, 601-608
Wednesday Women: The Oppressed Majority Rothenberg, 540-548
Rothenberg, 549-555
Rothenberg, 305-314
Gays and Lesbians, The Aged, Rothenberg, 143-152
Rothenberg, 377-382
Rothenberg, 494-506
Rothenberg, 517-523
15) 04/22/02
Monday Gays and Lesbians, The Aged.
Review Session
Wednesday FINAL EXAM