American Minorities

American Minorities PCM

Sample Syllabus

NOTE: this is a sample syllabus. The course will be run according to this syllabus each semester, but in order to find out the correct dates that each unit is due, you will have to log into your Blackboard course at the beginning of the semester. You won't be able to do that until the first day of class. Until that time, though, you can learn about the course content and requirements here. The book listed here will be the correct book for your course, so you can order or buy it now. All the assignments are the same each semester too.

Open Campus Course Soc. 2319 PRN

Austin Community College

Text: Schaeffer, R. T. Racial and Ethnic Groups

Professor: Scott Swearingen

Office: 1212 Rio Grande, Austin Texas, 78701

Office Phone: see BB site each semester, it changes by semester.

Answering Machine: 223-1795, box # 22490 to leave message

Email: scotts@austincc.edu
answering machine and email remain the same each semester, so you can always reach this way

Office Hours see BB site each semester.

Contracting the Instructor:

Email for this course: This course has 3 sections; the 16 week, 12 week, and 8 week. When you send email please include the section you are in by putting ≥16, 12, or 8 Week≤ in the email heading. That way I can look up your status and get back to you with answers more quickly. It will also help me to record your grades in the correct place on our blackboard site.

Overview of the Course

This course is meant to provide you with a general background in the sociological causes of relations between minority and majority groups, and to illustrate these relations by examining several specific minority groups in America. We will also compare ethnic minority groups with women in order to see how history, conflict over resources, and social power creates what we call a minority group. This course will allow the student to better understand why our race, gender, religious, and sexual relations exist as they do, and give the student an understanding of the basic backgrounds and roles of specific American minority groups.

General Statement of Open Campus and this course

Open Campus courses are designed for people whose schedule makes it difficult to get to class or who work rotating shifts. They are not designed for those people who "do not have time to go to class." This type of class will take about the same number of hours to complete as attending a class 3 hours a week, but you do the work on your own time. There are two important issues to keep in mind when taking this open campus course; turning in materials and timing.

Turning in materials.

This is a PCM course, which means all your work is turned in electronically. You write your answers to the assigned questions and either turn them in through the digital drop box, or simply email them to me.

** Regardless of which method you use to send me your materials, ALWAYS MAKE A PRINTED BACK-UP COPY OF EACH ASSIGNMENT. There have been times in the past when student work gets lost in the system, and if this happens to you, you will simply be able to resent your back up copy for credit.

Turn in all material at the same time, on ONE document or email. Do NOT send me individual chapters or other materials to grade. I will only grade your work when you have finished the unit and put all work together on one document

Timing and due dates. In an open campus course, you complete the assignments for the course at your own speed. There are some time limits, though. Many people do much of the work in a short period of time and turn it in early, and this is perfectly acceptable. However, it has been the experience of open campus instructors that some students leave everything to the last minute and turn in their materials with only a day or two for the instructor to grade. This is unfair to both instructor and student. The instructor has too little time to adequately grade the assignments, and the student has no chance for feedback on her work. Unit 1 is especially important, because my experience is that people who put off beginning the course have a history of not completing the course. Therefore, I have established due dates for each assignment in this course.

Notice that most due dates are Fridays. That is because I typically grade the assignments over the weekend, when I have more time .

****IMPORTANT: If your unit 1 is not in my box or email by [see BB site each semester] I will drop you from the course.****

Unit assignments and due dates

see BB site each semester

Grading System

This PCM course is not test driven. There are no tests. Instead, you earn points by completing a series of required written assignments, and any optional assignments you choose to do. These assignments are grouped in 4 categories;

1) you will write answers to a series of questions for each chapter in the textbook. These are required.

2) you may answer the critical thinking questions in the textbook for any or all chapters if you want more points.

3) you will read a biography about a minority person, or his/her autobiography. This is required.

4) you may watch videotapes in any campus library and write a short synopsis of each for more points. These are listed below.

Your course grade will be computed on the number of points you earn and the number of chapter questions you answer:

A= 200 or more points. In order to earn an A you must answer at a minimum all chapter questions for every chapter and do the book report.

B=180 points. In order to earn a B you must answer at a minimum all chapter questions for 12 or more chapters and do the book report

C= 160 points. In order to earn a C you must answer at a minimum all the reading objectives for 10 or more chapters

D= 140 points. In order to earn a D you must answer reading objectives for chapters 1-5.

**NOTICE: A GRADE OF D DOES NOT TRANSFER TO OTHER SCHOOLS**

F= less than 140 points.

Assignments

Chapter Questions = up to 120 points

In the assignments section of the BB course, you will find a list of chapter questions for each chapter in the unit you are working on . The questions generally follow the chapter outline. You will write down your answers to these questions and turn them in to me. Each question will require 2-4 sentences to answer. Your answers are my way of evaluating how much you have learned from each chapter. In order to get any points for a chapterπs questions you must answer all the questions for that chapter. You can earn up to 10 points for each set of chapter questions, for a total of 120 points (we will only cover 12 of the chapters)

**In order to get an A in the course you must complete all the chapter questions for each chapter**

Critical thinking Questions = up to 70 points

Critical thinking questions are found at the end of each chapter in the textbook. You can earn up to 2 points for each critical thinking question you answer. There are about 3 per chapter, so if you answered all of them you could get up to 70 points. You may answer as many as you want.

Book review = up to 100 points

Students will read a book by a minority group author or a biography about a minority group figure and write a report on it according to a set of criteria set forth in the book review assignment section of the BB site. Make sure you read over that assignment - this is a book review, not report, and they are somewhat different.

View videos and write a short synopsis = up to 40 points

The unit assignments section of the syllabus lists one or two videos available through the ACC library system that illustrate concepts and issues related to the course. You may watch any or all of these for up to 10 points each. If you choose to watch one, I suggest you call your local campus library a week in advance and ask them to get the video for you. Once you have watched the video, write a one page summary of it telling me (a) what the video was about and (b) how it relates to the unit you are doing.

Student Consultations

Each student is required to conduct one consultation for each unit. A consultation can be a phone call, visit, or email discussion with me, Dr. Swearingen. During each consultation, you will be able to ask me any questions about the material you are reading or any other of the activities listed above. But the main reason I require these consultations is for you and I to talk about the book review. Since the book review will take some effort on your part, I want to track your progress on it and make sure you get it done by the due date.

You may contact me at any of the numbers or addresses listed above.

Chapter Questions for Unit One

Chapter One:

1. Discuss the difference between race and ethnicity. Why does the author say that race is a socially created category? If there are really no major biological differences between humans, why does the category "race" persist?

2. What problems exist with using standardized tests like IQ tests and college entrance exams to differentiate between "races"? Can you explain how just giving these tests might contribute to people thinking about others in terms of "race"?

3. How do conflict theorists view race?

4. Use the labeling theory to explain how you have come to believe that you have a particular "race"

5. In what ways to minority groups come to be created? Which do you think is responsible for the creation of African-Americans as a minority group? For Mexican-Americans? For Native Americans?

6. Discuss the differences between fusion and assimilation.

7. What factors can enhance or inhibit assimilation? Which do you see more of in your experience?

8. Why is pluralism more an ideal than a reality?

9. What is meant by the concept "marginality"? How does this concept help to understand the sociological definition of a minority group?

10. How does the Afrocentric perspective move toward a pluralistic orientation rather than a Eurocentric orientation?

Chapter Two

1. What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

2. What is the exploitation theory of racial subordination?

3. Compare the exploitation and scapegoating theories to show how economics creates prejudice.

4. How do self-fulfilling prophecies relate to stereotypes?

5. How do attitudes influence governmental policies?

6. What evidence is provided to show that inter-group hostility exists between minority groups? Who do you think benefits from this inter-group hostility?

7. How are Arab-Americans typically stereotyped today, and what events influenced these stereotypes?

8. When might the mass media be most likely to reduce racial or ethnic hostility?

9. Under what conditions does contact between groups create harmony, and what conditions create disharmony?

Chapter Three

1. Is a college student whose parents only give him $1000 dollars a month for all his expenses absolutely or relatively deprived? Explain your answer using the concepts presented in the book

2. How does the concept "total discrimination" help provide a better understanding of discrimination? Apply the concept to African Americans: what factors in the past would contribute to the absolute discrimination that group faces?

3. What is institutional discrimination, and how does it differ from other types of discrimination?

4. Give two examples of institutional discrimination. How do each of these differ from from overt racism?

5. What types of jobs are part of the irregular economy? How does participation in this economy keep people locked in to minority group status?

6. How do we define the underclass? How is the underclass related to the primary and secondary labor markets?

7. What do we learn by looking at median income by race and sex and holding education constant?

8. Why is it argued that affirmative action is needed in addition to the more traditional forms of anti-discrimination programs? Which has been most successful in reducing institutional discrimination?

9. How is affirmative action related to glass ceilings?

10. How do glass ceilings and glass walls help to keep women and ethnic minorities in their minority group status?

Chapter 14

1. In what ways to women constitute a minority?

2. How do conflict theorists view stratification by gender? How is this different from functionalists?

3. How does the history of the 19^th amendment illustrate the sociological concept that women were a minority group?

4. What forms can sexual harassment take in the workplace?

5. What is meant by "pay equity"? Whose life chances are most affected by pay inequity, and why?

6. What is meant by the feminization of poverty? How do womenπs' position in the labor force contribute to this trend?

7. What does research show about the division of labor between men and women in the home? Does this discrepancy help retain women in a minority group status? Explain.

8. What is meant by the "intersection of race and gender"? Who is most harmed by this intersection, and how?

Unit Two Chapter Questions

Chapter 4

1. Why were the Chinese singled out for exclusion? Can you see an economic reason for some people to want to exclude them?

2. What evidence is presented in the book to support the claim that immigration acts of 1892, 1965, and 1986 were motivated by economic considerations more than racist motives. Given this evidence, how might economic relationships fostered racist ideologies?

3. Why were the Irish immigrants so hated? How did their economic position cause them to be them anti-black? How did the employers of the time use blacks to keep the Irish from complaining about white economic elites?

4. How did economic factors create the need for Chinese labor and then the sinophobia against Chinese? This next is similar to question number 3: why did white laborers hate the Chinese rather than the employers who paid them both near starvation wages?

5. Explain the "brain drain" phenomenon. Does this phenomenon lend support to or question the mythology that all immigrants are unskilled and poorly educated? How does the brain drain actually deter minorities in the United States from entering the professional fields? How is this economic consideration similar to the economic reasons for race relations mentioned in 3 and 4 above?

6. What changes in the laws were made in the 1986 Immigration bill? Discuss 2 effects this law has had on immigrants.

7. Given the laws against them, why do illegal immigrants continue to come to the USA? What economic factors actually force illegals into the bottom of the class hierarchy? Who does this benefit?

8. What is the myth of immigrants and welfare? What is the reality? What groups benefit from spreading the myth?

9. How did prop 187 in California come from economic trends related to immigrants?

10. What practices of the US refugee policies receive the most controversy?

11. Given all the information you have used to answer this set of chapter questions, try and answer this one that is not directly from the book. What is the relationship between economics, immigration, and anti-immigrant sentiment? Who benefits from the anti-immigrant sentiment, and why?

Chapter 5

1. What is the relationship between whites and blacks in the religious system?

2. Why is it difficult to figure out if religion is becoming more or less important to people in the USA today?

3. We sociologists often say that ethnicity is socially constructed. By that we mean that people come to adopt, in their own minds, a view of themselves as one or another ethnicity. But the way we come to view ourselves as a member of an ethnic group is not at all a simple matter. The very term, "African-American", for example, has only recently become used to denote people who were previously called "negro" or "black". The new term is being used in part to try and signify that people whom we used to call "black" (a race-based definition) are really defined by their common ancestral forced immigration from Africa. Hence, "African-American", an ethnic based definition. Sometimes white people like to think of themselves as a member of one ethnic group, and sometimes they donπt. So as you read through pages 125-130, try to find some of the things that make people feel "ethnic", or in other words, chose to be ethnic. Question number three is; describe three things that might make people chose an ethnicity.

4. How does social class interact with ethnicity to make respectable bigotry respectable?

5. What economic reasons shape the choices of white ethnics to distance themselves from blacks?

6. How does the example of Italian-Americans illustrate the economic conflicts you discussed in question 5?

7. What conclusions did Greeley make about the relationship between ethnicity and religion?

8. What is meant by the term "civil religion"? Give an example of this "religion" that you have experienced or seen.

9. How does religion function to keep women in their minority status?

10. It is unfortunate that the book is unclear on the issue of prayer in schools. The main finding of the Supreme Court cases over this issue has been this: IT IS PERFECTLY LEGAL FOR PEOPLE TO PRAY IN SCHOOL. They can even say their prayers out loud if they want to. Groups can gather to say denominational prayers together on school grounds. What schools can NOT do is require people to participate in any of these activities. That is why is it unconstitutional to read a school prayer over the intercom. Doing so would be forcing students to partake in the prayer. Also, school officials may not lead prayers, but the 1992 hearing in Lee v. Weisman stated that a student could do so in a public gathering. So the issue is not simply "can you pray in schools?"(because you can) but rather "what kind of religious activity is constitutional in schools?≤. Given this, why might secessionist minorities choose to live outside the public school system? How might these general judicial trends shape the battles in schools over the teaching of creationism and display of religious symbols?

11. Interestingly, the case of the Mormons illustrates how one small sect of people can grow into a full religion. Briefly, how did conflict with non-Mormons actually help that sect grow into a religion?

Chapter 13

1. So far in this course we have read about different ways of identifying groups based on race and ethncity. Question 3 in chapter 5 asked you to answer how ethnicity is socially constructed. Think about these issues to answer this question: If Jews are not a race, nor just a religion, how can they be identified as a distinct group? How can they be construed as an ethnic group if they are not all from the same place?

2. How does anti-Semitism create feelings of "jewishness" in members of the Jewish ethnic group?

3. What historical circumstances created the anti-Semitism and stereotypes of Jews as greedy and clannish?

4. Describe how two of the injustices described on p 354-356 might have created a sense of ethnic solidarity among Jews?

5. What reasons are offered in the book to explain why traditionally peaceful black-Jew relations have recently sometimes been harsh?

6. What kinds of differential treatment do Jews receive in the job market? How does this create them as a minority group?

7. Look at table 13.2 The indices measure how much each group endorses the index. Notice how orthodox Jews have the highest scores on ethnic pride, closeness to other Jews, observance of Jewish holidays, and being Pro-Israel. Use information from the discussion on 364-5 to try and explain the different scores between Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, and"Just Jewish" categories.

8. This question is similar to the last, because it asks you to think about how people feel "ethnic", that is, how they adopt an identity based on their membership in a group. How has assimilation changed the nature of being "Jewish"? Would you expect Jews who are more assimilated to feel more or less "Jewish"? Why?

9. How does the role of the Jewish family, religion, and cultural heritage influence feelings of "Jewishness" (think about how you answered question 8 above)?

10. How does the personal example of Foreman (in the box on 372-3) illustrate your answers to questions 7-9 above? How does this example show that feelings of ethnicity are created by the social situation in which one finds oneself?

Unit 3 Questions

Chapter 6 questions

1. What were the impacts of the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

2. Describe how two federal programs, past or present, encouraged Native Americans to assimilate. Do you think that forcing assimilation in these ways is appropriate?

3. How did the Termination Act and Employment Assistance Program serve to weaken the economic base of reservations? How does this keep American Indians in their minority status?

4. How would you explain why the AIM appeared in urban areas rather than on rural reservations?

5. What is the concept panethnicity and how does it apply to American Indians?

6. What kinds of employment opportunities exist for American Indians on reservations? How have casinos changed these opportunities?

7. How does American Indian education differ from that received by middle class white school children?

8. Apply assimilation and pluralism to the health care and spiritual beliefs of American Indians.

9. How does the Native American Church influence the idea of the panethnic group "Indians"?

10. What is environmental racism, and how does it affect Native Americans?

Chapter 7

1. What was it about slavery that made family life so difficult for slaves?

2. What part did religion play in the institution of slavery?

3. How did the ebonics debate actually show the cultural influence of African societies?

4. It is unfortunate that the book remains unclear as to why, if blacks and whites were nominally equal during reconstruction, Jim Crow laws came into existence. It was because blacks never held a majority position in the state congresses. Blacks never actually "ran the government" in any state - whites continued to do that during reconstruction. When the federal government gave up on the whole idea of reconstruction in the election of 1876, the attempt to get whites to accept blacks as equal citizens ended. Jim Crow laws quickly followed, creating a de facto American Apartheid to replace the apartheid of slavery. What two court cases allowed these laws to be so successful in keeping blacks in minority status, and how did those cases do so?

5. Look at the picture of the lynching on page 190. What seems to be the response of the whites in the picture? What does this tell us about the situation of white supremacy in the Jim Crow era? By the way, lynching is murder. Yet the people in the picture seem completely unconcerned that they are attending a murder. Why might this be (think about white supremacy).

6. What were the politics of accommodation that Washington promoted? Which whites might have been sympathetic to this approach, and why?

7. How was the Niagra movement a different kind of political movement than that espoused by Washington? To which contemporary group did it give birth?

8. Why did the internal migration of blacks to the north and west occur? What happened once they were there to illustrate that whites in the north wanted to keep blacks in their minority positions? What was the minority position of blacks based on in the north?

9. What tactics did black leaders use to force the government to address racial inequalities in the post-WWII period? Notice how all these tactics were later used by southern blacks in the 1960s.

10. How does the book make the case that the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit was an attempt by blacks to assimilate into white society? How did whites meet this attempt?

11. What tactics did the SCLC use to force whites to accept the idea of equality (notice how most had been used before). Yet it was not the southern state governments that changed. In the 1960s southern states continued to want legal segregation. To what level of government, then, were blacks appealing? What were some of their successes?

12. How does the relative deprivation/rising explanation theory explain the violence that gripped the country in the riots of the late 1960s? How did the mass media contribute to these rising expectations? How does this repudiate the riff-raff theory?

Chapter 8, 9, 10

Answer the Study Questions in the back of each chapter. Write a short paragraph to answer each, and be sure to use information from the text when you answer them, just like you did with my questions.