AAS1201

What does it take to discuss race seriously? An exploration of this question demands a counter-narrative, for our contemporary moment is such that a growing public opinion (1) casts America as a “raceless nation,” (2) interprets antiracism as “reverse racism,” and (3) embraces “diversity” to maintain the racial status quo. As a class, we will explore what it means to treat race as a social construct and also a central organizing principle shaping patterns of power and inequality. Talking about race is not easy to be sure; it engenders a host of unsettling emotions ranging from guilt and shame to anger. Yet not talking about race as a social fact in American life and culture merely reinforces the existing racial hierarchy. It forecloses opportunities to reach across boundaries of social difference to strive toward a shared sense of community and belonging. Together, we will participate in racial struggles, albeit at times painful and challenging, to address and grapple with ethical-political imperatives to pursue social justice and make the notion of diversity anew. Together we will reckon with the role of institutions in conditioning the material realities of racialized groups, while also recognizing the capacity of racialized groups to resist regimes of racial power.

01688

Social Sciences, Race, Power, and Justice in the United States

Periodic Fall & Spring