SOC 213 Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

Lecture Hours: 4
Credits: 4

Offers a sociological perspective of race and ethnicity in the U.S. Treats race and ethnicity as systems of social relations and analyzes how racial domination operates in politics, place, education, economic matters, associations, families, and other fields of social life.

Prerequisite: Placement into WR 115 (or higher), or completion of WR 090 (or higher) with a grade of C or better; or consent of instructor.
Student Learning Outcomes:

Discuss how sociologists study race and ethnicity.
Discuss the ways in which the social constructions of race and ethnicity contribute to inequalities.
Explain how social inequalities shape notions of race and ethnicity.
Integrate variables of race and ethnicity in describing inequalities of condition.
Analyze how institutional arrangements along with race and ethnicity impact inequality of opportunity.
Examine socialization and racial formation processes that occur in families, schools, and associations.
Assess the relationship between social class and race in predicting various social outcomes.
Judge the future of race relations in the U.S. by using theory and data.

Statewide General Education Outcomes:

Apply analytical skills to social phenomena in order to understand human behavior.
Apply knowledge and experience to foster personal growth and better appreciate the diverse social world in which we live.

Cultural Literacy Outcomes:

Identify and analyze complex practices, values, and beliefs and the culturally and historically defined meanings of difference.

Content Outline

Social and Theoretical Approaches to Studying Race and Ethnicity
- Social construction of race and ethnicity
- Historical sociology of race
- Race, ethnicity, and nationality as social scientific variables
- Whiteness
- Privilege
- The Other
- Attitudes vs. action
- Racial discourses
- Theory
  - Structural explanations and opportunity structures
  - Racial formation
  - Macro-micro linkages
- Sociological Imagination
Intersectionality
Demographic Profile of the U.S.
Politics
- Civil Rights Movement
- White backlash
- Voting and elections
- Pan ethnicity, reparations, and other social movements
- Power
Economics
- Forms of economic racism
- Income and wealth disparities
- Labor markets and jobs
- Types of welfare
- Affirmative Action
Spatial Patterns
- Housing
- Residential segregation
- Migration and white flight
- Urban pathologies
- Environmental racism
Social Control
- Crime and punishment
- Prisons
- Gangs
- Ideology
- Law
Education
- Racial battles over education
- Euro centrism and ethnocentrism
- Inequalities
- Cultural and social capital
Immigration
Associations and Networks
- Ethnic nationalism
- Homophily and boundary work
- Civic participation
- Identity politics
- Hate groups
Family and Intimate Life
- Historical sociology of the family
- Family and social problems
- Gender relations and the division of labor in families
- Interracial and interethnic marriage
- Feminization of poverty
- Religious life
- Identity formation
Social Change and Social Justice
- Racial progress
- The myth of a post-racial America
- Individual and collective action