Race, Racism and Resistance in the United States

3 credits · Undergraduate

This course explores the role of race, racism and resistance in the United States from 1492 to the present. We do this by reading autobiographical works written by racial justice activists alongside works in the theory of racial formations. Together we ask: What is race? How do we define and recognize racism? How has race shaped the lives of Americans historically classified as minorities? And how have anti-racist intellectuals represented the personal and political struggles of racialized communities living in a white majority culture? To answer these questions we focus on the intersections of race, class and gender; immigration, labor and democracy; and the history of resistance to racial oppression from abolition to liberation and back.