Sociology of Race and Racism

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course is designed to help students begin to develop their own informed perspectives on American racial "problems" by introducing them to the ways that sociologists deal with race and racism in the US. We will begin by talking generally about the basic structure of racial formations in the contemporary US, the mechanisms by which they are reproduced, and possibilities for resistance and change. In the second part of the course, we will turn to the issue of popular representations of people of color in the US. We will look specifically at how African American, Asian American Latino and Native American women and men are portrayed in popular culture.