Requirements and Grading
1. Regular attendance and participation in discussion are expected. This means always remaining current with at least the required readings for the day. Attendance counts for 10% and participation and blog posts combined account for 10% of the final grade.
2. Reaction Essays. These are short, 1-3 page reaction essays which will count for 20% of the final grade. These brief essays are due NOT LATER THAN 10AM on the Tuesday in which we discuss the material (9 total). Students assigned to lead discussion of the week’s readings are not required to submit a reaction essay during the week in which they present. Also, students may elect to not submit a reaction essay one (1) week during the term.Preferably, blog posts should be submitted no later than Sunday evening by 5:00 pm prior to the coming week’s session. A minimum of 10 blog posts are expected over the course of the semester.
3. Discussion Leadership. Everyone is expected to sign up for one session of discussion leadership. These sessions will involve one of the major assigned books. Discussion leadership will count for 10% of the overall grade.
4. There are two take-home examinations. The mid-term examination counts for 20% of the overall grade and the final examination counts for 30% of the overall grade. The exams are to type-written, double-spaced, with standard margins and font-size.
NOTE REGARDING REACTION ESSAYS AND EXAMINATIONS: The reaction essays and take home examinations should reflect your own individual thought, work, and writing. While group discussion and exchange on course materials, ideas, and issues are strongly encouraged, it is essential and expected that all submitted written work reflect each students own individual effort.
Grading Summary
Attendance 10%
Blog Posts and Participation 10%
Reaction Essays 20%
Discussion Leadership 10%
Mid-term Take-Home Exam 20%
Final Take-home Exam 30%
Class Meeting Schedule
September 8 Introduction: Agenda, Themes, and Foundations
Morris, Scholar Denied (Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2)
Terry, Brandon. 2015. “After Ferguson.” The Point.
Wilson, William Julius. 2012. “The Declining Significance of
Race: Revisited & Revised.” Daedalus 140(2): 55-69.
Recommended:
Bobo, Lawrence D. and Camille Z. Charles. 2009. “Race in the America Mind: From the Moynihan Report to the ObamaCandidacy.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621(January): 243-259.
Massey, Douglas S. 2012. “The Past & Future of Civil Rights.”Daedalus 140(2): 37-54.
September 15 Du Bois, Sociology, & the Black Community
Du Bois, “The Study of Negro Problems,” pp. 70-84.
Du Bois, “The Atlanta Conferences,” pp. 53-60.
Du Bois, “The Conservation of Race” pp. 238-250.
Morris, Scholar Denied (Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6)
| Recommended: | ||||
| Zuberi, | Tukufu. | 2000. | “Deracializing Social Statistics: | |
| Problems | in the Quantification of Race.” Annals of | |||
| the American Academy of Political and Social | ||||
| Science 568: 172-185. | ||||
| Bobo, | Lawrence. | D. 2000. “Reclaiming a Du Boisian | ||
| Perspective on | Racial Attitudes.” Annals of the | |||
| American Academy of Political and Social Science | ||||
| 568: 186-202. | ||||
| Reaction Essay #1 Due | ||||
| September 22 | Legacies of the Philadelphia Negro and Dynamics of Black Communities | |||
Hunter, Black City Makers (entire)
Morris, Scholar Denied (Chapters 7 and 8)
Reaction Essay #2 Due
September 29 The Black Middle Class
Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie (chapters 1,2,5,6, 9, 10)
Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth” (1903)
Lacy, Karyn. 2004. “Black Spaces, Black Places: Strategic Assimilation and Identity Construction in Middle-Class Suburbia.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 27: 908-930.
Pattillo, Mary. 2003. “Negotiating Blackness, for Richer or for Poorer.” Ethnography 4: 1-33
Reaction Essay #3 Due
October 6 Negotiating Ghetto Poverty: Challenges for the Middle Class
Pattillo, Black Picket Fences (entire)
Reaction Essay #4 Due
** Take-Home Midterm Distributed (due 10/14) **
October 13 No Class Meeting (Exam Completion)
**Exams Due at Professor Bobo’s Barker Center (AAAS) Mailbox or Office by 10:00am on Wednesday 10/14**
October 20 Negotiating Ghetto Poverty: Policing the Carceral State
Goffman, On The Run (entire)
Reaction Essay #5 Due
October 27 Negotiating Ghetto Poverty: Health and Community
Ralph, Renegade Dreams (entire)
Williams, David R. 1999. “Race, Socioeconomic Status, and
Health: The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 896: 173-188.
Recommended:
Geronimus, Arline T. 2001. “Understanding and Eliminating
Racial Inequalities in Women’s Health in the UnitedStates: The Role of the Weathering Conceptual Framework.” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association 56: 133-137.
Massey, Douglas S. 2004. “Segregation and Stratification: A Biosocial Perspective.” Du Bois Review 1: 7-26.
Geronimus, Arline T. and J. Philip Thompson. 2004. “To Denigrate, Ignore, or Disrupt: Racial Inequality in Health and the Impact of a Policy-induced Breakdown of African American Communities.” Du Bois Review 1: 247-280.
Reaction Essay #6 Due
November 3 Structural Racial Inequality
Sharkey, Stuck in Place (entire)
Reaction Essay #7 Due
November 10 The Black Family
Du Bois, “The Negro American Family,” pp. 199-213.
Du Bois, “The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia,” pp. 165-196.
Allen, Walter R. 1978. “The Search for Applicable Theories of Black Family Life.” Journal of Marriage and theFamily 40: 117-129.
Furstenberg, Frank F. 2009. “If Moynihan Had Only Known: Race, Class, and Family Change in the Late Twentieth Century.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621: 94-110.
McClanahan, Sara. 2009. “Fragile Families and the Reproduction of Poverty.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621: 111-131.
Burton, Linda M. and M. Belinda Tucker. 2009. “Romantic Unions in an Era of Uncertainty: A Post-Moynihan Perspective on African American Women and Marriage.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621: 132-148.
Reaction Essay #8 Due
November 17 Dimensions of Inequality: Schooling and Education
Tyson, Integration Interrupted (entire)
Du Bois, “Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?” (1935)
Reaction Essay #9 Due
November 24 Dimensions of Inequality: Wealth
Shapiro, The Hidden Cost of Being African American (entire)
Reaction Essay #10 Due
December 1 The Future of Race
Anderson, The Imperative of Integration (entire)
Reaction Essay #11 Due
** Take Home Final Examination Distributed (due 12/13) **
**Exams Due at Professor Bobo’s Barker Center (AAAS) Mailbox or Office by 5:00pm on Saturday, December 12th**