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                                                  Ethnic Studies 011

 

Sects 2,8                                                                                           Dr. Ricky Green

Fall 2007                                                                                           Office: Amador 562A

T/Th 7:30-8:45                                                                                  Hours: M 9-10

          3:00-4:15                                                                                            T/R  1:30-2:50

                                                                                                          278-3359                                  

                                                                                                          greenr@csus.edu

 

 

 

Course Description:

Introduction to Ethnic Studies. Introduces the diverse institutional, cultural, and historical issues relating to the past and present life circumstances of Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Black Americans, and Native Americans. Designed to introduce students to information presented in upper division courses with ethnic studies content. 3.0 units.

 

Course Objectives:

·         To provide students with a broad range of information relating to issues affecting and concerns of the groups identified above.

·         To familiarize students with how social science literature has examined ethnic minorities.

·         To introduce students to some important interdisciplinary concepts relating to the study of ethnic minorities.

·         To promote an understanding of the ethnic diversity of American society.

 

 

Required Texts:

Ethnicity and Race, Stephen Cornell

Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Richard T. Schaefer

 

 

Week(s)                                Assignment

 

Section One (Understanding Ethnicity, Race and Culture)

 

1                                Race and Ethnicity, Chapter One                              

                                                                        

2-3                            Ethnicity and Race, Chapter One and Two

 

3                                Midterm Exam Tuesday, Feb 12th

 

 

                              Section Two (Understanding Ethnic Conflict)

 

4-5                            Race and Ethnicity, Chapter Two and Three

 

6                                Race and Ethnicity, Chapter 4 and 5

 

7                                Ethnicity and Race, Chapter 3

                                  Midterm exam March 20th

 

 

Section Three (Contemporary Ethnic America: Empowering Ethnicities)

 

8-9                            Ethnicity and Race, Chapter 4 and 5                         

 

10-11                                    Ethnicity and Race, Chapter 6 and 7                         

 

12                              Race and Ethnicity, Chapter 6

                                 

13-14                                    Ethnicity and Race, Chapter 5

                                  Ethnicity and Race, Chapter 8

                                                                                             

15                              Review

 

Finals Week              Final Examination (look in class schedule)                        

 

Weekly quizzes 10%                        Thursday each week

Attendance 10%                               taken daily

First Exam 15%                                Feb 12th                    

Second Exam 20%                           March 20th

Book Critique/Project 20%              May 1st 

Final Exam 25%                               Finals Week

 

 

 

Class Notes (updated Friday May 16, 2008)

 

Ethnic Studies 011

Final Examination: 2007

 

 

Read the directions carefully: ask questions if you feel confused in any way. Answer all questions fully.

 

                                                                                                                                             

                     

                                  Most comprehensive

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       Ascribed -------------------|--------------------- Self Ascribed

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                                                                      Least comprehensive

                                                         

1. Choose three of the ethnic groups and at least two construction sites (per group) and describe how each group developed from 1880-2006 in relation to the two scales on your graph; self determination and comprehensiveness. The third column (group factors) is for your benefit: remember the importance of them in the construction of ethnic group identity. Finally, plot the movements of the three ethnic groups you have chosen on the graph above.

 

Ethnic Group                                    Construction Sites                   Group Factors            

 

African Americans               Politics                                    Population size

Asian Americans                  Labor Markets                         Internal differentiation          

Chicano Americans              Residential Space                    Social Capital

Native Americans                 Social Institutions                   Human Capital

                                              Culture                                    Symbolic Repertories

                                              Daily Experience                     Pre existing Identities

                                                                                              Groups., Contexts, Agendas

 

(Write a complete essay—do not use bullets or sentence fragments.)

 

 

Constructionism

          Both self ascription and ascription by others are critical factors in making ethnic identity and ethnic groups

          Ethnicity is fluid, dynamic (but unlike circumstantialism, constructionism is determined by events and activism)

          We are here reunited with our old terms of social construction and culture

 

Comprehensiveness of ethnic identity

          How much ethnicity effects the organization of life

                      Cultural connections

Inter marriage

Assimilation (what your author refers to as assimilation is really more complex a relationship between self ascription and ascription by others or the pull between social construction and cultural development)

 

Assignment and assertion

          Individual and group self determination in the development of ethnicity

         

                      Boundary—criteria for distinguishing between groups members (values) and non members (other group’s values)

                      Perceived position (racial stratification, perceived group differences)

                      Meaning—values, understanding, philosophy

 

Ethnic identity perceived as a dynamic process which entails the relationship between self ascription (cultural development) and ascription by others (social construction) and the degree to which this relationship affects boundary, perceived position and meaning within the ethnic consciousness

 

Graph

                                 

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Shared interests—cultural, political, economic, physical

Shared institutions—organization

Shared culture—values, principles, traditions

 

These variables have an effect on the thickness or thinness of ethnicity

 

Case studies:

 

African American and native American identity construction

          Distinct and unique patterns

                      Comprehensive ethnic identity

                                  Black

 

                                  Native American

 

 

Problems with circumstantialist theory and integration policy

 

Pluralismtheory that minority groups within a society should maintain cultural differences but share overall political and economic power; allowing various ethnic groups within a society the autonomy (self determination) to develop their culture. (not segregation not multiculturalism)

 

        The most immediate example of ethnic pluralism exists within the United States (Native American reservations) and directly to the north of the United States in Canada. Quebec is province in Canada which maintains French autonomy within a nation dominated by Anglo American (English) culture.

 

Developing ethnic identity

1. social construction of race (international to national) articles (one drop rule, blood quota)

2. development of self determination (individual to group) (article dealing with self labeling,

3. the discourse of group identity (article dealing with self labeling)

 

Ethnic enclaves are communities in which one of our four ethnic groups predominate

                      We can talk of ethnic enclaves in terms of rural communities, urban communities and entire towns and cities (physical territory)

                      We can talk of ethnic enclaves in terms of political communities, Black Nationalism, Chicano\Latino nationalism, Indian movements, asian movements

For most groups this is more difficult to do but for a few groups there is a distinct notion of community on the national level; this notion is formed out of Ethnic conflict and functions in large part to address ethnic conflict

 

          Essential components of ethnic enclaves

                      Afforded groups to develop their own culturally driven methods of politics, economics and literature (foundation of economics, politics, and education) Enclaves alternatively became source of empowerment

                      Enclaves were marked by Anglo Americans as inferior (basis for impoverishment in all three areas)

                      Enclaves broken down by civil rights

                                  Lost of jobs

                                  Open to economic exploitation

                      Enclaves have recovered popularity

                                  Movement back into ethnic enclaves

                                  Buying black

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6

 

          Review the 6 critical construction sites

 

                      Politics

                                  Political systems and boundary maintenance

                                              Distribution of political rights defines ethnic boundaries (concrete or fluid)

                                  Forms of political organization and informal practices

                                              South African homelands/ethnicity within formal structures

                                  Political construction of ethnicity

 

                      Labor markets

                                  Ethnicity and occupational concentrations

                                              Ethnic division of labor

                                  Dynamics of labor concentration

                                              Coercion, timing, skills

                      Residential space

                                  Ethnicity and residential concentrations

                                              High concentration poverty

                                  Boundedeness, exhaustiveness and density

                                              Reinforcement of group boundaries

 

                      Social institutions

                                  Social institutions and identity salience

                                              Denial of access and search for alternative sources

                                  Intermarriage

                                  Effects of intermarriage on ethnicity

 

                      Culture

                                  Categories of ascription

                                              Race, class, labor

                                  Classification themes

 

                      Daily experience

 

Chapter 7

 

The construction of identities takes place in an interaction between, on the one hand, the opportunities and constraints groups encounter in construction sites, and on the other hand, what they bring to that encounter.

 

Culture as a tool of survival.

          Includes both view of selves and views of outsiders (explain)

                      Population size

                                  Significance of numbers

                                  Population size and social context

                      Internal differentiation (cultural development)

                                  Pay attention to authors note of assumption of homogeneity within outside groups but awareness of subtle differences among own group

                                  Sex (ratio, dominance, practices—circumcision)

                                  Generation (moving away from original society and inclusion in American society)

                                  Class (class construction within the United States, Chicanos)

                      Social Capital (refers to relationships among persons)—institutions (formal and informal)

                                  Institutional completeness

                                  Social capital and forms of migration

                                 

Human Capital (skills and knowledge of individuals on aggregate level)

Symbolic Repertories (ethnic paradigms)

          Stories

          Ritual and celebration

          Cultural practices

          The use and growth of symbolic repertories

 

 Groups, Contexts, and agendas

Table

 

Chapter 8

 

          The impact of modernity

                      Capitalism (intertwined with oppression, especially ethnic oppression)

                      Global expansion of state power (cold war, U.S. dominance)

                      Global reach of mass media

          Eurocentricsm versus Ethnocentrism         

                      Bosnia Serbia Rwanda

                      Pluralism                    

 

          Mixing and multi plicity

                      U.S. (evolving: remember U.S. racial hierarchy)

                      Situationality and simplification

          Separation and Consolidation

                      Limits of multiplicity and choice

                      Unmixing of peoples

                     

 

Ethnic Studies 011: Book Critique

 

I want you to choose a book by an author who is from one of the four ethnic groups we are concentrating on in the class (only in U.S.). The book should at least contain a major component which is concerned about some aspect of ethnic identity in the United States. You can not choose a book by an author from the same ethnic group as yourself. Nor will you be allowed to read a textbook. Your choice of a book needs to be approved by your instructor by March 11, 2007.

 

Your assignment is to write a critical analysis of the book. That analysis should center upon how the author develops their understanding of ethnicity. You want to focus on the major concepts you are learning in the course.

 

3-5 pages typed double spaced. Due May 1, 2008.

 

 

To develop your critical analysis you might want to take note of the following:

1. Comprehensiveness—the degree to which ethnicity is a part of the everyday ordering of the ethnic characters’ lives.

2. Self determination scale—the degree to which ethnicity is assigned or asserted to the ethnic characters.

3. To support your analysis of these two areas you want to bring your reader’s attention to any major stereotypes and/or social constructions the author describes and/or affects the story. You also want to bring your reader’s attention to any essential aspects of culture your author describes and/or affects the story.

4. Finally you need to analyze how well the author communicates to her readers self determination, comprehensiveness and how such things as stereotypes, social constructions and cultural understandings and practices influence these measures of ethnicity. You also want to note the absence in the book of any of the 3 criteria listed above.

5. just a note—remember ethnicity is not simply about race but also about culture—so you need to look at the 3 questions above both in the sense of self ascription and ascription by others (culture and social construction)

 

Remember as Cornell and Hartman deal with these concepts they are primarily collective phenomenon.

 

 

 

Last updated: 01/29/2007