Joseph F. Healey. 1995. Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class. The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press.

John A. Kromkowski. 1996. Race and Ethnic Relations 96/97. Annual Editions.

This course provides the student with a broad introduction to the field of race & ethnic relations, mostly as it applies to the United States, both historically and currently, but also as it applies to other countries around the world, especially the Americas. The historical and current experiences of various panethnic groups in the United States -- the so-called European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans -- are analyzed, introducing and using various theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks. Emphasis is placed on the historical and contemporary dynamics of North American peoplehood, specifically on how race & ethnicity have been constructed and are related to other social constructs such as nation, gender, citizenship , and social class. We are interested in how all of these modern social categories relate to the broader political, economic, and cultural processes of the modern world-system. Attention is given to some controversial issues, such as: immigration, affirmative action, the enduring reality of racial/ethnic discrimination /stratification, and the new credo of multiculturalism.

Classes: Students are expected to come fully prepared to discuss the assigned readings for the day . After the lecture or video presentation there will be open class discussions. Attendance is mandatory. Unauthorized absences, tardiness, and/or early departures will be penalized.

E-Mail Groups: All students will be assigned and must participate in a small electronic group (up to 10 members). Each group will: (1) engage in weekly e-mail discussions over the Healey chapters and the articles from the Annual Editions textbook; as well as (2) collaborate in putting together a research volume on a relevant topic. Here are the details:

(1) E-Mail Group Discussions. Students will participate in small electronic discussion groups or ListServ bulletin boards ,where every message sent is read by all members. All students have an e-mail account number, so the first step consists of having every student enrolled in the class immediately send Dr. Santos an e-mail message (address it to: gsantos1). In the "Subject" heading please write "Add me to a group". In the body of the text, write two lines:

"Add [your last name, your first name]; E-mail account: [your e-mail account #]"

"Race/ethnicity: [your race/ethnicity]; Age: [your age]; Major: [your major]"

Each student will be assigned to one of several listservers in class named "soc#", where # will be a number from 1 to 10; you will receive a message informing you which group you have been subscribed into. Students may then send e-mail messages to their groups simply by addressing them to their group's listserver's name when prompted by MAIL> To: _____.

EXAMPLE: let's say you were assigned to group Soc3 and you'd like to send a message on assigned article 24 of the Annual Editions text to your group; you would do the following:

1. Log into your VAX computer account.

[If you do not know how to log in or e-mail, go to Lab A of the library and ask.] [IMPORTANT: Everybody should set up their e-mail system to be as user-friendly as possible by doing this ONCE: by the $ prompt, type SETMAIL and hit the return key. This will allow you to edit your text with ease and quote other people's messages in your replies. DO THIS ONLY ONCE & DO IT RIGHT AWAY!]

2. By the $ prompt, type MAIL and hit return. [This will get you into the e-mail system.]

3. In the MAIL> prompt, type SEND and hit return. [This begins a new message.]

4. The message MAIL> TO: will appear; you then type soc3 and hit return.

[notice there is NO SPACE between "soc" and "3" in your listserver name.]

5. At the message MAIL> Subject: you type Soc3: Art 24 AE and hit return.

[This is important : always put your group name first!! Further, always use this format for your original messages on a selected article from AE. If it had been a Healey chapter, say chapter 5, you would type Soc3: Cha 5 H. If you are using the reply function an Re: will automatically appear on your subject heading. Finally, if you just wish to chat about something not related to the assigned readings, please type: Soc3: whatever. Remember, always put your group's name first, no matter what. This allows easy monitoring for Dr. Santos.]

6. The space for your message will appear. Type your message.

[You can edit your message using the arrow keys, the delete key, etc.; if you wish to abort your message and start all over again, press the CONTROL and C keys together.] When your are done, press the CONTROL key and the Z key together and the message will be mailed out to everybody in your group and to Dr. Santos.]

7. To respond to anybody's message while reading it, just type the command reply in the command line and press return. The entire message will re-appear. Delete most of it, leaving only the passages you wish to comment on. Insert your comments, preferably using separate, in-between paragraphs; when you are done just press CONTROL-Z to send it off.]

Minimum e-mail contributions: Each week, all students must send at least two original messages from the three Annual Editions articles assigned on Friday for the following week (see schedule below). In addition, students must send at least one message using the "REPLY" function to comment on somebody else's message(s), hopefully engaging each other in fruitful dialogue. Students are encouraged to send messages related to the Healey textbook at their discretion, just identify the chapter in reference in the subject heading (e.g. "soc4: chapt 5 H").

Note: It is important that you submit your original messages in the weekly time frame in which they are assigned: In the schedule below, the articles assigned on Fridays are meant to be commented on from the immediate Saturday to the following week's Thursday, including your originals and your replies. DO NOT SEND ANY MESSAGES ON FRIDAYS, that is when Dr. Santos reads, evaluates, and manages the whole system. Messages on assigned readings sent outside their assigned time frame will be ignored/deleted from Dr. Santos's files.

Students are strongly urged to always save and periodically download their messages into a diskette . Ask in Lab A how to use the MOVE command to create "folders" in your e-mail system & henceforth save your originals and replies easily; on using the EXTRACT command to create downloadable files in the $ prompt; and on how to download files to a diskette.

All original messages on selected articles from Annual Editions should be about a page long if it was printed, and the format of the text should be as follows:

Original messages on a Healey chapter should be either focused on questioning, clarifying, or commenting on the sociological concepts & arguments and/or the historical information contained in it, or on the "Current Debates" selections at the end of it; the format is left wide open so long as the messages are serious and people don't just "go through the motions."

MANNERS: It is important at all times to maintain a tone and language that is respectful, thoughtful, and to the point. Disagreements may and should be forcefully expressed, but without relying on sarcasm, ridicule, insults, guilt-mongering, or ganging-up on dissenters and lone voices. Remember, you are trying to persuade others in your group, not browbeat them into submission. Nobody will be allowed to "flame out" (go ballistic). And please, do not ramble.

Dr. Santos will be monitoring all messages and evaluating each student's participation in the e-mail discussions. He may, from time to time, participate in the group discussions, make important class announcements, or send someone a private message. Look for his messages. If you wish to send him a private message, send it to his address: gsantos1, and type "PRIVATE MESSAGE TO DR. SANTOS" in your subject heading. But for most purposes, Dr. Santos would strongly prefer students to either come to his office during office hours, see him after class, or call him by phone, rather than sending him e-mail messages, which may get lost in the flood!

(2) Group Research Project: Each group will also have to meet face-to-face, at their convenience, to design, research, and write a single-volume research project on one of two topics:

(a) The historical dynamics of race/ethnic relations in a given country of the world (other than the United States); the volume will consist of an integrated analysis of the history of racial/ethnic relations in that country, including the present situation, and what accounted for the nature and evolution of those relations in each chosen period. Each student will usually concentrate on a given period, identifying the groups, how they were socially constructed, how they related toward each other, in what structural context, and what accounted for the transformations of these groups and their relations as such.

(b) An especially controversial race/ethnic relations topic. This volume will focus on the historical origin and evolution, contemporary situation , and future possible directions of a particularly controversial issue in the USA and/or the world today related to race/ethnic relations. The approach will be as historical, as global and as comparative (multi-country) as possible, including the USA of course, critically analyzing all perspectives, facts, and arguments on the topic. The emphasis must be on how different countries are dealing with the issue, and how it is related to the changing global structures of the modern world-system.

All groups need to secure authorization of their topic from the instructor no later than October 1; topics will be approved on a first-come-first-served basis (sorry, no repeats). Each student will write a section in his/her own name, 6-to-8 pages long, double-spaced, font size 12, 1-inch margins. Each group's volume will be nicely bound, and will contain a title page, a table of contents identifying each section by its title and the name of the student who wrote it, the actual sections, appendices, and a single, integrated bibliography at the end. Citation style: (Author's last name, year: pages). Again, students are asked to visit Dr. Santos during his office hours to discuss their specific project, rather than sending him e-mail messages.

Some countries of interest: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, the former USSR or any of its recent spin-off republics, former Yugoslavia or any of its recent spin-off republics, France, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the Koreas, Kuwait, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tibet, Trinidad-Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.You may suggest another country.

Some special topics : Affirmative action, authorized and unauthorized migration flows, indigenous rights, enduring institutional racism and discrimination, the politics of racial labels & statistical counting, persistent residential segregation, the pros and con of cultural pluralism, the impact of globalization on race/ethnic relations. You may suggest another topic.

Exams: There will be a mid-term exam on Monday, October 14, and a final exam on Monday, November 25 (11:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.). Both exams will be based on the lectures and the Healey textbook. The final exam will only cover the second half of the course.

Grading: Each exam is worth 30 points. The participation in the e-mail group discussions is worth 20 points. The research project is worth 20 points (15 for each individual chapter + 5 for the whole volume). The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100, as follows:

94-100 = A .......84-86 = B ...........74-76 = C

90-93 = A- ........80-83 = B- .........70-73 = C-

87-89 = B+ .......77-79 = C+ .......65-69 = D ..............< 65 = F

Office Hours: All students are encouraged to visit the instructor regularly, especially to make sure their individual research paper s are well focused, or to discuss any question they may have from the class lectures, the textbooks, or their group interactions.