Race, Erasure, inequality
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General
Course Long Title
Race, Erasure, inequality
Subject Code
CSOC
Course Number
564
School(s)
Program(s)
CS BFA
Academic Level
GR - Graduate
Description
Race, Erasure, Inequality: Studies in Theory and Resistance
This course examines the roots and history of white supremacist racism in the United States, from the era of slavery during the country's early days as a revolutionary liberal democratic republic to today. The course aims to provide a context for understanding 20th and 21st Century anti-racist resistance. Along the way, we will look at the forms and norms of racialization and racist discourse and practice and the relationship of those forms and norms to the law. Although the course takes anti-Black racism as the cornerstone of racist and white supremacist theory and practice in the United States, we will also address more generally the problem of "racialization," or the manner and means by which legal, sociopolitical, gendered, and cultural concepts of "race" are used by adherents of white supremacy to dominate, stigmatize, stereotype, degrade, and demean groups and individuals targeted by this process.
The anti-racist response has included joint efforts of African and European-descendent peoples in creating political, social, and cultural movements that have challenged white supremacy and the constraints it has imposed on society. One result of these efforts was the emancipation of the enslaved. However, the post-slavery persistence of racist thought, discourse, and practice in this country has been enduring and consequential. So has the anti-racist challenge and resistance. Racist laws were repealed over half a century ago, and racism no longer plays the role in society that did historically. Yet, the legacy of racist ideas and norms still hover over social relations, and serve today to catalyze political and social division, privileging some while continuing to keep systems in place that subject the racialized to categorical disrespect, degradation, injustice, social inequality, and disparate life outcomes. Meanwhile, anti-racist resistance and challenge has continued to question and undermine the survivals and the core norms, assumptions, and consequences of racialization. Readings in this course will examine racism's dynamic of presence and erasure, as well as aspects of anti-racist resistance and challenge, through a survey of racism and anti-racism in U.S. law, politics, economics, public and private discourse, art, culture, and consciousness.
This course examines the roots and history of white supremacist racism in the United States, from the era of slavery during the country's early days as a revolutionary liberal democratic republic to today. The course aims to provide a context for understanding 20th and 21st Century anti-racist resistance. Along the way, we will look at the forms and norms of racialization and racist discourse and practice and the relationship of those forms and norms to the law. Although the course takes anti-Black racism as the cornerstone of racist and white supremacist theory and practice in the United States, we will also address more generally the problem of "racialization," or the manner and means by which legal, sociopolitical, gendered, and cultural concepts of "race" are used by adherents of white supremacy to dominate, stigmatize, stereotype, degrade, and demean groups and individuals targeted by this process.
The anti-racist response has included joint efforts of African and European-descendent peoples in creating political, social, and cultural movements that have challenged white supremacy and the constraints it has imposed on society. One result of these efforts was the emancipation of the enslaved. However, the post-slavery persistence of racist thought, discourse, and practice in this country has been enduring and consequential. So has the anti-racist challenge and resistance. Racist laws were repealed over half a century ago, and racism no longer plays the role in society that did historically. Yet, the legacy of racist ideas and norms still hover over social relations, and serve today to catalyze political and social division, privileging some while continuing to keep systems in place that subject the racialized to categorical disrespect, degradation, injustice, social inequality, and disparate life outcomes. Meanwhile, anti-racist resistance and challenge has continued to question and undermine the survivals and the core norms, assumptions, and consequences of racialization. Readings in this course will examine racism's dynamic of presence and erasure, as well as aspects of anti-racist resistance and challenge, through a survey of racism and anti-racism in U.S. law, politics, economics, public and private discourse, art, culture, and consciousness.