SOC321
Professor Holmes                                                        
Office: W4-141/31                                                                                              
Phone: 287-7328                                                                        
FAX: 287-7274
E-mail: william.holmes@umb.edu
Website: http://www.faculty.umb.edu/william_holmes/

Text: Feagin & Feagin. Racial and Ethnic Relations. 6^th edition. Wadsworth Publishers.

PURPOSE

• To acquire knowledge of issues of race and ethnic relations, including how they are related to class, and gender
• To understand how these issues affect social systems
• To develop skills in identifying strategies for dealing with these issues.

REQUIREMENTS
Students that are receiving grades will receive a grade based on a weighted average of the grades for their assignments (see below). Those who do not complete all assignments will receive an incomplete. Students who are having a competency evaluation must complete all assignments to receive the competency.

1. Participation. All students are expected to do readings as assigned, attend, and participate in class discussions. Note: all comments made in class by students are confidential to the class. They may not be repeated outside of the class without the speaker's permission. If a student will miss class she/he should notify Dr. Holmes. A student will lose 1 point for each class missed without notification. Competency based students who miss more than five class sessions without notification must do extra work assigned by the professor.

2. Personal narrative of an event that you experienced or heard about through personal contact in which race, ethnicity, or other minority status created a difficulty for you or others, either creating injustice or preventing justice to be done. You must describe the event, how issues of race or minority status, were involved, and how they created difficulty for achieving justice. In addition, you must indicate how you feel the issues should have been dealt with to reduce the difficulty and increase the likelihood that justice could be achieved (or decrease the likelihood of injustice). This paper should be 3-5 pages long. It should express your personal opinions. It may not be hand written. You will have to discuss the topic of your personal narrative in class. For those getting a grade in the course, this is worth 10% of your grade.

3. A media clipping about an issue of prejudice or discrimination. You will be asked in class to provide comments that summarize the charge of prejudice or discrimination, the defense against the charge, and give your opinion on how it should be resolved. For those getting a grade for the course, this is worth 5% of your grade.

4.  A Midterm assessment (exam). It will cover material up to the week before the midterm. It will be given in class and have a combination of objective and essay questions. It will be worth 25% of your grade.

5.  A copy of a web page that illustrates a concept from the course. You must attach a narrative that describes how the concept is illustrated. For those getting a grade for the course, this is worth 10% of your grade.

 
6. A term paper of a public, contemporary issue of race, ethnicity, class, gender or other minority status. This situation must be documented by reference to research literature and news media citations. You must describe the issues involved from the different perspectives in conflict and proposals that have been made to resolve this situation. You must evaluate the pros and cons of the proposals and indicate what solution you favor (either one of the existing proposals or you may introduce a new proposal of your own) and say why you favor that solution. The paper should be 8-10 pages. It may not be hand written. It must have at least five references from professional research sources (This includes articles from journals, government publications, or publications from research organizations. This does not include news media sources). You will have to discuss the topic of your paper in class. Papers by criminal justice majors must be in the style of the Academy for Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) in its publications, such as, Justice Quarterly (see course website).

If the paper is being used to achieve a Writing III competency, you are responsible for assuring that it also meets the requirements of that competency and for enrolling in the additional writing competency and instructional activity. For those getting a grade in the course, this is worth 25% of your grade.

7. One take home written exercise, given out in class, in which you define key concepts listed and describe two examples from the text. For those getting a grade for the course, this is worth 25% of your grade. This take home exercise is in lieu of a final exam.
 

Weekly Topic and Assignment

1 Overview: Basic Concepts and Issues
Reading: F&F, Preface, chapter 1

2 Theoretical Perspectives
Reading: F&F, chapter 2, Part I

3 Immigration, Conflict, and Justice
Reading: F&F, chap. 2, Part II

4 Anglo-Americans
Reading : F&F, chapter 3
Personal Narrative Due

5 Irish Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 4
Media clipping Due.

6 Italian Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 5

7 Jewish Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 6

8 Native Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 7
Midterm Assessment

9 African Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 8
Web page assignment due

10 Mexican Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 9
Written statement of term paper topic due

11 Puerto Rican and Cuban Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 10

12 Japanese Amricans
Reading: F&F, chapter 11

13 Chinese and other Asian Americans
Reading: F&F, chapter 12
Take Home Assignment Given Out.

14 Future of Racial and Ethnic Relations
Reading, F&F, chapter 13
Term Paper Due. Discussion of Term Paper Topics.
 

BACK TO  WH HOME