Course Journal Topics
Introduction To The Course
Introduction to The Class (Due January 13) • What are you? If you were to pick a race category, what is it and what informs your belief that that's what you are? Likewise, if you were to pick an ethnicity, what would that be and what informs your belief that that's what you are? For both answers, consider using the characteristics we discussed.
Socio-Historical Constructions Of Race (Due January 20) • In 2010, 9 million people said they were more than one race. In 2020, that number has jumped up to 34 million people. That is ten percent of us. Assuming this is due to actual demographic changes and not just a result of changes in the survey, what might that say about race relations in the United States?
Social Psychology Of Race
Racial Identity and Identification (Due January 27) • Take the minority/majority development assessment that is most appropriate for your racial/ethnic group (you have to have been in class). What does it reveal? How do you feel (emotionally) about what it says about you? What do you think (cognitively) about what it says about you? How do you think it came to those conclusions?
Prejudice and Stereotypes (Due February 03) • Spend a moment HONESTLY wrestling with your stereotypes of other racial (or ethnic) groups. We all have them. What are yours? Where in your field do they develop? What changes in your field would have to take place for your habitus to change?
Social Structures Of Race & Racism
Discrimination and Institutional Racism (Due February 10) • Think about your current friendships. What is the race/ethnicity of your four closest friends? If they mostly share yours, how'd that happen? If not, what does that say about "homophily"? In exchange theory terms, are there particularly "positive" benefits of having close friends who share your race? Are there "costs" when they don't?
Status Structures and Status Expectations (Due February 17) • Reflect on your race & gender combination as one status characteristic. How might that characteristic affect where you'd fall in a status structure if you were assigned to a group project in two of the classes listed on the lecture powerpoint? How do status value, salience, specific/diffuse characteristics, and performance expectations factor into where you'd fall?
Race And Sociological Institutions:
Race and Education (Due February 24): While half of UCSD's Black students are STEM majors, they only account for 2% of all STEM majors. Does that negatively affect the ability of the other 98% to learn engineering? How might this kind of field affect the habitus of the 98%? How might stereotypes (of both Black students and non-Black students) develop on campus based on that field?
Race and Housing (Due March 03): Describe the neighborhood you lived in when you were 15. What was the racial/ethnic makeup of the neighborhood? How might you describe its socioeconomic demography. Think about the lectures we had this week and discuss what kind of racial/ethnic demographic might move into your neighborhood whose presence would be "disruptive" to its norms. How would your parents respond to those families moving in?
Race and Media (Due March 10): What were your three favorite TV shows when you were ten years old? What would a sociologist of race/ethnicity say about the lessons media gatekeepers were trying to teach you about racial/ethnic groups and racial/ethnic status structures? Who were the good and bad guys? Who were the smart and dumb ones? What race/ethnicity were most leads and protagonists? Did they have to use stereotypes to make certain races "visible"?
Wrap-Up Of The Course:
Course Wrap-Up (Due March 14): Reflect on the things we discussed this quarter. Talk about which ONE week's material will have the biggest impact on a) understanding yourself going forward, b) how you will experience the rest of your time in college, and c) how you will experience the first 1-3 years after you're done at UCSD. Is there anything from this class that you told other people about?!