COURSE DESCRIPTION 

This course will examine the nature of ethnic group formation, ethnic identities, and the process of ethnic assimilation and relations that has taken place in the United States over the last two hundred years. The course will also compare how ethnicity in the U.S. contrasts globally.  It is intended to serve as an introductory course for the Ethnic Studies Major.  As a consequence, the course materials and course structure are intentionally interdisciplinary, drawing from the social sciences, humanities, and arts in particular.  We will begin with concepts, such as the definition(s) of identity itself and how does ethnicity become a part of that identity locally and globally.   How does it differ from race?  Are African Americans a racial group or an ethnic group, or some combination of the two?   How much power do these concepts have in explaining group experiences? Also, how do class, gender and sexuality influence cultural identity?  For example, why have Jews, Japanese, Nigerians, or Cubans advanced faster than others in terms of economic and/or political power in American society?  Is the explanation cultural? 

For the latter part of the course, we will pay particular attention to the ways in which American immigration policies and responses to immigration have structured ethnic group outcomes.  And we will examine a range of arguments over the relative merits of multiculturalism and assimilationism for the maintenance of ethnic identity and group solidarity, particularly among second generation youth, and for the nation’s future.  This course will explore alternative theoretical frameworks for analyzing ethnic relations, and will encourage you to formulate your own perspective.  Some theories view cultural differences as the root cause of friction among groups.  Others stress the dynamics of economic, political, educational, and/or social systems and how these allocate wealth and power.  Some perspectives emphasize the persistence of ethnocentrism as an obstacle to group acceptance.  Proposed “solutions” to ethnic group conflict based upon these perspectives then are often radically different, if not contradictory.  We will examine a number of these, and argue their relative merits.