SOC 207 - Whiteness and Racial Justice

This course introduces whiteness as central to the analysis of American society, especially as it relates to inequality, power, and social change. The goal of this courses is to make clear how whiteness is central to a series of social transformations over American history through an analysis of racialized features of society - whether explicit or obscured: What accounts for the which ethnic/nation/racial groups are deemed most representative of modern Western society? How does the structure of power and politics shape the racial hierarchy over time? What explains persistent racial gaps in opportunity and wealth? How are racial attitudes embedded in religious and political structures? What are the prospects for human happiness and fulfillment for racial groups that are discounted, dismissed, or otherwise discouraged within our society? And what is the proper role for people who seek to study, and perhaps change, that society?  Readings will feature robust empirical research as well as writers with a conscious historical sensitivity on long standing structures of racialized inequality and oppression, revealing how whiteness has consequences for the understanding and achievement of efforts toward racial justice in our contemporary United States.

Satisfies a Sociology major requirement.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Though requirement.
Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement.