Race, Ethnicity, and US Society

What is “race”? What is “ethnicity”? How are they related and how do they shape the life chances of people in the United States? In this class, we discuss racism’s origin story, particularly how capitalist interests motivated the creation of racial hierarchy. We focus on how White-controlled institutions and elite actors mediate racial and ethnic groups’ access to material and social resources, leading to Whites disproportionately benefiting from U.S. social processes. We investigate social processes through intersectional—noting relationships between race, class, and gender—and historical lens, highlighting how racism evolves over time in response to resistance. We also examine the consequences of racism across social domains. Our course concludes by grappling with the questions: (1) How effective have social movements, and other forms of social organization, been in resisting and ending racism? (2) What are the implications for current racial justice activism?