Required Books:

The following may be purchased from West Bank Bookstore:

Joe Feagin, Racial and Ethnic Relations (Prentice Hall)

George Fredrickson, White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American and South African History (Oxford)

Paula Rothenberg, Race, Class, and Gender in the U.S.: An Integrated Study [4^th Edition](St. Martin's Press)

Course Objectives:

What similarities are there, if any, between the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, and Palestine/Israel? Why does racial and ethnic conflict persist in so many regions of the world? To what extent does racial conflict in the U.S. reflect underlying class conflict? How is ethnic/racial oppression similar and different from sexual oppression?

These are some of the questions that this course will address and attempt to answer. It is an introductory examination of the role of ethnicity and/or race in the political process with particular emphasis on political strife. Throughout the course an effort will be made to formulate hypotheses to explain the whys and hows of ethnic conflict. To this end the course has a comparative perspective, drawing on the experiences of very diverse settings in order to make generalizations. However, the primary focus will be the Black experience in the U.S. and South Africa. Data from other communities in the U.S. and elsewhere will be employed to make contrasts. An important aspect of the analysis will focus on the relative importance of ethnicity/race and class in explaining political conflict. Gender or sex will also be addressed in order to see how it intersects with ethnicity and class. Finally, the relationship between revolutionary change and the resolution of ethnic strife will be looked at.

Course Requirements:

Participants may fulfill these by selecting one of two options:

1) By taking the midquarter and final exam, and writing a short paper of about 5 typewritten pages (See Short Paper Assignment)

2) By taking the final exam and doing a research paper on a subject relevant to the course. The details of the project will be discussed with each individual who pursues this option.

For both options, the final exam will be worth 50% of the final grade; the short paper and midquarter will be worth 25% each. The research paper will be worth 50%. Both exams will be based on the readings, lectures and class discussion. Study questions will be provided well in advance of both exams.

The mid-term exam will be on Nov. 4 and the final on Dec. 9. All papers are due on Dec. 2.

Rothenberg, 7-79.

Feagin, 5-58, Part I - The Racial and Ethnic Mosaic.

Greenberg, 5-28, "The Problem: Growth and Racial Domination".*

Frederickson, "Introduction" xi-xxv.

II. Race, Class, Ethnicity and Political Stratification

Rothenberg, Part IV: Economics of Race, Class, and Gender in the U.S., 188-252.

Rothenberg, Part V: How it Happened, 370-446

Fredrickson, 3-93.

Greenberg, 29-50; 70-73; 79-91; 100-106; 107-125; 148-172; 176-201, 209-232.*

Feagin, 59-70, 73-98, 99104, 110-15, 140-43, 169-73, 205-10, 248-80, 343-52, 388-92

III. Identity Consciousness and Group Interests

Feagin, 104-6, 134-38, 162-64, 203-5, 240-44, 297-300, 340-42, 381-84, 418-20.

Fredrickson, 94-135.

Greenberg, 273-355.*

Cynthia Enloe, Ethnic Conflict and Political Development,* 15-83

Stuart Hall, "Ethnicity: Identity and difference".*

Barbara Fields, "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States."*

UNESCO Race Statement*

Fredrickson, 136-238.

Enloe,* 187-260

Greenberg, 172-175, 202-208; 232-242*

Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left, 25-101; 127-232*

Fredrickson, 239-282 ANC Documents*

Greenberg, 385-410*

Enloe,* 261-74

Feagin, 451-65

VI. Race, Class, Ethnicity and Revolutions

Burkina Faso: Thomas Sankara, "The Revolution Cannot Triumph Without the Emancipation of Women."

Soviet Union: (Readings to be announced)

Yugoslavia:

(You may select either one of the following topics)

1. In his May, 1977 talk to a group of South African businessmen (Greenberg, Race and State in Capitalist Development, Appendix D) Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the UN, argued that the manner in which Jim Crow was eliminated in the U.S., and the role of capital in that process, could be duplicated in South Africa. Your assignment is to critically evaluate Young's argument. Firstly, to what extent is Young correct in his assessment about the ending of Jim Crow in the U.S.? Secondly, how valid is his comparison of the U.S. and South Africa in terms of his scenario for change in the latter?

You should draw upon all readings and lectures in making your evaluation. Please confine your assessment to no more than 5 (preferably typewritten) pages. This assignment is due on Dec. 2.

2. The video film "Girls Apart" compares and contrasts the lives and thoughts of two young South African women -- one African and the other white. The film covers a wide range of subjects but focuses on their views and relationship to the apartheid system and the struggle against that system. In her book Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought, Elizabeth Spelman makes an argument about how gender and race should be treated by feminists. Your assignment essentially is to assess the validity of Spelman's argument by drawing on the film and other data from the readings and lectures about South Africa.

More specifically, you should address the following questions: To what extent, if any, does the film validate Spelman's views about the disadvantage of viewing women as women only, i.e. "we are all women"? How does it do that? What are the specifics about the South African situation as illustrated in the film and other course material that validate or contradict Spelman's views regarding the relative importance of racism and sexism? Finally, what does the South African case suggest about the relationship between the liberation of Blacks and that of women?