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2 SOCIOLOGY/AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES 207

Sociology of Race & Ethnicity
Spring 2025
Tuesday & Thursday 11:00am-12:15pm
CAS (College of Arts and Sciences) 522
COURSE SYLLABUS
Your first assigned reading is this very syllabus.
click here to jump to the course schedule
of readings and lectures.

Professor: Saida Grundy, Ph.D. ([email protected])

TFs: Kaizha King ([email protected]) and Carlos Campos, Jr.
([email protected])

Office: Room 261, 100 Cummington Mall

Phone: 617.353.2591
Direct Messaging: Microsoft Teams—by far the easiest and quickest
way to
message/call/vid me. If you hit me after 8pm, expect a next day
reply.
Email: [email protected] (please include SO207 in subject line if you
must email.
Understandable reasons to email include: a need to attach documents
that can’t be
attached in teams; a need to copy other faculty/staff
member/advisor/registrar/etc)
Mailbox: 100 Cummington Mall Room 260 (box over “Grundy”)
Student Hours: Tues 11:30am-1:00pm and Thurs 11:30am to 1:30pm
virtually or in office (Thurs only) (please schedule at least 24hrs in
advance via calendly. If you cannot make these times, please just
arrange by appointment with me).

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

--THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE DECLARATION OF

INDEPENDENCE

“The Blacks are inferior to the Whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 1

 --THOMAS JEFFERSON, NOTES ON THE STATE OF
VIRGINIA

“I have been gravely disappointment with the white moderate. The Negro’s stumbling
block in his stride toward freedom is not…the Klu Klux Klanner, but the white moderate,
who is more devoted to “order” than justice.”

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.”

-- WEB DUBOIS, THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK (1903)

OI8y, and politically established. For nearly 400 years, race has been
embedded into the center of pre-colonial and post-colonial American
life and shapes all our life chances and interactions. This course
examines the fundamental theoretical and empirical approaches
regarding race/ethnicity and the current state of race relations in the
U.S. that explore both contemporary social problems and the deep
historical roots of those problems through a sociological lens. The
course is divided primarily into two halves. The first half focuses on
fundamental sociological concepts in race and race theory such as the
scientific myths of race, the origins and alterations of racial
construction, and structural, ideological, and cultural theories of race.
The second half applies these concepts topically to a selection of most
widespread prevalent racial disparities in the U.S. such as housing,
education, health, crime and the penal system, and wealth inequality.
The theories and topics covered in this course span both history (from
the early 17th century to the present) and geography (global slave-

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 2

based economies, European colonization, transnational migration,
etc). Therefore, this course provides students with ample
opportunities to examine and create historical narratives, evaluate
historical evidence, and construct arguments based on this evidence.
This course encourages students to call upon their own experiences in
the multiple communities to which they belong (i.e., race, class, and
ethnicity) and reflect on their own similarities and differences from
others both within those communities and compared to other
communities. Our differences may be significant, but this course
allows students to learn and reflect upon how those differences were
socially, historically, and ideologically constructed.

REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS:

Several articles (all available via

Teams > gen channel > files >
readings + content folder) and access
to a Netflix subscription are required
for this course. Links for other
required films, podcasts, and clips
will all be made available for
streaming. You are expected to read
the assigned readings and watch any
assigned films before the date listed
on this syllabus. Come to class
prepared to discuss them.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Discussion/Participation (25%)—The course is taught in

lecture format with smaller required discussion sections
that meet weekly with your TFs, Kaizha King and Carlos
Campos. Your participation grade is assessed entirely in
the discussion section. Active and informed participation is
considered a major requirement of the course in those
discussion sections. Serious participation that reflects a

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 3

 familiarity and understanding of the readings and thoughtful
consideration of the lecture presentations and your fellow
students’ remarks will be graded highly. Little to no
participation, attempts to dominate discussion, or comments
that are not sustained or connected to the readings or lectures
will not reflect well on your grade. In addition to in-class
discussion, participation will be evaluated by a series of in-class
activities, personal reflections, and response prompts. Class
discussions and participation facilitated by questions about
race, culture, and inequality will allow students to engage each
other’s diversity and differences and reflect the BU Hub
capacities for Individual and Community. At Kaizha and Carlos’s
discretion, you will have assignments and activities to complete
in the discussion section.

Class attendance, with on time arrival, is expected and

considered in your participation grade. Earlier class departures
or late arrivals will be reflected in point deductions from your
participation grade. Much of the material covered in class will
not be covered in the readings or films. Therefore, attendance is
vital. Only students with perfect or near attendance can earn
the full participation points. If you anticipate an absence,
please send a Teams chat to your TF and me). Multiple
absences will be reflected in your participation grade. You
will not receive an assignment or exam extension and will
need to turn in any due assignments via the course site. It
is your responsibility to keep up with material and notes
from your missed day (also known as Do Not Contact Your
Professor About What You Missed). Excused absences
require proper documentation (excused absences due to
documented illness/emergency will be given an additional 24
hours for assignments except for exams/finals).

2. Final Projects (25% total):

(5%) Annotated Bibliography (challenging a “Race Myth”)— Information
literacy is of critical importance to your learning and development. Currently,
information literacy is being broadly challenged by “fake news” (also called
propaganda) and widespread ideologies and myths about race that often sustain,
worsen, and justify racial disparities. You will construct an annotated
bibliography of at least 10 sources that challenges one such race myth with
scholarly peer-reviewed research and primary sources (a grading rubric for this
bibliography will be provided in class). In this nassignment, you will demonstrate
an ability to interpret primary source material and situate this material in historical
and cultural context along with other related materials. Not only will you identify
a false but widely accepted racial belief, but you will use primary and scholarly
sources to construct a research-based narrative that counters this racial myth. You

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 4

will explain why you selected these sources and demonstrate an overall
understanding of peer-reviewed and scholarly research as information. Please see
this Library Guide for using BU’s digital catalogue to find your sources.

a. (20%) Final Exam —Alongside your annotated

bibliography, will have a two-hour take-home final exam
that asks you to choose a topic from which you will answer
a prompted essay question. This can be the same topic
you chose for your annotated bibliography, but your final
exam requires you to site materials from the syllabus.
You are not responsible for any outside materials in your
final.
q

b. Opinion-Editorial x 2 (12.5% each, due twice during

the semester; 25% total)—You have been asked to write
a 1000-1200-word op-ed (imagine your audience is a major
US news publication for which you are writing on a
critical controversy for which race is a central focus or
that you are arguing should be focus of the problem).
From our syllabus, choose a problem related to race,
racism, or racial disparities and provide a sociological
argument using research and data from our course
readings interwoven with your personal
background/experiences to support your position.
The op-ed should be structured as follows:
c. Suggested title and byline
d. Lede (around a news hook)
e. Argument
f. Present 2-3 points (with two pieces of sociological
evidence and a concluding sentence each)
g. Present and evaluate opposing views and your rebuttal
h. Conclusion (circle back to your lede)

A key component of a compelling op-ed is the author’s own

background or role in relationship to the issue and to express
and situate their background into the communities of their
audience. Therefore, the se op-eds help strengthen students’
understanding of themselves in relationship to different
communities (in this case, the audience and tone for the op-ed is
imagined to be Boston Globe readership both locally and
nationally). Such an exercise strengthens student capacities for
the BU Hub outcome for Individual and Community.
Outstanding op-eds will be encouraged to be sent to The Boston
Globe editorial board and further engage our local, regional and
national community on these issues.

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 5

 3. Midterm Exam (25%) —Students will be expected to complete
an open question exam consisting of two essay questions. Each
answer should be 800-1000 words. The exam should be
double-spaced in MS Word (y’all know Office 365 is free for
students, right?) with your name, course title, and date clearly
displayed in the top right corner. Students will use a personal or
university computer during class time at their chosen location.
You will take your midterm exam during one of your discussion
section meetings, date TBD. Midterms ask students to answer at
least two questions about social problems that require them to
explain the history of the problem, why it persists, and how it
has changed over time and why (i.e. Housing remains highly
segregated in the U.S., but students must explain this problem
through its history of policies. Practices, racial migration, and
wealth inequality as well as its relationship to other institutions'
histories like public schools. Such an assignment yields a
learning outcome for the BU Hub historical consciousness
capacity and requires students to display an understanding of
socioeconomic forces, political organizations, and intellectual
and ideological paradigms and how they have shifted over time.

GRADING:

Discussion Participation (25%) 50 points

Op-ed x 2 (25% total) (25 + 25)= 50 points
Midterm Exam (25%) 50 points
Final Project* (20% + 5%) (40 + 10)= 50 points
*includes final exam and annotated bibliography

Total Possible: (100%) 200 points

93.00-100.00 = A 80.00-83.99 = B- 67.00-69.99 = D+

90.00-92.99 = A- 77.00-79.99 = C+ 64.00-66.99 = D
87.00-89.99 = B+ 74.00-76.99 =C ≤ 63.99 =F
84.00-86.99 = B 70.00-73.99 = C-

LEARNING, CONDUCT & COMMUNITY:

Your engagement in this class is welcome and wanted. What we

discuss and share in this classroom is to remain in this classroom,
including what we choose to share about our own personal
experiences. Given the subject matter, it is important to acknowledge
that you and your classmates come to this course with an array of

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 6

prior opinions and worldviews—many of which may feel true due to
anecdotal evidence or popularly accepted beliefs. The role of this
course, however, is to present us with information that exceeds the
limits of our own worldview, and, in fact, puts our worldview into its
proper context, thus allowing us to understand why we think that way.
Expanding, or even “unlearning” our views will at times be liberating,
and at other times be uncomfortable, or even emotional. What you are
entitled to in this course is the academic and intellectual safety
required to undergo that process. You are not entitled to emotional
resistance that obstructs or impedes that learning process for yourself
and others. There is no comfortable way to honestly nor responsibly
discuss a history of race relations in the U.S. I welcome you to discuss
confidentially with me any personal resistance you are feeling in this
course, or in-class dynamics you feel are affecting your learning. My
obligation will be to keep this space safe for all of us, to guide us to a
place of trusting each other with the responsibility of learning with
and from each other, and to making sure that you get taught the best
knowledge, theory, and research currently available.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
Cheating and plagiarism are not permitted under any circumstance at
Boston University. Students will receive and automatic F on
plagiarized or cheated assignments and will be reported to the
Academic Conduct Committee. Falsifying emergencies or
documentation for absences is considered cheating. All your
assignments in this class will be uploaded to Teams which uses
automatic screen software to detect plagiarism. This software
compares identical phrasing from your assignment to the entirety of
searchable web content for as few as three consecutive words. Always
cite your sources and credit quotes (APA style citation is preferred but
use any accepted academic citation format with which you are
comfortable and knowledgeable). Plagiarism includes 1) copying
words or ideas from others without citation or credit; 2) turning in
work done by others; 3) Failing to place a quote—either full or
partial--within quotation marks; 4) falsifying the source of
information; 5) changing words but mimicking the sentence structure
of a statement without crediting/citing its author; 6) Paraphrasing
passages and borrowing so many ideas that the majority of your work
is similar to someone else’s—whether you cite them or not (source:
Plagiarism.org).

HTTP://WWW.BU.EDU/ACADEMICS/POLICIES/ACADEMIC-CONDUCT-CODE/

INSTRUCTOR CORRESPONDENCE:

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 7

Questions and inquiries about the discussion section should first be
addressed to your TFs; please contact them over Teams. For matters
that require my attention, I can be reached via Teams chat as well. I
usually respond promptly, but if your message comes at the last
minute before class or is about assignments due that day, I will be
unavailable. Please don’t delay questions until the last-minute
regarding material/assignments/attendance for that day. If you do
not receive a response from me—barring my untimely death or
cartel kidnapping—it is likely because the answer is on the
syllabus.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

I will always do my best to accommodate health emergencies and

disabilities and will always keep this information confidential.
Students with accommodation needs that might impact their ability to
complete the requirements for the course (e.g., note taking,
presentation or film captioning) should inform me as soon as possible
and provide appropriate documentation. Please be PROACTIVE about
your accommodation as there is little to nothing I can do after the fact
of an assignment. Please note: the BU does not extend time on take-
home exams for students with disabilities.

If you feel you may need assessment for a disability or

mental/cognitive health concern, please consider filling out an intake
form with the Disability Services Office.

COPYRIGHT AND NO-RECORD POLICY:

Lecture slides are copyrighted and may not be reproduced for

anything other than personal academic use without my expressed
permission. You do not need to record anything from class. Lecture
slides will be made available to you via the discussion sections

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 8

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Week 1 : Jan 21-23

Tues Welcome, Introductions, Overview of Syllabus.

“What is Race?” “What is the Sociology of Race”?

Thurs b. The Science of Race?

Film (watch on your own) “The Human Family Tree” (1 hr 33

min) (last 30 minutes available via youtube)

Graves, Joseph L. 2005. The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race

Exists in America New York: Penguin Press. (Intro & Chapter 1)

Ray “The Science, Social Construction, and Exploitation of

Race” (pg 21)

Podcast: “In Those Genes: Scientific Sankofa”

Week 2: Jan 28-30

Tues c. The Invention of Race

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 9

 Film (watch on your own): “Race: The Power of an Illusion Pt 1:
The Differences Between Us”

Ferber, Abby “Planting the Seed: The Invention of Race”

Omi & Winant: “Understanding Race and Racism in the Post-

Civil Rights
Era” (pg 91)

Transatlantic Slave Trade

Slave Codes: Crash Course Black American History #4

Thurs d. The Social Construction of Race

The Origin of Race in the USA

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 10

 FILM (watch on your own on Kanopy): The Chinese Exclusion
Act

Lee, Sharon. 1993. ‘Racial Classifications in the US Census:

1890-1990.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 16(1):75-94

Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2002. “The Latin-Americanization of

Racial Stratification in the USA”

Film (watch in class): “Race: The Power of an Illusion: The Story

We Tell”

Jennifer Lee on the US census (watch in class 4:31)

Week 3: Feb 4-6

Tues e. Ideologies of Race and Racism

Blumer-- “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position” (pg 129)

Bobo, Lawrence. “The Color Line: Racial Attitudes and Relations

at the Close of the 20th Century”

Thurs f. Ideologies of Race & Racism Pt 2: “I Don’t See Race…”

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 11

 Watch on your own-- “American Denial”

Bonilla-Silva “Racism Without Racists” (selected chapters)

IAT (take on your own)

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

OPTIONAL Rachlinski, et. Al. “Does Unconscious Racial Bias

Affect Trial Judges?”

Watch in class: Dateline NBC “Psychological Disposition in

Black & White” (9:08)

Week 4: Feb 11-13

Tues g. Race and Racism as Culture

Film (in discussion): “Pass or Fail in Cambodia Town” (26:46)

Lee, Jennifer and Min Zhou. “What is Cultural About Asian

American Achievement?”

Patterson, Orlando. “The Real Problem with America’s Inner

Cities”

Moynihan, Daniel “The Case for the Negro Family” (i.e. “The
Moynihan Report”)
**You do not need to read the full report, it is provided for you
to reference in your assignments. For a summary of the report,
see here**

Norton, Michael and Samuel R. Sommers. 2011. “Whites See

Racism as a Zero-Sum Game that They Are Now Losing”
Perspectives on Psychological Science 6(3): 215-218

Thurs h. Immigration and Citizenship

Evelyn Nakano Glenn “Citizenship: Universalism and Exclusion”

(read pages 18-27 ONLY)

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 12

 Shiri Noy “Citizenship, Nationalism, and Human Rights” (261)

+ h. Creating the Perpetual “Other”

Selod, Saher. 2014. “Citizenship Denied: Racialization of Muslim

Men and Women in Post 9/11 America” Critical Sociology

, “Is This a White Country or What?”

Rubin
Film (watch in on your own) Netflix: Amend (Ep 1: Citizen)

Week 5: Feb 18-20

Tues NO CLASS, SUB MONDAY

Thurs i. Structural Racism & Jim Crow

“What My Bike Taught Me About White Privilege”

Ray (269)

Reskin, Barbara. “The Race Discrimination System.” Annual

Review of Sociology 38:17-35

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow

OP-ED #1 DUE FEB 21 11:59pm

Week 6: Feb 25-27

Tues j. The Legacy of Slavery (Leiberman, Robert. “Legacies of

Slavery? Race and
Historical Causation in American Political Development”

St. Claire Drake “White Racism and the Black Experience” (59)

Video (watch on your own) “Slavery by Another Name” (1hr 24

min)
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/watch/

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 13

 1619 Podcast: The Economy That Slavery Built

Thurs k. Unfair Historical Disadvantages

Film (watch on your own): “Banished: How Whites Drove Blacks

Out of Town in America” (1hr 18 min)

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations”

“Where Slavery Thrived, Inequality Rules Today”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/08/23/where-slavery-
thrived-inequality-rules-today/iF5zgFsXncPoYmYCMMs67J/
story.html

Week 7: March 4-6

Tues IN CLASS MIDTERM REVIEW

Thurs MIDTERM EXAM (NO CLASS released at 9am, due 9am 3/7/25)

Week 8: Mar 11-13 NO CLASS- SPRING BREAK WEEK

Week 9: March 18-20

Tues l. Unearned Historical Advantages

Film (watch in class) Race: The Power of an Illusion: The House

We Live In”

Katznelson “When is Affirmative Action Fair?” (391)

Katznelson “When Affirmative Action was White” (Chap 2)

Thurs m. Becoming White

Film (finish on your own): Race: The Power of an Illusion “The

House We Live In”

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 14

 Waters, Mary “Optional Ethnicities”

Brodkin, Karen. “How Did Jews Become White Folks?”

Baldwin, “On Being White and Other Lies”

Week 10: March 25-27

Tues n. The War on “Poverty”

Hinton: “From the War on Poverty to the War on Drugs”

(selected chaps)

The Atlantic: “Mass Incarceration Visualized” (2:33 watch in

class)

Film (watch in class) “Crack” (Netflix)

Thurs o. Wealth and Inequality

Clip (watch in class) in class: Racial Wealth Gap (3:33)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5BvZllI9-U

Black Wealth/ White Wealth: Wealth Inequality Trends ( chapter

1)

Shapiro, Thomas. 2004. The Hidden Cost of Being African-

American pt 1

Film (watch on your own): “Park Avenue: Money, Power & the
American Dream” (53 min)
http://video.pbs.org/video/2300849486/

Week 11: April 1-3

Tues p. Race & Intersectionality Pt 1:

Collins, Patricia Hill. “Toward a New Vision: Race, Class and

Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection”

Higginbotham “The Metalanguage of Race”

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 15

Thurs q. Race & Intersectionality Pt 2:

Film (watch in class) “Paris is Burning” (1 hr 16 min)

Week 12: April 8-10

Tues r. Race & Intersectionality Pt 3: Social Class

Lareau, Annette. Unequal Childhoods (selected pages)

Complete the American Sociological Association Social Class

Inventory
(make notes of inventory items with which you are unfamiliar or
never thought about as related to your social class experience)

Film (watch on your own): “Dropout Nation” (1hr 53min)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dropout-nation/

Thurs s. Institutional Racism in Education

Film: (watch in class): Separate and Unequal

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365289176/ (28 min)

Lewis and Pattison ‘Cracking the Educational Achievement Gap”

(291)

Podcast (listen on your own) “This American Life: Three Miles”

(acts 1: 24 min, act 2: 21min)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/550/
three-miles

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 16

 OP-ED #2 DUE APR 11 11:59PM
Week 13: Apr 15-17

Tues t. Race & Criminal (In)Justice

Clip (watch in class): Alice Goffman TED Talk “How We’re

Priming Some Kids for College and Others for Prison” (16 min)

Pager, Devah. “The Mark of a Criminal Record” (pg 343)

Sampson, Robert and William Julius Wilson, “Toward a Theory

of Race, Crime and Urban Inequality (pg 351)

Film (watch on your own) Frontline: Locked Up (1hr 23min)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/locked-up-in-
america/#prison-state

Thurs u. Institutional Racism in Housing & Neighborhoods

Charles, Camille. 2003. “The Dynamics of Racial Residential

Segregation” (read thru page 176, stop where “Theoretical
Perspectives” section begins. You do not need to read nor learn
the data tables).

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 17

 Sewell, Abigail--A Different Menu: Racial Residential
Segregation and the Persistence of Racial Inequality (pg 279)

Farley, John and Gregory Squires “Fences and Neighbors:

Segregation in 21st Century America”

FILM (Watch on your own): “The Pruitt Igoe Myth” (Kanopy)

Week 14: Apr 22-24

Tues v. Institutional Racism in Employment

Royster, Dierdre A. “Race and the Invisible Hand: How White

Networks Exclude Black Men from Blue-Collar Jobs,” in Race
and Ethnicity in Society: The Changing Landscape, edited by E.
Higginbotham and M.L. Anderson. New York, NY: Wadsworth
Publishing

Bertrand and Mullainthan-- Are Emily and Greg More

Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? (pg 301)

Clip (Watch in Class): “The Jobless Rate for People Like You”

Thurs w. Institutional Racism in Policing and Surveillance

“NYPD Stop and Frisk Fact Sheet”

http://www.nyclu.org/node/1598

Podcast (listen on your own) “T) (prologue: 7.5 min, act 1: 20

min, act 3: 31 min)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/547/
cops-see-it-differently-part-one

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE APR 25

11:59PM

Week 15: Apr 29-May 1

Tues x. Institutional Racism in Policing and Surveillance Pt. II

Film: (watch in class): “The Central Park Five” (1hr 58min)

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 18

Thurs y. Institutional Racism in Health and Healthcare Disparities

Gilbert and Leak-- Root and Structural Causes of Minority

Health and Health Disparities (pg 369)

Gee, Gilbert and Chandra Ford “Structural Racism and Health

Inequities.”

z. Further Instructions on “Race Myth” project

FINAL EXAM Released May 6 9:00am, Due May 7

9:00am

I, PROFESSOR GRUNDY, RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THIS SYLLABUS AT ANY TIME AND WILL
ALWAYS NOTIFY STUDENTS IF/WHEN I DO.

SO/AFAM 207 Prof. Saida Grundy [email protected] 19