St. Cloud State University
General Education Goal Area 7 Designation
Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the U.S.
Academic Affairs Use Only:
Response Date: ______________________
Effective Date: ______________________
1.
Prepared by: Luke Tripp
Phone: 8-3913
Proposal Number: _________________
Email:lstripp@stcloudstate.edu
2.
Requesting Unit: Department of Community Studies
3.
Department, Course Number, Title: CMTY 470/570 The Black Community
4.
New Course
5.
Is this course already designated as a Racial Issues course?
No
X Yes
RIS Proposal Accompanying This Form
6.
Course bulletin description, including credits and semesters to be offered:
Examination and analysis of contemporary issues facing Black American communities. 3 credits. Spring.
7.
Indicate the clientele for whom this course is designed. Is the course for general education only, or
does it fulfill general education and other program needs for this or another department? Obtain
signatures from any affected departments.
Existing Course
X XX
CMTY 470/570 fulfills an elective for the minor and major in the community development program. It
also fulfills the racial issues requirement.
8.
Indicate any changes that must be made in offerings or resources in your department or other
departments by offering this course. None.
9.
For new courses or courses not yet approved for General Education, indicate any other SCSU departments
or units offering instruction that relates to the content of the proposed course.
10.
Courses designated as General Education are included in the assessment plan for the Goal Area(s)
for which they are approved. Courses for which assessment has not included in the annual GE
assessment report for two years will be removed from the General Education Program.
X The Requesting Unit understands and recognizes the above conditions.
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
11.
Provide a concise explanation of how the following goal is a “significant focus” of the proposed course.
Goal Area 7: Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the U.S.
Examine patterns of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States; the heritage, culture, and
contributions of racially subordinated groups; and how race and ethnic relations are embedded in the
institutions that structure our lives.
12. In order for a course to be designated as fulfilling Goal Area 7, it must address at least 5 of the 6 student learning
outcomes (SLOs) below. Check the SLOs below that are focused on in the proposed general education course.
1. X Demonstrate awareness and understanding of historical and current race relations in the United States.
2. X Explain the concept of “race.”
3. X Analyze current events and conditions at the local, statewide, and national levels using course theories and
concepts.
4. X Identify forms of institutional discrimination in areas such as education, media, housing, employment,
economics, politics, and the legal system.
5. X Describe the basic history of discrimination against and contributions of African Americans, Asian
Americans, American Indians, Latinos, and recent immigrants of color.
6. XEngage in dialog and self-reflection concerning racism, racial oppression, and white privilege.
13.
Explain how each of the learning outcomes checked above is achieved by this course.
1. Demonstrate awareness and understanding of historical and current race relations in the United States.
Students will write a critical thought paper on the Black community in America. The thought paper is
conceived of as a tool for the student to use to examine her/his thoughts and reflect on her/his feelings
about the Black community. The research involved in writing the thought paper will, hopefully, help the
student gain a deeper understanding of the contemporary issues and problems. Informed citizens make
better choices. Moreover, the paper is designed to require students to practice disciplined thinking about
her/his personal attitudes and opinions.
2. Explain the concept of “race.”
Students will read articles, listen to lectures, and watch videos that show that African
Americans, a diverse social group marked by a variety of cultural self identities, intellectual
perspectives, political stances, economic achievements, and social practices, share a common
social history in the U.S. and that their lives have been largely shaped by national, state, and
local governments in the United States through the institutionalization of discrimination and
the application of policies based on White supremacy.
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
3. Analyze current events and conditions at the local, statewide, and national levels using course theories and concepts.
Students will learn how to apply conceptual and analytical tools, which will enable them to
understand the nature of the chronic socioeconomic problems in the African American
community and examine how African-Americans have responded to prejudice,
discrimination, and racism in American society.
4. Identify forms of institutional discrimination in areas such as education, media, housing, employment, economics, politics,
and the legal system.
Students will learn concepts including racism, social class, capitalism, prejudice, and
discrimination will be analyzed. The main thrust of the course is an interdisciplinary
examination/exploration of socioeconomic, political and cultural forces that shape the black
community.
5. Describe the basic history of discrimination against and contributions of African Americans, Asian Americans, American
Indians, Latinos, and recent immigrants of color.
Students will study the Black American experience from the point in 1619 when a slave ship arrived in the colony Virginia to
the present in which a Black man is the president of the United States of America. They analyze the social, political and
economic forces that shaped the major historical periods slavery, legal segregation, and the post-segregation era.
6. Engage in dialog and self-reflection concerning racism, racial oppression, and white privilege.
Each student will describe the racial composition of the neighborhoods she/he grew up in and the racial climate in her/his
high school, including the lunchroom situation, and her/his interracial relationships. Students will engage in a dialogue about
their personal encounters or experiences with Black people.
14.
List or attach the Course Outline (adequately described and including percentage of time to be allocated
to each topic). Curriculum Committees may request additional information. Topics larger than 20% need
to be broken down further.
Part I.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
Integration (15%)
Civil Rights, Now and Then
Race and Space
The Politics of Equality
Equality Versus Integration
Should Racial Integration Be Pursued As the Only goal
Progress in Integration Has Been Made
We Aspire to Integration and Practice Pluralism
Part 2. Poverty (15%)
A. Economic Growth and Poverty: Lessons from the 1980s and 1990s
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
B. Welfare Reform and Racial/Ethnic Minorities: The Questions to Ask
C. America’s Fifth Child: It’s Time to End Child Poverty in America
Part 3. Education (15%)
A. The Growing Education Gap
B. Integration Is Not Cultural Assimilation
C. Standards or Standardization?
Part 4. Democratic Participation (15%)
A. New Means for Political Empowerment: Proportional Voting
B. Operating Most Effectively Under the Current System
Part 5. Environmental Justice (15%)
A. Race, Poverty, and Sustainable Communities
B. Race and Poverty Data as a Tool in the Struggle for Environmental Justice
C. Key Research and Policy Issues Facing Environmental Justice
Part 6. Race, Poverty, and . . (15%)
A. Race, Poverty, and the Two-Tiered Financial Services System
B. Race, Poverty, and Corporate Welfare
C. Race, Poverty, and Immigration
Part 7. President’s Clinton’s Initiative on Race (10%)
A. Public Education, Policy Initiatives, Paradigm Shift
B. Acknowledge, Understand White-Skin Privilege
C. Focus on the Institutional Barriers
D. Native Nations Won’t Rally Around “One Nation” Concept
E. “One America”—To What Ends?
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The social contradictions in the United States have sharpened to the point that their effects
are clearly visible to the most casual observer. They are most apparent in the AfricanAmerican community, which suffers from a myriad of systemic problems and dysfunctional
social institutions.
A major premise of the course is that African Americans, a diverse social group marked by a
variety of cultural self identities, intellectual perspectives, political stances, economic
achievements, and social practices, share a common social history in the U.S. and that their
lives have been largely shaped by national, state, and local governments in the United States
through the institutionalization of discrimination and the application of policies based on
White supremacy.
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
This course is designed to provide some conceptual and analytical tools, which will enable
the student to understand the nature of the chronic socioeconomic problems in the African
American community and examine how African-Americans have responded to prejudice,
discrimination, and racism in American society.
Concepts including racism, social class, capitalism, prejudice, and discrimination will be
analyzed. The main thrust of the course is an interdisciplinary examination/exploration of
socioeconomic, political and cultural forces that shape the black community.
In sum, two primary aims of the course are to help the student understand the underlying
causes of the oppressive conditions in the African-American community and to stimulate
ideas and discussion about strategies and social policies which offer ways and methods to
effectively transform the American power structure.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Students will learn to analyze American society from African-American perspectives;
• 2. Students will learn how to develop a conceptual framework for linking racism to the study of
political economy;
• 3. Students will learn about the debate among scholars over the essential qualities or characteristics of
the Black community;
• 4. Students will learn to how to broaden and deepen their understanding of the racial dynamics of
America;
• 5. Students will learn how to relate their own life experiences to the issues and themes in the course
material;
• 6. Students will do assignments that are designed to increase their skills in reading, writing, critical
thinking, logical reasoning, clarifying, summarizing, analyzing, and synthesizing;
• 7. Students will gain knowledge of and appreciation for the basic critical issues which confront
African-Americans today in the United States.
COURSE ASSESSMENT
Learning goals
What do I want my students to learn in my course? Two main objectives of the course are to help
students learn, 1) what constitutes critical thinking, and 2) how to apply critical thinking to the major
issues facing the Black Community.
Oral participation
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Students will learn to engage in critical dialogue. Class activities will be student centered. This means
that the students will be the primary actors, not the instructor. I plan the activity, but the students
perform it. The dynamics of the class are generated through dialogue and dialectical discourse. I
stimulate discussions through Socratic questioning. Students contribute to the dialogue by expressing
their views and subjecting them to critical scrutiny. The seats in the classroom are arranged in the shape
of a horse shoe to facilitate communication among the students and between them and me.
Thought Paper
Students will write a critical thought paper on the Black community in America. The thought paper is
conceived of as a tool for the student to use to examine her/his thoughts and reflect on her/his feelings
about the Black community. The research involved in writing the thought paper will, hopefully, help the
student gain a deeper understanding of the contemporary issues and problems. Informed citizens make
better choices. Moreover, the paper is designed to require students to practice disciplined thinking about
her/his personal attitudes and opinions.
Oral Presentation
It is through practice that students develop their communication skills. Students will make an oral
presentations based on their thought paper. The objective is to help them develop their speaking skills in
delivering a well-planned set of ideas.
These activities together with questions and comments from the instructor and other students are
designed to facilitate dialogue and help the students recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their
arguments and the implicit beliefs and values they hold.
Initial Thought Questions for assessment
On the first day of class I assign a written task that requires the students to explicitly state their general
perspectives on the Black community in America. Students respond to six items or questions that are
constructed to elicit their views and beliefs about critical issues facing the Black community. I will
administer the questionnaire again during the the last week of the semester to measure the the extent to
which the course outcomes were met.
14.
List or attach the Course Outline (adequately described and including percentage of time to be allocated
to each topic). Curriculum Committees may request additional information. Topics larger than 20% need
to be broken down further.
ASSIGNMENTS
Week 1, Jan. 12-16
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Foreword
Congressman John Lewis
Introduction
Chester Hartman
The individual thought paper is due on February 26, 2009.
Part 1. Integration
Civil Rights, Now and Then
Julian Bond
Wake Up, Jared Taylor! America is a Democracy Now!
Howard Winant
Digging Out of the White Trap
Marian (Meck) Groot and Paul Marcus
Response
Chip Berlet and Surina Khan
Race and Space
john a. powell
Telling History on the Landscape
James Wl Loewen
Week 2, Jan. 19-23
"Don't Know Much About History...." Quiz
James W Loewen
Bilingual Education
Bebe Moore Campbell
Symposium: Is Integration Possible?
Editor's Introduction
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race
Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown
Commentaries:
The Politics of Equality
Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-Fishman
Equality Versus Integration
Herbert J. Gans
Viable Integration Must Reject the Ideology of "Assirnilationism"
John O. Calmore
Week 3, Jan. 26-30
A Wake-Up Call for Liberals
Richard D. Kahlenberg
"Now We Are Engaged in a Great Civil War, Testing Whether That Nation, Or Any Nation So Conceived and So
Dedicated, Can Long Endure"
Howard Winant
The Morally Lazy White Middle Class
Robert Jensen
Today's Integration Challenge
Angela E. Oh
Half Full? Half Empty''
James W. Loewen
Needed: An Antiwhite Movement
Noel Ignatiev
Is Integration Possible? Of Course . .
Florence Wagman Roisman
What Is the Question? Integration or Defeat of Racism?
James Early
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Education and Incentives to Actualize Integration
Don DeMarco
Should Racial Integration Be Pursued As the Only Goal?
Joe Feagin and Yvonne Combs
Progress in Integration Has Been Made
George C. Galster
Unillusioned
S.M. Miller
Keeping the Dream
William L. Taylor
Week 4, Feb. 2-6
No One Even Knows What Integration Is
John Woodford
We Aspire to Integration and Practice Pluralism
Frank H. Wu
Integration: The Long Hard Road to the Right Destination
Paul L. Wachtel
The Politics of Perception
Ty dePass
Response to "Is Integration Possible?" Symposium
Leonard Steinhorn
Part 1. Integration
Civil Rights, Now and Then
Julian Bond
Wake Up, Jared Taylor! America is a Democracy Now!
Howard Winant
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Digging Out of the White Trap
Marian (Meck) Groot and Paul Marcus
Response
Chip Berlet and Surina Khan
Race and Space
john a. powell
Telling History on the Landscape
James Wl Loewen
Week 2, Jan. 19-23
"Don't Know Much About History...." Quiz
James W Loewen
Bilingual Education
Bebe Moore Campbell
Symposium: Is Integration Possible?
Editor's Introduction
By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race
Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown
Commentaries:
The Politics of Equality
Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-Fishman
Equality Versus Integration
Herbert J. Gans
Viable Integration Must Reject the Ideology of "Assirnilationism"
John O. Calmore
Week 3, Jan. 26-30
A Wake-Up Call for Liberals
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Richard D. Kahlenberg
"Now We Are Engaged in a Great Civil War, Testing Whether That Nation, Or Any Nation So Conceived and So
Dedicated, Can Long Endure"
Howard Winant
The Morally Lazy White Middle Class
Robert Jensen
Today's Integration Challenge
Angela E. Oh
Half Full? Half Empty''
James W. Loewen
Needed: An Antiwhite Movement
Noel Ignatiev
Is Integration Possible? Of Course . .
Florence Wagman Roisman
What Is the Question? Integration or Defeat of Racism?
James Early
Education and Incentives to Actualize Integration
Don DeMarco
Should Racial Integration Be Pursued As the Only Goal?
Joe Feagin and Yvonne Combs
Progress in Integration Has Been Made
George C. Galster
Unillusioned
S.M. Miller
Keeping the Dream
William L. Taylor
Week 4, Feb. 2-6
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
No One Even Knows What Integration Is
John Woodford
We Aspire to Integration and Practice Pluralism
Frank H. Wu
Integration: The Long Hard Road to the Right Destination
Paul L. Wachtel
The Politics of Perception
Ty dePass
Response to "Is Integration Possible?" Symposium
Leonard Steinhorn
Week 5, Feb. 9-13
Part 2. Poverty
Editor's Introduction
Economic Growth and Poverty: Lessons from the 1980s and 1990s
Jared Bernstein
Welfare Reform and Racial/Ethnic Minorities: The Questions to Ask
Steve Savner
The Outcomes of Welfare Reform for Women
Barbara Gault and Annisah Um'rani
America's Fifth Child: It's Time To End Child Poverty in America
Marian Wright Edelman
Wealth, Success, and Poverty in Indian Country
D. Bambi Kraus
Race and Poverty in the Rural South
Margaret Walsh and Cynthia M. Duncan
Poverty, Racial Discnrnination, and the Family Farm
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Stephen Carpenter
Week 6, Feb. 16-20
Part 3. Education
Editor's Introduction
The Growing Education Gap
Kati Haycock
Symposium: Is Racial Integration Essential to Achieving Quality Education for Low-lncome Minority Students? In
the Short Term ? In the Long Term?
A Case Could Be Made on Either Side
Phyllis Hart and Joyce Germaine Watts
Forced Racial Integration Has Produced Poor Results
Lyman Ho
Upgrade Education in Schools Serving Poor and Minority Children
Kati Haycock
Integration Is Not Cultural Assimilation
john a. powell
All Students Are Not Equal
Sheryl Denbo and Byron Williams
Week 7, Feb. 23-27
Separation, Then Integration
Jilarcelitte Failla
Symposium: The Standards Movement in Education: Will poor and Minority Students Benefit?
The Standards Movement: Another Warning
John Cawthorne
The Standards Movement in Education: A Part of Systemic Reform
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Peter Negroni
Standards or Standardization?
William Ayers
Without Good Assessment, Standards Will Fail
Monty Neill
High-Stakes Testing: Potential Consequences for Students or Color,
English-Language Learners, and Students with Disabilities
Jay P. Heubert
The Education Vision: A Third Tie
S.M. Miller
Week 8, Mar. 2-6
Part 4. Democratic Participation
Editor's Introduction
Why Not Democracy?
David Kairys
New Means for Political Empowerment: Proportional Voting
Douglas J. Amy, Fred McBride, and Robert Richie
Race, Poverty, and the "Wealth Primary"
Jamin B. Raskin
Week 9, Mar. 9-13 SPRING BREAK
Week 10, Mar. 16-20
Commentaries:
Operating Most Effectively Under the Current System
Ellen Malcolm
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
"We've Closed Down"
Hollywood Women's Political Committee
"Not the Rich, More Than the Poor": Poverty, Race, and Campaign Finance Reform
John C. Bonifa
I Am a Product of the Voting Rights Act!
Cynthia A. McKinney
Week 11, Mar. 23-27
Part 5. Environmental Justice
Editor's Introduction
Race, Poverty, and Sustainable Communities
Carl Anthony
Race and Poverty Data as a Tool in the Struggle for Environmental Justice
Kary L. Moss
Analysis of Racially Disparate Impacts in the Siting of Environmental Hazards
Thomas J. Henderson David S. Bailey, and Selena Mendy Singleton
The Street, the Courts, the Legislature, and the Press: Where Environmental Struggles Happen
Rachel Godsil
The Truth Won't Set You Free (But It Might Make the Evening News): The Use of Demographic Information in
Struggles for Environmental Justice in California
Luke W. Cole
Key Research and Policy Issues Facing Environmental Justice
Bunyan Bryant
Week 12, Mar. 30- April 3
Part 6. Race, Poverty, and ...
Editor's Introduction
Race, Poverty, and the Two-Tiered Financial Services System
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Robert D. Manning
Race, Poverty, and Transportation
Rich Stolz
Race, Poverty, and Corporate Welfare Greg
LeRoy
Race, Poverty, and the Militarized Welfare State
Bristow Hardin
Week 13, April 6-10
Race, Poverty, and the Federal Reserve System
Tom Schlesinger
Race, Poverty, and Social Security
john a. powell
Race, Poverty, and Immigration
Arnoldo Garcia
Race, Poverty, and Globalization
john a. powell and SP. Udayakumar
Week 14, April 13-17
Part 7. President Clinton's Initiative on Race
Editor's Introduction
Notes on the President's Initiative on Race
Chester Hartman
The Speech President Clinton Should Have Made
Howard Winant
Symposium: Advice to the Advisory Board
Public Education, Policy Initiatives, Paradigm Shift
Raul Yzaguirre
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Needed: An Educational "Bible"
Marcus Raskin
Plessy v. Ferguson Lives
Jonathan Kozol
Acknowledge, Understand White-Skin Privilege
Julian Bond
An Action Agenda
Hugh Price
Focus on the Institutional Barriers
Manning Marable
Knitting the Nation
S.M. Miller
A Ten-Point Plan
Peter Dreier
Needed: A Focus on the Intersection of Race and Poverty
Peter Edelman
Conversation Is Far from the Central Issue
Howard Zinn
If Not Action on Race, Then Straight Talk
Herbert J. Gans
Fantasy Moral Capital
Benjamin DeMott
Escaping Clinton's Control
Frances Fox Piven
. . . And Interracial Justice For All
Michael Omi
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Week 15, April 20-24
First Peoples First
Lillian Wilmore
Conversation Doesn't Pay the Rent
William L. Taylor
Spotlight Bigotry's Covert Expression
David K Shipler
A Lesson Plan for Thinking and Talking About Race
Theodore M. Straw
Symposium: Comments on the Advisory Board Report
Neither Praise Nor Burial
S.M. Miller
Where Is the Declaration of War?
Bill Ong Hing
Not a Word of Criticism of Clinton
Clarence Lusane
No Surprises
Frances Fox Piven
Week 16, April 27 - May 1
Native Nations Won't Rally Around "One Nation" Concept
Lillian Wilmore
"One America" Needs To Be More Than a Nice Slogan
FrankH. Wu
Politainrnent and an Extended Renaissance Weekend
Marcus Raskin
"One America"&emdash;To What Ends?
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee
Sam Husseini
There's No Racial Justice Without Economic Justice
Peter Dreier
Draft 8/09 General Education Committee