CAL Experience: AFRAS 421, Fall 2015: Course Syllabus
Africana Studies 421: Black Urban Experience: # Black Lives Matter
Schedule # 20115
LL 406, TH 4-6:40 pm
Instructors: Dr. Antwanisha Alameen-Shavers, Dr. Adisa Alkebulan, Professor Delores Fisher,
Dr. Shoshana Grossbard, Dr. Madhavi McCall, Dr. Paul Minifee, Dr. Francis Nesbitt, Dr.
Charles Toombs
Office: AL 373-A
Phone: 594-6532 or 594-6531
Office Hours: TTH 10 am – 1:00pm and by appointment
Email: ctoombs@mail.sdsu.edu
Required Texts:
Assigned Readings are posted on Blackboard under Course Documents. You must read the
assigned readings prior to the instructor’s presentation
Catalog Description: Major social science literature of international Black urban experience.
Behavior, culture, and oppressions unique to urban environment.
Course Description:
AFRAS 421 studies major social science literature and other phenomena of the black urban
experience. This semester the course focuses on subjects related to the Black Lives Matter
Movement and the continuing institutional oppressions African Americans face in the United
States. In particular, the course focuses on the many ways that African Americans living in cities
have experienced and are experiencing oppression and marginalization in some of the most basic
areas necessary for productive and healthy living. Crucial to understanding this second-class
citizenship (or Urban Plantation as Robert Staples calls it) is a consideration of racism and
discrimination (based upon race, gender, class, education, and age, among others). Although this
course devotes a significant amount of its attention to an examination of oppressions unique to
the urban environment, it also examines the strategies and triumphs of black urban dwellers who
resist systemic oppressions (The Black Lives Matter National Movement is the most poignant
recent example) and who manage, in spite of a number of social injustices, to survive in largely
healthy ways. Major subjects this course interrogates are: historical examples of black activism,
institutional racism in schools, housing, employment, criminal justice, urban activism, black
youth, African Americans and the Courts, mass incarceration, sexual violence against black
women, politics, economics of marriage markets, and invisible African Americans, among
others.
This is a General Education Explorations course in Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Completing this course will help you learn to do the following with greater depth: 1) explore and
recognize basic terms, concepts, and domains of the social and behavioral sciences; 2)
comprehend diverse theories and methods of the social and behavioral sciences; 3) Identify
human behavioral patterns across space and time and discuss their interrelatedness and
distinctiveness; 4) enhance your understanding of the social world through the application of
conceptual frameworks from the social and behavioral sciences to first-hand engagement with
contemporary issues.
Course Learning Outcomes:
1. Explain, analyze, and assess major scholarly literature that attempts to explain black urban
experience on two examinations and the final examination, and in the course research essay;
2. Describe, explain, and assess major issues, concerns, and problems confronting blacks in the
United States, as these relate to employment (unemployment, and under-employment),
economics, education, criminal justice, police brutality, violence against black women, the
courts, politics;
3. Describe, analyze, explain and assess major acts of black resistance to urban oppression,
marginalization, and institutional racism;
4. Describe, explain, and analyze in writing major ideas, problems, issues, and successes related
to the contemporary black urban experience, to Black Lives Matter;
5. Research, plan, and write a scholarly-based, 8-10 pages essay on a specific topic of the Black
Lives Matter/ black urban experience, demonstrating knowledge of research techniques,
documentation, organization, and the mechanics of effective writing.
6. Explain, describe, and assess in oral presentations the results of your research for your course
research essay.
Department Objectives:
Objective 2:2 Explain the political, economic and social movements for liberation of African
people worldwide
Objective 2:4 Understand the cultural reconstruction taking place throughout the African world
Objective 3:3 Explain the role of Africana worldview in contemporary society
Objective 4:1 Analytically present and support an argument
Objective 4:2 Critique the ideas and opinions of others
Objective 4:3 Write and present a cohesive argument demonstrating knowledge of research
techniques, documentation, organization and the mechanics of writing
Accessibility:
Students who need accommodation of their disabilities should contact me privately to discuss
specific accommodations for which they have received authorization. If you have a disability,
but have not contacted Student Disability Services at 619-5946473 (Calpulli Center, Suite 3101),
please do so before making an appointment to see me.
Attendance:
A student who has more than one unexcused absence will find it difficult to pass this course.
Un-excused absence # 2 will lower the student’s final grade by five points. Un-excused absence
# 3 will lower the grade by another five points, and so on. The point: if you want to succeed in
this course, you will need to attend regularly, actively participate, and be prepared.
Other Requirements:
1. Late assignments will not be accepted and make-up exams will not be given without my prior
consent (unless an emergency occurs that prevents you from notifying me ahead of time).
2. Come to class on time and leave when the class is completed.
3. Do not sleep in this class.
4. Do not text-message during class.
5. Please be courteous and respectful to fellow classmates and the instructors at all times.
6. Plagiarism is serious. Please read the section on plagiarism in the SDSU 2015-2016 General
Catalog. If you have any questions about plagiarism, please ask.
Grading and Testing:
Prospectus of Research Essay = 5 %
Outline of Research Essay = 10 %
Two (2) Examinations (short answer and objective) = 30 %
Final Examination (short answer and objective) = 20 %
Research Essay = 25 %
Oral Presentation of Research from your Course Essay = 5%
Class Participation = 5%
Total = 100%
A(95-100); A-(90-94); B+(86-89); B(83-85); B-(80-82); C+(76-79); C(73-75); C-(70-72);
D+(66-69); D(63-65); D-(60-62); F(0-59)
Course Outline:
Week 1, Aug. 27:
Africana Studies Faculty
What Led to Black Lives Matter Activism and Protest?
Introduction to course and Video Presentation
Bring to class ideas and/or personal experiences of major problems, issues,
and/or successes of blacks in urban areas and any questions for instructors.
Week 2, Sept. 3:
Dr. Paul Minifee, Rhetoric and Writing Studies
“Black Lives, White Allies: Rhetoric of Righteous Resistance”
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):
Understand the historical and cultural context of the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850 and how it threatened the relationships between fugitive slaves and
white abolitionists.
Learn how African American fugitive slaves effectively utilized rhetorical
strategies to garner support from white allies who fought alongside them
against the government.
Week 3, Sept 10:
Dr. Madhavi McCall, Associate Dean CAL and Political Science
“African Americans and the Courts—the Road to Civil Rights”
SLOs:
Learn to think critically about the role of the U.S. judiciary in the fight
for civil rights in America. Learn how to read and interpret Supreme Court
cases and to analyze the role of past precedents in the evolution of the law.
Compare and contrast liberal/conservative judicial preferences and
analyze how these personal preferences are reflected in legal doctrine.
Identify and define principles like equal protection, due process, and
judicial review.
Week 4, Sept 17:
Dr. Adisa Alkebulan, Africana Studies
“Mass Incarceration”
SLOs:
Evaluate the relationships between enslavement, Jim Crow and mass
incarceration.
Demonstrate critical thinking skills and the ability to construct sound
arguments on the issues of enslavement, Jim Crow and mass
incarceration.
Week 5, Sept 24:
Dr. Adisa Alkebulan, Africana Studies
“War on Drugs”
Week 6, Oct. 1:
EXAM # 1
DUE Prospectus for Research Essay
Week 7, Oct. 8:
Dr. Francis Nesbitt, Africana Studies
“Black Politics in the Obama Era”
SLOs:
Learn how to identify the historical connections between the Obama era
and the past; explore the meaning of terms such as colorblindness,
postracialism, deracialization and transracialism; and study the Obama
administration’s actions on key issues such as police brutality and mass
incarceration.
Week 8, Oct. 15:
Dr. Shoshana Grossbard, Economics
“Marriage Markets and Black/White Differences in Women’s Labor
Supply, Fertility, and Household Production”
SLOs:
Week 9, Oct. 22:
Dr. Antwanisha Alameen-Shavers, Africana Studies
“Black Women, Rape, and Racial Solidarity”
SLOs:
Understand how systemic racism has impacted the lives of Black Women.
Comprehend the ways in which rape culture affects Black Women.
Week 10, Oct. 29:
Professor Delores Fisher, Africana Studies
“Invisible Voices: Cultural Practices and African Americans with
Disabilities”
SLOs:
Identify three ways in which conflicting identity intersection contributes
to socio-political oppression in the lives of African Americans with
disabilities.
Week 11, Nov. 5:
Exam # 2
DUE: Detailed Written Outline of Research Essay
Week 12, Nov. 12:
Dr. Charles Toombs, Africana Studies
“Public Education’s Failure of African American Students, K-12”
SLOs:
Identify, explain, define, and assess major institutional impediments to
success of African American students in public schools, such as
standardized testing, “No Child Left Behind” and “Common Core”
educational policies, language and cultural barriers and practices, lack of
African American teachers, especially black male teachers and support
staff, public funding, School to Prison Pipeline, and others.
Explain and assess research studies/models that identify effective
pedagogy and practices that lead to the delivery of quality education to
African American students and to their success as students, such as
Africana Studies/culturally-based curriculum, culturally literate teachers,
and the use of a variety of assessment instruments and approaches to
teaching.
Week 13, Nov. 19:
Student Presentations of Research, Five minutes per student
Thanksgiving Holiday November 27
Week 14, Dec. 3:
Student Presentations of Research, Five minutes per student
DUE: Research Essay (also submitted to Turnitin)
Week 15, Dec. 10:
Faculty Panel Discussion
Last day of class
Final Examination: Thursday, December 17, 4-6 pm (1600-1800)