Myths About Equality: Age,
Race, and Class
In a world of contradictions, how then shall we live?
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Holy Cross College
Fall 1997
Office Hours. My office is on the second floor of Beaven, Room
211. I will hold routine office hours on Monday, 10 to noon, and
Tuesday and Thursday 9:30 to 10:30. For one of these hours (Tuesday
9:30-10:30) I will be in the FYP office in Hanselman, not Beaven.
If your classes are at these times or we otherwise conflict, please make
an appointment for another time. My voice mail is 793-3468, and my
e-mail address is ethompson@holycross.edu.
Objectives of the Course
Course Texts
Course Requirements
Semester Outline of Readings
Projects
OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
This is the first course in a two-semester sequence within the First
Year Program. In this course we examine some of the social inequalities
that pervade our society and organize our daily lives. Both courses
are designed to expose the invisible dimensions of social structure that
determine not only what we do and say but what we value and who we become.
Because we are surrounded by the architecture of society, we spend most
of our lives responding to the influence of social institutions and large
organizations. From the nurturing surroundings of families and friends,
class- rooms, and churches to stolid bureaucracies and loosely configured
communities, we experience social realities that define truth, affirm identities,
and control imagination.
This first course introduces you to the art of thinking sociologically.
According to the sociological perspective, reality is not something that
exists out there, awaiting discovery. Reality is social and constructed
by us. My primary objective is to introduce you to the social worlds
you and others inhabit, and to accomplish this, you will analyze these
worlds through observation, hypothesis- testing, and rethinking.
I intend to help you discover the impact of social structure on your own
life and on others. Doing this, you will confront the discipline
of sociology
-- what it studies and how it does research.
Across the semester, you will become acquainted with several major theoretical
stances because we examine what sociologists
study. We will examine the perspectives of micro sociology, which
focus on social life up close (e.g., individuals and their immediate social
surroundings), and the perspectives of macro sociology, which aim to make
sense of more enduring social structures (such as social class) and social
institutions (such as patriarchy). During the semester, you will
research first-hand how traditions and existing social structures mold
people's ideas, feelings, thoughts, behavior, and beliefs; we examine patterns
of social inequality; we, "In a world of contradictions, how then shall
we live?"
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COMMON TEXTS** and COURSE TEXTS
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Friedan, Betty.
1993. The fountain of age. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
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Feagin, Joe R., & Sikes, Melvin P. 1994. Living with
racism: The black middle-class experience. Boston:
Beacon Press.
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Jen,
Gish. 1997. Mona in the promised land. New
York: Vintage Books.**
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Rubin, Lillian. 1995. Families on the fault line.
New York: HarperCollins.
ADDITIONAL READINGS
Regularly, there are chapters and articles assigned which are only
available in the Reserve Room of Dinand library. The authors and
articles are designated on the syllabus.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This should be an intriguing, albeit demanding course. The FYP
is designed to bust the boundaries between a classroom and the campus,
campus and community, faculty and student worlds, and so on. Responsibilities
are to:
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read assigned material beforehand and attend classes prepared to participate
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participate in three of the "doing sociology" projects
and submit a short 5-7 page paper for each
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maintain a sociological journal (series of essays)
of at least 1 entry each week of 2-3 pages
-
become active in the on-line discussion group
PARTICIPATION
Regular class attendance is, of course, expected. To do well
in the course, whether measured by the amount of learning you experience
or the grade you eventually earn, essentially requires that you keep up
with the assigned readings, attend class prepared, and participate in discussions.
This course makes or breaks itself in the way students participate.
The readings I have selected facilitate discussions. But if the course
is to be appreciated and remembered as a good learning experience, the
work load rests on all of us as a group. This course essentially
succeeds or fails based on the preparation of the entire group. If
necessary quizzes will be introduced to confirm preparation. In class
you are encouraged to ask questions, make comments, initiate or join in
an ad hoc debate, and bring issues to the attention of the class.
Fifteen percent of the course grade is determined by your participation.
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RESEARCH PROJECTS
Participation extends to becoming actively involved in "doing sociology."
There are several research projects which are integrated into the course
to assist discussion and encourage you to actively examine your social
worlds. Your participation in each project entails some type
of hands-on research. Participation in three projects is expected,
and each project and paper is worth 15% of the course grade. Rewrites
of a paper is assured.
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SOCIOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Throughout the semester, you are expected to keep a sociological journal.
The purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to become critically
aware of how social structures shape your knowledge, beliefs, identity,
feelings, ideas, tastes, and so on. The journal becomes a collection
of brief essays. Its entries demonstrate your use of the sociological
perspective. This is not a diary. It is a collection of critically
reflective 2-3 page "papers" which reveal your insights into your social
world and your ability to apply what you are learning from the course to
issues and events outside the classroom. Your journal is worth 40%
of the course grade, rewrites of individual entries are often encouraged,
and I will collect your journal every other week. Additional comments
and guidelines will be discussed in class.
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ON-LINE DISCUSSION
We have an opportunity to extend classroom discussion beyond the walls
of the classroom as well as discuss topics and issues never raised during
class time. The forum is an electronic discussion
group which has been set up for the FYP. Although any Holy Cross
student (FYP or not) can become involved in these discussions, I want my
students to use the forum to talk about course-relevant and FYP-relevant
experiences—whether it is your second and third thoughts about a class
discussion, a reaction to a recent news presentation, your opinions about
a common or shared FYP event, a campus event, magazine article, etc.
The discussion group is not an on-line chat-room; it is a bulletin board
where you leave comments and replies to existing conversation "threads"
or you start a new conversation thread. I see this as the group’s
electronic "journal."
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COURSE OUTLINE
Part I. Thinking Sociologically
Reexamining a Familiar World
The sociological perspective invites us to look beyond the
obvious, searching for the invisible boundaries and rules of social organization.
What does the world look like through the eyes of a sociologist?
What will the course cover? What are the requirements for students?
What can you expect to gain?
Sept 2:
Introduction to the course
Reading: Kelman
& Hamilton, "The My Lai massacre" (handout)
Film:
Milgram, Obedience
Becoming Aware of Social Context
The sociological perspective invites us to look beyond the obvious,
searching for the invisible rules of social organization which direct social
behavior. How is meaning socially constructed, and what bearing has
social structure on experience? What distinguishes sociology, what
are the central questions raised, and what pitfalls might arise from a
false belief in over-socialization? Why do you think that the psychosocial
interiors of groups differ so, yet are sociologically so similar?
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Sept 4: Building
reality
Reading: Smith & Kleinman,
"Medical students’contacts with living & dead," (on reserve)
Turner and Edgley, "Death as theater" (on reserve)
Chambliss, "The routinization of disaster" (on reserve)
Hochschild, "Managing feeling" (on reserve)
-
Sept 9:
Discovering the underlying order
Reading: Mills, "The sociological
imagination" (on reserve)
Ritzer, "The credit card: Private troubles and public issues" (on reserve)
Moffatt, "What college is really like" (on reserve)
Project 1: Norm violation discussion
Ideologies, Identities, and Constructed Realities
How thoroughly are culture and social structure integrated? Is
ideology and culture more powerful than biology? How much importance
do social scientists attribute to the power of false beliefs and stereotypes,
to the process of labeling, and to learning to conform? Why has aging
and later life emerged as a troubling mystique which discriminates?
How is ageism similar to sexism?
-
Sept 11: Modernity
& the construction of identities
Reading: Gordon,
"Women in early American industry" (on reserve)
Kett, "The stages of life" (on reserve)
Gerson, "No man’s land" (on reserve)
-
Sept 14: FYP
Trip--Lowell National Park
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Sept 16: Reconstructing
age identities, I
Reading: Friedan,
The fountain of age
Contemplating Cornell
boxes and Lowell
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Sept 17: Meet
the author: Betty Friedan
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Sept 18: Reconstructing
age identities, II
Reading: Friedan,
The fountain of age
Project
2: Media images of elders discussion
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Sept 23: Building
gender & other identities, I
Reading:
LeVine & White, "The social construction of childhood" (on reserve)
Lorber, "‘Night to his day’: Social construction of gender" (on reserve)
Strauss, "Turning points in identity" (on reserve)
Film:
Kilborne, Still Killing Us Softly
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Sept 25:
Building gender & other identities, II
Reading: Jen,
Mona and the promised land
Sept 30:
Building gender & other identities, III
Reading:
Jen, Mona and the promised land
Project 2: Media images of youth discussion
Lecture:
Meet the author: Gish Jen
Part II. Macrosociology: Analyzing Social Structure
Social Stratification and Class Inequalities
What is socioeconomic stratification, and how are class, power,
and privilege interwoven? Social mobility: Is there really such a
thing as rags to riches? What is life like in the working class?
the middle class? How wide spread is the inequality of income?
How do class inequalities
yield different social worlds and opportunities?
Oct 2:
Architecture of inequality: Power, class, and privilege
Reacting to Gish Jen
Reading:
Weber, "Class, status, party" (on reserve)
deTocqueville, Democracy in America, pp. 452-454
Mantsios, "Media magic: Making class invisible" (on reserve)
Rubin, Families on the fault line, Chapters 1-3
Oct 7:
Class inequalities, Part I
Reading : Dudley,
"Dollars and diplomas" (on reserve)
Oct 9:
Class inequalities, Part II
Reading: Ryan,
Equality, Chapter 1 (on reserve)
deTocqueville, Democracy in America, pp. 503-508, 572-580
Consumers Report, "Life at the edge" (recommended, on reserve)
Project 3: Family lifestyle discussions
Oct 14:
Columbus Day Break
Oct 16:
Class inequalities, Part III
Reading:
Domhoff, "The American upper class" (on reserve)
Domhoff, "The Bohemian grove" (on reserve)
Graham, "Invisible man: Undercover at all-white Connecticut country club"
(on reserve)
deTocqueville, Democracy in America, pp. 509-517, 525-534, 604-608
Project 3: Family lifestyle discussions continued
Democracy in America and Continuing Effects of Modernity (or
"Restlessness")
The values of individualism and democracy and the taste of
prosperity become powerful social forces underlying the lives of "The Amercians,"
as deTocqueville
called us. He writes (pp. 536-537): "In certain remote corners
of the Old World you may sometimes stumble upon little places which seem
to have been forgotten among the general tumult and which have stayed still
while all around them moves." But that does not characterize "The
Americans." What is this modernity, and why is it so troubling?
(A different deTocqueville
link).
Oct 21:
deTocqueville, Democracy
in America, pp. 9-20, 31-57, 61-70, 231-241, 246-253, 286-301
Oct 22:
deTocqueville conference
Oct 23:
deTocqueville, Democracy in America, pp. 429-436, 442-452, 459-470,
525-530, 584-603, 702-705
Oct 26:
FYP Trip--Newport Mansions and Community
Race and Ethnicity
What determines racial
and ethnic inequality in American society? What is the distinction
among institutional racism, individual racist behavior, and symbolic racism?
What constitutes a culture of poverty explanation v. blaming the victim?
What is the experience of being "different" everyday of your life?
Oct 28:
Excursus: Symbolic racism
Reading:
Rubin, Families on the fault line, Chapters 8-11
Oct 30:
Systematic & Institutional Racism, I
Reading:
Brandt, "The case of the Tuskegee
Syphilis Study" (on reserve)
Taylor, "Black males and social policy" (on reserve)
Film:
Oprah Winfrey, White Civil Rights
Nov 4:
Systematic & Institutional Racism, II
Reading:
Kingston, China Men, pp. 152-159, 85-118, 125-151
Chinese Exclusion Act
Nov 6:
Systematic & Institutional Racism, III
Reading:
Kingston, China Men, pp. 3-73
Nov 11:
Excursus: Symbolic racism revisited
Project 4: The prominence of symbolic racism
Nov 13:
The black middle-class
Reading:
Feagin & Sikes, Living with racism, Chapters 1-3
Nov 18:
Gerontological Society of American meetings, no class
Nov 20:
The black middle-class
Reading:
Feagin & Sikes, Living with racism, remainder of book
Film:
ABC News, True Colors
Nov 25:
Legacies of instititutional racism
Reading:
Guterson, Snow falling on cedars, Chapters 1-11
Japanese American
Internment
Japanese
American Internment, Santa Clara Valley
War
Relocation Authority Camps, Arizona
Japanese
American Internment, Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington
Nov 27:
Thanksgiving Break
Dec 2:
Legacies of instititutional racism
Reading:
Guterson, Snow falling on cedars, Chapters 12-19
Dec 4:
Legacies of instititutional racism
Reading:
Guterson, Snow falling on cedars, remainder of book
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