The Study of Racism & Its Origin

Fully Online Course

Professor Williams

Professor Williams Contact Information

Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: Mon. Wed. Fri. 3-5pm

Course Description and Goals

Whether we chose to believe or not, everyone participates in the societal system

of racism. The categorization of race along with racism was created long ago and
the system stands to this day. While it is fortunate many people can agree racism
is objectively bad, oftentimes the oppressors and the oppressed cannot identify it
or express how it has evolved. The Study of Racism & Its Origin was designed to
give students the information and tools they need to identify their role in the
societal system they participate in.

Specific Objectives and Goals For the Class

- Define race and racism

- Identify the reasons for the construction of race and the accompaniment of
racism
- Following from its creation, how racism has evolved to its contemporary
form
- Develop fundamental skills for identifying racism in the following
situations
- Media
- Social settings
- Legislation
- Infrastructure
- Institutions
- Global scale
- Understand the varying vocabulary that racism uses to seem nonexistent
*We will be discussing in class why these skills are important for the global
society to obtain. For now, I’m sure everyone has been exposed to the effects of
race and racism. From slight inconvenience to unjust death, black people live
within this social system and have for hundreds of years. Just recently, the
severity of this system has been made aware to millions of people through the
Black Lives Matter Movement. Awareness can only go so far with the amount of
misinformation circulating about racism and how it affects billions of people.

How the Class Works

Every week, students taking the class are to watch pre-recorded lectures, do the
readings, and attend section discussions to prepare for quizzes and write forum
responses.

Course Materials including, pre-recorded lectures, discussion section links, and

forums can be found on the Program Website:

www.studyofracism.com

Readings

- A Selection of Race Theory Texts

- “From the study of racism to de-stigmatization and the transformation of
group boundaries” by Michèle Lamont, Jessica Welburn, Graziella Moraes
Silva, Elisa Reis, Joshua Guetzkow, Nissim Mizrachi & Hanna Herzog
- PDF: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1303183

Assignments and Grading

1. Assignments
a. Students will have to read or hear stories and identify the racism
within that story (varying difficulty) and write a response on their
findings
2. Discussion
 a. Students will be encouraged to discuss their findings openly (as
discussing racism [the system we all participate in whether we like it
or not, should not be taboo. Racism isn’t voldemort! Let’s talk about
it!]
3. Movie and Media
a. Students will be exposed to media that either attempts to hide or
showcase racism and students will be required to write about their
findings for more discussion
i. Black students may sit out on such screenings as being so
young and seeing people that look like you harmed is
traumatic (alternative assignment will be offered to fulfil
grade)
4. Tests
a. Students will be quizzed on different vocabulary and concepts used
throughout the course relating to race and racism so they are better
equipped in society

Grading

Midterm 20%
Final 35%
Discussion (Section) 25%
Homework 10%
Participation in Section 10%
 Weekly Schedule
*for students taking synchronously with live discussion meetings, the weekly
schedule is as follows (may be subject to change)

Part 1 - Identifying Racism

Week 1 - Origins of Race

Week 2 - Ethnicity

Week 3 - National Belonging

Week 4 - Origins of Racism & The Connectivity with the Origins of Race
- Why reverse racism is not a thing, white people cannot experience it

Week 5 - The Evolution of Racism

Part 2 - Finding Racism in Different Parts of the World and Different Aspects of
Life

Week 6 - Racism in Media

Week 7 - Racism in Legislation

Week 8 - Racism in Infrastructure

Week 9 - Racism in Institutions

Week 10 - Racism in Our Global Society

This program has been purchased by universities and schools for students to take
and can be found online for free asynchronously.
 Reflection

As a black student in the American school system, I can say without doubt that

there is not enough being done to rid racism from our society. Just as education is used

as a tool to provide the next and current generations of the knowledge they’ll need to

function in the world, it should also be used to inform people of the system they all

participate in. Last summer, the Black Lives Matter Movement emerged with allies and

adversaries along with it. The issue is, allies and movements don’t help much with the

amount of misinformation circulating about race and racism. These concepts and

systems need to be explicitly defined among the general public if racism is ever to be rid

of in our society. This is where the idea of creating a syllabus for an online class that

anyone can take came in.

I decided to translate a research article from an academic journal about race and

racism in our global society into a syllabus for a class focusing on these topics. The

article, “From the study of racism to de-stigmatization and the transformation of group

boundaries” focused on how to go about the study of racism. Michèle Lamont et. al. were

discussing how, “the United States made African-Americans into a ‘problem’ [and]

addressing that problem is the responsibility of the country as a whole, not of blacks

only.” This is where accessible education comes into play, as everyone should be

involved in unlearning the beliefs that racism has solidified in our society.

I incorporated some of the content of the article into how the class will run. They

discussed the importance of discussion about race and racism and that is emphasized in

the assignments and class grade. Students taking the course synchronously would be

required to attend online discussion sections. Here they will either listen to live

presentations of black people’s experiences or discuss their findings of racism in our

contemporary society within the particular theme of that week. Attending and

participating in discussion makes up the same amount of the grade percentage as the

final exam, which encourages students to see the importance of discussing these topics

respectfully and attentively. Reflecting on these discussions about race is also brought

up in the article and is reflected in the course through the assignments. Students are

required to write about their findings of racism within the theme of the week and these

writings are then shared and discussed among peers. These ideals of discussion and

reflection that were prevalent throughout the research article are what I aimed to

translate into the syllabus and class. I, along with the authors of this article, believe

these are the aspects of the learning environment that teach more people about racism

and specifically how it is different around the globe and has evolved over time.

One of the challenges I faced during the creation of my syllabus and the course

material was thinking of how the class would provide students with the information and

tools needed to navigate the racism in our society. In the powerpoint, “Discovering an

Academic Discipline,” the term “discipline” is defined along with the characteristics of

them. Racism would now be the “object of research” and there would be terminology

and concepts that students are exposed to that help them better communicate in racism

discourse. These are the characteristics I wanted racism to have in the course as it is

something that should be studied by the very people that participate in this system.

Another challenge I was presented with was expressing how studying this

discipline is even important. And why would a syllabus like this even need to be created?

I understand that when converting a text into a new genre I would have to establish the

goals of that genre. This is a critical concept I learned from “Navigating Genre” by Dirk.

Establishing the goal of the syllabus and the why behind taking this course was an
important part of translating the article. I understood that many people might think

with the BLM movement, very little work needs to be done to rid racism and its

consequences from our society. Many people may think making this course mandatory

would be redundant and unnecessary. However, I think with the current state of our

society, where the loss of jobs, homes, and lives can occur as the result of racism in this

world, it should be. This course was designed so that primary and secondary students

could take this class with a schedule and the rest of the world could access it online. For

the translation, I used a brief paragraph after the objectives to reinforce why this course

is needed and why everyone should have to take it. If everyone is going to participate in

the racial system of our society, they should at least understand how it works, where it

came from, and where to find it in their lives.

Another challenge I faced in translating the article’s content and concepts into a

class was exactly how I planned students will learn. I knew what I wanted the students

to understand, but breaking it down into how this would happen in the syllabus was a

genuine challenge. This is when I looked to “Literacy Practices” by Barton and Hamilton

for help in creating a curriculum where students could actually learn skills to identify

racism and how to communicate about it. Just like literacy practices, these skills needed

to be practiced throughout the course and explained on the syllabus. The presentations

and readings are where students would actually absorb the vocabulary and concepts on

race, racism, and black people’s experiences. The discussions and writings are where

students can communicate and talk about these findings and connect how it affects

others. Whether students would take this course through their schools or learn from

home, this design for the course was made so being exposed to race and racism

discourse and communicating within that would be practiced.

 Being a black college student, I wish the concepts from this article and syllabus

weren’t unknown to the general public. Unfortunately, we are in a state in the world

where it is. Although everyone is participating in this racial system, whether they are at

the giving or receiving end of racism, we need to learn more about how racism started,

what function it serves, and how it has evolved over the years in order to rid of it in our

society. This is what I hoped for the translation to this syllabus and the mock-up of this

course could do.

 References

Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (2000). Literacy Practices. In Situated Literacies: Reading

and Writing in Context (pp. 7–15). essay, Routledge.

Dirk, K. (2010). Navigating Genres. In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (Vol. 1, pp.

249–262). essay, Parlor Press.

Fahler, Valentina. (2021). Discovering an Academic Discipline [PowerPoint Slides].

GauchoSpace. https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/

Lamont, M., Welburn, J., Silva, G. M., Guetzkow, J., Mizrachi, N., & Herzog, H. (2017).

From the study of racism to de-stigmatization and the transformation of group

boundaries. Ethnic and Racial Studies: Review, 40(8), 1287–1297.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1303183