Communication and Cultural Diversity -- Fall 2001 -- Syllabus

Communication 3710 // Africana Studies 3710
Communication and Cultural Diversity
Fall 2001

G'han Singh
CIS 3068 // 974-2145 // grseyb5@aol.com
office hours: Tu, W 5-6p or by appointment

Gil Rodman
CIS 3040 // 974-3025 // gbrodman@mindspring.com
office hours: Th 4-6p or by appointment

This course satisfies 3 hours of the Social Science requirement in the USF Liberal Arts Curriculum. Specific dimensions of the curriculum addressed include (1) values and ethics, (2) race and ethnicity, and (3) gender. This course will require students to demonstrate competence in both written and oral communication skills, and will emphasize conceptual, analytical, and creative thinking.

course description and objectives

We live in a society where questions of difference and diversity play an increasingly central role in debates over cultural values, public policy, and the shape of our daily lives. This is a course devoted to exploring many of these questions in depth. While "cultural diversity" encompasses a broad range of subjects -- including social divisions based on religion, age, geography, language, etc. -- our primary focus this semester will be on the categories of:

class
race and ethnicity
gender
sexual orientation

Barring a small miracle or three, we will not solve any of the social, cultural, and political problems that lie at the heart of this class. This course is not designed, however, to provide you with the "right" answers, as much as it is intended to make you think critically about the issues involved. Regardless of who you are or what you may believe at the start of the semester, this course will challenge (and perhaps even change) your current way of looking at US culture and the diverse populations that call the US home.

WARNING!!!

The subjects that we'll be discussing this semester are, without exception, controversial ones. As a result, many of our class sessions will generate heated arguments, and it's possible that you'll walk away from one or more of our meetings feeling angry, frustrated, and/or offended. Nevertheless, we expect all of our conversations to be characterized by mutual respect. Impassioned arguments and strongly expressed opinions are perfectly acceptable in this class; verbal bullying and personal attacks, on the other hand, will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

required course materials

Books.
- Maurice Berger, White Lies
- Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickeled and Dimed
- Jim Goad, The Redneck Manifesto
- bell hooks, Where We Stand
- Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff, Created Equal
- Katha Pollitt, Subject to Debate
- Paula Rothenberg, Race, Class, and Gender in the United States
- Patricia J. Williams, Seeing a Color-Blind Future
Available at:
- Books for Thought, 10910 N. 56th Street, Tampa (988-6363, bft2@juno.com)
- Inkwood Books, 216 S. Armenia, Tampa (253-2638, inkwoodbks@aol.com
Reliable, regular access to the World Wide Web. Because more than half of your written work will be submitted online, you will not be able to complete the course successfully without being able to access the Web on a consistent basis.

grading schedule

	Attendance	10%
	In-class participation	10%
	Blackboard Discussion Board participation	10%
	Annotated current events journal	10%
	Case studies	30% (10% each)
	Final paper	15%
	Group performance	15%

Final semester grades will not use the plus/minus grading system.

All your work for this course will be graded by both instructors.

attendance/in-class participation/quizzes

Because issues will be raised in class that will not necessarily be obvious from the readings alone, it's important that you show up every time we meet and that you do so on time. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class period, and absences, late arrivals, and early departures will all count against you. If you accumulate more than 1.5 weeks in unexcused absences, we reserve the right to lower your semester grade by more than 10%.

Our class sessions will be structured almost exclusively around group discussions. It will thus be more enjoyable for all of us (and you'll do better) if you (1) attend class regularly, (2) do the required reading and (3) be prepared to discuss what we've read.

written assignments

General rules

Except for the Annotated Current Events Journal, all your written work must be submitted online in the appropriate forums on the Blackboard Discussion Board. The lengths listed below are estimates of how much you'll need to write to complete the assignments well. We will not automatically penalize shorter papers, but it's unlikely that you will be able to do "A" work if your papers are shorter than the suggested length.
All your work must be posted to the course website by 5 pm (as timestamped by Blackboard) on the appropriate due dates. Late work will generally not be accepted except in cases of genuine emergency. In the event that we do accept late work, we reserve the right to reduce its grade in direct proportion to its lateness. The minimum penalty in all such cases will be one full letter grade.
As a safety precaution, you should always keep at least a hard copy -- and preferably a hard copy and a disk copy -- of any written work you hand in.

Annotated current events journal (10%) -- due dates: Oct 16, Dec 11
Each student will be required to keep an ongoing current events journal consisting of news items pertinent to diversity issues that surface in the print media. You will be responsible for compiling a total of 15-20 such news items from your choice of periodicals, and will submit these together with your written annotation, or commentary, twice during the semester.

Case studies (10% each) -- due dates: Oct 2, Oct 30, Nov 20, Dec 11
Over the course of the semester, we will post four case studies involving cultural diversity issues to the course website. For each case study you do (and you are required to do three of the four), your task will be to write up a 1500-1750 word report that outlines the most important arguments from each side of the case (~250 words each), and that makes an argument (1000-1250 words) for the best solution to the case.

Final paper (15%) -- due date: Dec 11
This assignment requires you to write an essay of 1500-2000 words that presents a critical reflection on the course as a whole and the various issues raised in the assigned readings and our discussions.

Group performance (15%) -- due date: Dec 11
At the end of the semester, each student will be required to join several classmates in developing a final small group performance that deals with any of the many diversity issues that we cover during the course. These performances are mandatory for all students, and will take place during finals week.

N.B.: Further details about each of the assignments listed above will be made available on separate handouts.

Blackboard Discussion Board participation

The Blackboard site for this class can be reached by going to:

http://blackboard.acomp.usf.edu/

From there, you should click on the button labeled "Login." You will be prompted for a username and password (both of which we will provide you with during our first class session). Once logged in, you will be taken to your "myUSF" portal page, which will contain links for all the Blackboard sites associated with any courses you're taking this semester -- including this one.

The primary purpose of the Discussion Board (DB) is to provide an informal space that's always available for discussion of the issues raised by the assigned readings and in our class meetings. Because discussions of this sort tend to be freeform in nature, there is no easy-to-summarize formula for assessing your Discussion Board grade. The minimum contribution to receive a passing grade, however, will be ten substantial (i.e., more than a paragraph long) posts spread out over the course of the semester. A more detailed explanation of how this portion of your grade will be calculated is available on a separate handout.

You must make your first on-topic post to the Discussion Board by the start of class on 11 September. The penalty for missing this deadline will be a grade point for every week or fraction thereof that you're late (e.g., not posting for the first time until 19 September will mean that the best you can do for this portion of your grade is an 8 out of 10).
Over the course of the semester, we will place at least ten "virtual lectures" on the course website under the "Lectures" heading. You are required to respond to each of at least three of those virtual lectures with a post to the appropriate Discussion Board forum (i.e., one post/virtual lecture, as opposed to one post that responds to three virtual lectures at once). The applicable penalty here will be a grade point for every post short of three that you fall (e.g., making only one virtual lecture post will mean that your maximum Discussion Board grade will be an 8 out of 10).

Should any of the penalties described above come into play, they will be applied to the top end of the scale: i.e., they lower the maximum credit you can receive for this portion of the course, rather than subtracting points from the score you earn otherwise.

N.B.: Your case studies and your final papers (which have their own DB forums) do not count towards your Discussion Board participation grade.

miscellaneous

The purchase and/or sale of either written notes or audio recordings of our class meetings is strictly prohibited.
Cell phones, beepers, pagers, etc. are to be turned off or set to vibrate silently before you come to class. If your phone rings or if your beeper/pager goes off loudly enough to be heard during class, you will be required to leave immediately and you will not receive credit for attending or participating in class that day. [Students who have children under the age of 18 (and who need to leave their phones (etc.) on in the event of potential childcare emergencies) are the sole exception to this policy.]
In keeping with the University Policy on Religious Observances, students who anticipate being absent from class due to a major religious observance must provide notice to us in writing by 4 September explaining which class period(s) you expect to miss and why.

introduction
Aug 28

Subject to Debate: "Race and Gender and Class, Oh My!" (216-219)

class
Sep 4

Where We Stand (vii-37)
Subject to Debate: "Beggar's Opera" (31-34); "The Violence of Ordinary Life" (83-86); "Paula Jones, Class Act?" (160-163); "Poverty: Fudging the Numbers" (238-241); "Let Them Sell Lemonade" (257-259); "Home Discomforts" (291-293); "The Politics of Personal Responsibility" (318-320)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Gans, "Deconstructing the Underclass" (80-86); Sklar, Collins, & Leondar-Wright, "The Growing Wealth Gap" (267-272); National Committee on Pay Equity, "The Wage Gap: Myths and Facts" (292-304); Newman, "What Scholars Can Tell Politicians About the Poor" (315-318); Mantsios, "Media Magic: Making Class Invisible" (563-571); Ryan, "Blaming the Victim" (572-581)

Sep 11
Deadline for first on-topic DB post

Where We Stand (38-79)
Nickeled and Dimed (1-50)
The Redneck Manifesto (15-51)

Sep 18

Where We Stand (80-88)
Nickeled and Dimed (51-120) OR (121-193)
The Redneck Manifesto (52-100)

Sep 25

Where We Stand (111-130, 142-164)
Nickeled and Dimed (193-221)
The Redneck Manifesto (101-145)

race and ethnicity
Oct 2
Case Study #1 due

Seeing a Color-Blind Future (3-16)
The Redneck Manifesto (146-204)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Omi and Winant, "Racial Formations" (11-20); Wright, "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch" (21-30); Brodkin, "How Jews Became White" (30-43); Miller, "Domination and Subordination" (86-92); Tatum, "Defining Racism: ‘Can We Talk?'" (100-107); McIntosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" (163-168); Arboleda, "Race is a Four-Letter Word" (420-424)

Oct 9

Seeing a Color-Blind Future (17-30)
The Redneck Manifesto (231-255)
White Lies (3-74)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Sethi, "Smells Like Racism" (108-118); Ragaza, "I Don't Count as ‘Diversity'" (209-210); Guillermo, "Grand-Slam Breakfast?" (218-219); Mohanty, "On Being South Asian in North America" (336-342); Kochiyama, "Then Came the War" (343-350); Shah, "Asian American?" (351-353); Yamamoto, "Interracial Justice: Healing Our Own" (654-660)

Oct 16
Annotated Current Events Journal (part one) due

Seeing a Color-Blind Future (31-45)
White Lies (75-145)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Hurtado, "The Color of Privilege" (152-163); Silko, "The Border Patrol State" (211-213); Purdy, "Where Laborers Are Handy But Shunned" (231-232); Ortiz Cofer, ""The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" (356-360); Pryce, "Black Latina" (361-363); Navarro, "Latinos Gain Visibility in Cultural Life of U.S." (363-366); US Commission on Human Rights, "Indian Tribes: A Continuing Quest for Survival" (436-440); Elk v. Wilkins (478-480); Anzaldúa, "En rapport, In Opposition: Cobrando cuentas a las nuestras" (595-601); Morales, "Child of the Americas" (660-661)

Oct 23

Seeing a Color-Blind Future (47-74)
White Lies (146-219)
Subject to Debate: "Affirmative Action Begins at Home" (39-41); "About Race: Can We Talk?" (183-185)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Chafe, "Sex and Race: The Analogy of Social Control" (535-549); Blanchard, "Combatting Intentional Bigotry and Inadvertently Racist Acts" (622-626)

gender
Oct 30
Case Study #2 due

Where We Stand (101-110)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Lorber, "The Social Construction of Gender" (47-57); Marable, "Racism and Sexism" (124-129); Johnson, "Patriarchy" (129-138); Frye, "Oppression" (139-143); "Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848" (448-452); "The Anti-Suffragists: Selected Papers, 1852-1887" (452-457); Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference" (588-595); hooks, "Feminism: A Transformational Politic" (601-608)
Subject to Debate: "Introduction: Feminism at the Millennium" (xv-xxviii); "Clara Zetkin Avenue" (3-6); "Opinionated Women" (21-23); "We Are All Marcia Clark" (42-44); "Utopia, Limited" (120-123); "First Wives, Last Laugh" (136-139); "Born Again vs. Porn Again" (152-155); "Go Figure" (168-171); "Thoroughly Modern Di" (194-196); "Women and Children First" (205-208); "Far From Chile?" (223-225); "Women's Rights: As the World Turns" (260-263); "Underground Against the Taliban" (310-313)

Nov 6

Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Hubbard, "Rethinking Women's Biology" (45-46); Messner, "Ah, Ya Throw Like a Girl!" (57-59); Bem, "In a Male-Centered World, Female Differences Are Transformed Into Female Disadvantages" (60-63); Wozencraft, "Gender Bias on Wall Street" (199-202); Tyson, "Another Day, Another 75 Cents" (207-208); Myerson, "Supermarket Chain to Pay $81 Million to Settle a Bias Suit" (220-222); Raab, "Lawsuits Depict a Police Culture of Sexual Harassment and Cover-Ups" (234-238); Myerson, "Home Depot Pays $87.5 Million for Not Promoting More Women" (251-252); Albelda & Tilly, "Women, Income, and Poverty: There's a Family Connection" (305-314); Shange, "With No Immediate Cause" (383-384); Sanday, "Pulling Train" (549-555); Sadker & Sadker, "Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls" (556-561)
Subject to Debate: "Single-Sex Sexism" (17-20); "Deadbeat Dads: A Modest Proposal" (35-38); "The O.J. Verdict: While You Were Sleeping" (70-72); "Where Are All the Women We Voted For?" (77-79); "Village Idiocy" (91-94); "Of Toes and Men" (128-131); "Kissing and Telling" (140-143); "No Sex, Please. We're Killers" (179-182); "Mädchen in Uniform" (209-212); "No Males Need Apply?" (275-278); "Moms to NRA: Grow Up!" (314-317)

Nov 13

Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Gerhart, "More and More Young Women Choose Surgical ‘Perfection'" (393-397); Klein, "‘We Are Who You Are': Feminism and Disability" (403-409); Hesse-Biber, "Am I Thin Enough Yet?" (527-534); Thompson, "A New Vision of Masculinity" (630-636); Abelson, "A Push From the Top Shatters a Glass Ceiling" (636-639)
Subject to Debate: "‘Sex in America'" (24-27); "Is Marriage Like a Bran Muffin?" (51-54); "Take Back the Right" (102-104); "Adoption Fantasy" (117-119); "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" (156-159); "Secrets and Lies" (164-167); "When I'm Sixty-Four" (176-178); "Precious Bodily Fluids" (246-249); "A Bronx Tale" (264-267); "Polymaritally Perverse" (283-286); "Regrets Only" (298-301); "Abortion History 101" (306-309); "Social Pseudoscience" (324-327)

sexual orientation
Nov 20
Case Study #3 due

Created Equal (ix-57)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Hubbard, "The Social Construction of Sexuality" (64-66); Katz, "The Invention of Heterosexuality" (67-79); Pharr, "Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism" (143-152); Griscom, "The Case of Sharon Kowalski and Karen Thompson: Ableism, Heterosexism, and Sexism" (410-420); Mohr, "Anti-Gay Stereotypes" (517-523)

Nov 27

Created Equal (58-112)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Brooke, "Homophobia Often Found in Schools, Data Show" (203-205); Allen, "Doctor Refuses to Treat Lesbian" (216-218); Lefevere, "Lesbians and Gays Banned From St. Patrick's Parade" (233-234); Avicolli, "He Defies You Still: The Memoirs of a Sissy" (377-382); Copeland, "Out of the Closet But Not Out of Middle School" (388-392)

Dec 4

Created Equal (113-167)
Subject to Debate: "Gay Marriage?: Don't Say I Didn't Warn You" (109-112)
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: Bounds, "A Teenager's Play for the Gay 90s?" (240-242); Bornstein, "Her Son/Daughter" (401-403); Ettelbrick, "Confronting Obstacles to Lesbian and Gay Equality" (497-506); Bronski, "Confronting Anti-Gay Violence" (627-629)

finals week
Dec 11
Group Performances
Case Study #4 due
Annotated Current Events Journal (part two) due
Final deadline for DB posts