Spring 2003
TuTh 2:30-3:45
OFFICE HOURS: Th 1:15-2:15, and by appointment, 208 Bartlett
email: avakian@wost.umass.edu

Designed for students who have some familiarity with the historical, economic and political bases of racism, this course will explore the social construction of whiteness, its interaction with gender, and historical and contemporary political resistance to white privilege. Goals of the course are: 1. to gain an understanding of the historical, economic and political forces responsible for the construction and maintenance of whiteness; 2. to explore the mechanisms which insure that whiteness is experienced as the norm and not as a race; 3. to explore the relationships between the constructions of whiteness and the constructions of gender; 4. to foster students' ability to position themselves on the multiple axes of race, gender and class and to help them gain an understanding of the role they play in maintaining the privileges they have; 5. to help students explore effective action to challenge white privilege.

This semester we are going to have three joint sessions with Professor Deschamps course WOST 394H, Theorizing Black Feminisms. These sessions will be arranged in the first week of class.

1. CLASS PARTICIPATION: The work we do in this course will depend on the exchange of ideas that will take place in the class. Attendance is critical, and by attendance I mean coming to class ready to engage with the material having read it carefully and critically. Much of the work connecting gender to whiteness has not been done. Much of what we read will not mention women. I expect you to raise questions, and to make connections. Attendance in class, then, means more than being there; it means coming to class ready to be a participant. Since we are in a system in which your work is graded, and since I consider the class discussion to be a part of the work of the class, I will grade your work in class participation. (10%)
   

2. INDIVIDUAL WRITTEN WORK: Students will be expected to write 2 five page analytic papers. Topics will be announced in class. Each paper will be 35% of the grade. (70%) Paper 1 due MARCH 6; paper 2 due MAY 8.
   

3. ACTION PROJECTS: In addition to the strictly academic work of the course, students working in groups will be required to design and implement activist projects, on or off campus, to challenge white supremacy. The projects will be chosen and worked on collectively. The project design should include ways to evaluate success of project. I will devote some class time for sharing of projects -- successes and problems -- and will meet with each group outside of class. At the end of the semester each group will make a presentation to the class about the project and will be responsible for a written description and evaluation. The project will be given a group grade. (20%)
   

4. DISCUSSION GROUPS: Students are required to enroll in WOST 296Q, a one credit mandatory p/f practicum which will provide a space to share emotional responses to the class material in a small group setting on a weekly basis. Groups will consist of approximately 10 students each and be facilitated by students who have taken this course. These facilitators are NOT RESPONSIBLE for the discussion. They will be there to help keep the focus on whiteness. It will be up to students in the group to come ready to share their own concerns. Each week students will be required to submit 2 copies of a 1-2 page (double-spaced, typed) journal focusing on one aspect of the material for that week. One of these copies should have your name on it and will be for the facilitator and the other should be anonymous and will be for me. They will not be graded but will be commented on by the facilitator and returned to students the next week. These journal entries are opportunities for students to work on some of the issues that come up in response to the class. Grades will be based on attendance and completion of journal entries on time. More than two unexcused absences, or more than two missed journal entries will result in a "F" for the practicum. The grade for the practicum is completely separate from the grade for the course. Only students who are registered in this class will be enrolled in the practicum.
   

REQUIRED BOOKS:

• Theodore Allen, The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control, V. 1. 1994. London: Verso
• Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. 1992. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
• Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream. 1994. New York: W.W. Norton

BOOKS AND READER ARE ON RESERVE IN LIBRARY AND AVAILABLE TO READ IN THE WOMEN'S STUDIES OFFICE DURING OUR REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS.

• 1/28 & 1/30: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE & DEFINITIONS
  Video Showing: The Color of Fear
  Reading:
  
  • Theodore Allen, The Invention of the White Race (Allen), "Introduction"
  • Barbara Jeanne Fields, "Slavery, Race and Ideology in the USA" (Reader)

• 2/4: WHO IS WHITE? WHO IS "OF COLOR?" RACIAL CONUNDRUMS AND THE "WEAKNESS" OF "WHITE BLOOD"
  Reading:
  
  • Ian F. Haney Lopez, "A Note on Whiteness," "White Lines," & "Appendix A, The Racial Prerequisite Cases" & "Appendix B, Excerpts . . ." (HANDOUT)
  • Reginald Horsman, "Race and Manifest Destiny . . ." (Reader)

• 2/6: WHAT IS RACIAL OPPRESSION?
  Reading:
  
  • Allen, Chapter 1
  • Donncha O Corrain, "Women in Early Irish History" (Reader)

• 2/11: NO CLASS TODAY
  
  SPECIAL JOINT CLASS WITH WOST 394H, THEORIZING BLACK FEMINISMS TIMES TO BE ARRANGED
  

• Video Showing: Race: The Floating Signifier
• Slide Showing: Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America
  Reading:
  
  • Leon F. Litwack, "Hellhounds" (Reader)

• 2/13:THE CREATION OF WHITENESS THE IRISH, RELIGION & CLASS
  Reading:
  
  • Allen, Chapter 2
  • Katherine Simms, "Women in Norman Ireland" (Reader)

• 2/18: NO CLASS-TODAY IS A MONDAY AT UM
  

• 2/20: CONTINUATION OF THE CREATION OF WHITENESS
  Reading:
  
  • Allen, Chapter 3
  • Gearoid O Tuathaigh, "Role of Women in Ireland . . ." (Reader)

• 2/25: THE SLAVE TRADE, DEVELOPING CAPITALISM, & SHIFTING GENDER CONSTRUCTIONS
  Reading:
  
  • Ronald Bailey, "'Out of Sight, Out of Mind': The Struggle of African American Intellectuals Against the Invisibility of the Slave[ry] Trade . . ." (Reader)
  • Merry E. Weisner, "Spinning Out Capital: Women's Work . . ." (Reader)

• 3/4: WHITE SUPREMACY, NATIONALISM AND DEMOCRACY: BRITAIN AND IRELAND
  Reading:
  
  • Allen, Chapters 4 & 5

• 3/6: BECOMING WHITE AND RESISTING WHITENESS Reading:
  
  • David Roediger, "Irish American Workers & White Racial Formation" (Reader)
  • Herbert Aptheker, "Introduction" and "Abolitionism and Racism" (Reader)
  PAPER 1 DUE
  

• 3/11: MAINTAINING WHITE SUPREMACY-LITERATURE
  Reading:
  
  • Toni Morrison, "Preface" & Chapter 1, Playing in the Dark

• 3/13: CONTINUE MORRISON
  Reading:
  
  • Chapter 2, Playing in the Dark
  March 15-24 Spring Break
  

• 3/25: WHITE SUPREMACY AND CHRISTIANITY
  Reading:
  
  • Lillian Smith, Killers of the Dream (first half-Forward, Introduction to page 80)
  • Grace E. Hale, "Domestic Reconstruction" & "Seeing the Land of Difference" (Reader)

• 3/27: CONTINUE SMITH
  Reading:
  
  • finish Killers of the Dream (parts 2&3, not part 4)

• 4/1: MAINTAINING WHITE SUPREMACY-SCIENCE & EPISTOMOLOGY
  GUEST LECTURE: Banu Subramaniam
  Reading:
  
  • Nancy Leys Stepan, "Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science" (Reader)
    
  • Anne Fausto-Sterling, "Gender, Race, and Nation" (Reader)
    
  • Stephen Jay Gould, "American Polygeny & Craniometry Before Darwin" (HANDOUT)
    
  • Garland E. Allen, "Science Misapplied: The Eugenics Age Revisited" (Reader)
    

• 4/3: TBA

• 4/8: WHITE SUPREMACY & WOMEN'S "NATURE"
  Reading:
  
  • Claudia Koontz, "Love and Order in the Third Reich," (Reader)
    
  • Kathleen Blee, "Reading Racism: Women in the Modern Hate Movement" (HANDOUT)
    
  • Kathleen Blee, "Womanhood and the Klan Fraternity" (Reader)
    

• 4/10: NO CLASS
  SPECIAL JOINT CLASS TBA WITH THEORIZING BLACK FEMINISMS
  Film Showing: Bamboozled
  Reading:
  
  • Susan Gubar, "Spirit Murder at the Movies" (HANDOUT)
    
  • David Wellman, "Minstrel Shows, Affirmative Action Talk, and Angry White Men: Marking Racial Otherness in the 1990s" (HANDOUT)
    

• 4/15: WHITE SUPREMACY AND FEMINISM
  Reading:
  
  • Adrienne Rich, "Disloyal to Civilization" & "The Distance Between Language and Violence" (HANDOUT)
    

• 4/17: WHITE WOMEN AND THE MAINTANENCE OF PRIVILEGE
  Reading:
  
  • Tim Wise, "Is Sisterhood Conditional? White Women and the Rollback" (Reader)
    

• 4/22: PUBLIC POLICY, WHITE SUPREMACY AND "RACE NEUTRALITY"
  Reading:
  
  • Jill Quadagno, "The Politics of Welfare Reform" (Reader)
    
  • Rickie Solinger, "The Stick and The Carrot" (Reader)
    

• 4/24: KEEPING RACE "INVISIBLE"
  Reading:
  
  • Thomas Rose, "Innocence and Affirmative Action" (Reader)
    
  • Barbara J. Flagg, "Transparently White Subjective Decision Making" (Reader)
    
  • Trina Grillo & Stephanie Wildman, "Obscuring the Importance of Race" (Reader)
    
  • Wildman with Davis, "Language and Silence" (Reader)

• 4/29: SHADES OF WHITENESS/CLASS & ETHNICITY
  Reading:
  
  • Karen Sacks, "How Jews Became White Folks" (Reader)
  • Doug Henwood, "Trash-O-Nomics" (Reader)
  • Georg Lipsitz, "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness" (Reader)

• 5/1: BECOMING RACE TRAITORS I-ALIES OR APPROPRIATORS
  Reading:
  
  • Wimsatt, "We Use Words Like Mackadocious" & "Aren't You in the Wrong Neighborhood?" (Reader)

• 5/6: NO CLASS
  SPECIAL JOINT CLASS TBA WITH THEORIZING BLACK FEMINISMS
  

• 5/8: BECOMING RACE TRAITORS II-ACTION
  Reading:
  
  • John H Bracey, "The Responsibility of Whites for Racial Justice" (Reader)
  • Mab Segrest, "Fear to Joy: Fighting the Klan" (Reader)
  • Editors of Race Traitor Magazine, "What We Believe" (Reader)
  • Noel Ignatiev, "How to be a Race Traitor: Six Ways to Fight Being White"

  PAPER 2 DUE
  

• 5/13: PRESENTATION OF STUDENT PROJECTS & COURSE SUMMARY