ES 244 - Mixed Race Identities in the US

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-D1-2; Diversity
Examination of mixed race peoples-their legal and social status, U.S. Census designations, and identities– from the one-drop rule to President Obama and beyond.

Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground, or Entirely Online.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-D1-2 - Lower Division Social Sciences, Overlay - Diversity
Course Typically Offered: Fall & Spring

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

explain the unique legal and social status of mixed-race people;
analyze how structural forces like capitalism, colonialism, census categories, and laws shape mixed-race identity in relation to race, gender, class, sexuality, etc.;
evaluate the limitations and possibilities within Critical Mixed Race Studies methodologies in challenging not only dominant perceptions of mixed-race identities but also the structural roots of inequality; and
apply key concepts from class to the contemporary world.

D1-2. Lower-division Social Science Electives Learning Outcomes

specify how social, political, economic, and environmental systems and/or behavior are interwoven;
explain how humans individually and collectively relate to relevant sociocultural, political, economic, and/or environmental systems-how they produce, resist, and transform them;
discuss and debate issues from the course’s disciplinary perspective in a variety of cultural, historical, contemporary, and/or potential future contexts; and
explore principles, methodologies, value systems, and ethics employed in social scientific inquiry.

Diversity Overlay Learning Outcomes

describe the histories and/or experiences of one or more U. S. cultural groups and the resilience and agency of group members;
identify structures of oppression and the diverse efforts and strategies used by groups to combat the effects of oppressive structures;
analyze the intersection of the categories of race and gender as they affect cultural group members’ lived realities and/or as they are embodied in personal and collective identities;
recognize the way that multiple differences (including, for example, gender, class, sexuality, religion, disability, immigration status, gender expression, color/phenotype, racial mixture, linguistic expression, and/or age) within cultural groups complicate individual and group identities.