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Color‐Line as Fault‐Line: Teaching Interethnic Relations in California in the 21st Century
Author(s) -
Gaines Stanley O.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-4537.2004.00105.x
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , color line , racism , liberal arts education , mainstream , perspective (graphical) , race (biology) , white (mutation) , gender studies , sociology , psychology , higher education , social psychology , pedagogy , political science , law , art , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , visual arts
In this article, I describe an undergraduate course on interethnic relations that I taught at a small, predominantly White, liberal arts college during the 1990s. First, I present the intellectual heart of the course (similarities and differences between Allport's [1954/1979] mainstream perspective and Du Bois' [1903/1969] oft‐neglected, alternative perspective on race relations). Subsequently, I discuss the course background and a precipitating incident (verbal conflict between a White male student and a Black female student) that transformed the class. Finally, I reflect on my experiences, as well as individual and institutional factors (gender, institutional racism) that probably affected students' and faculty members' responses. Policy implications for courses on prejudice (and for teachers of such courses) are discussed .