Prof. Donald Green // Department of Political Science, Yale University

Office: 77 Prospect St., Room 201 // Office Hours: Friday 10:00-12:00

Phone: 432-3237 // email: donald.green@yale.edu // web: vote.research.yale.edu



PLSC 260b

Racial Prejudice and Political Intolerance

Spring 2003

Tuesday/Thursday 10:30-11:20

This class examines the political causes and consequences of prejudice. The course begins by examining historical themes of exclusion, segregation, removal, and subjugation. Next, the course investigates the relationship between political institutions, such as electoral systems, and ethnic conflict.  Finally, the course considers the links between psychological orientations and acts of discrimination.

Because the course sprawls over a wide assortment of topics, the readings have been culled from dozens of sources and compiled into a course reader. The course reader packet can be purchased at Tyco Copies (located at 262 Elm St.; phone: 562-9723).

We will also read the book:

Gourevitch, Philip.  1998.  We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.  New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

This book may be purchased at Book Haven, at 290 York St., 787-2848.

I am happy to suggest additional readings to students who may be interested in delving more deeply into the subject matter.

I will present two 50 minute lectures each week. Please show up to class on time.  Students are also required to attend a weekly discussion section led by a teaching fellow. The teaching fellows for the class are Elizabeth Paluck and Shirley Udekwu.  More teaching fellows may be added, depending on our total enrollment.

There are no formal prerequisites for this course, although some knowledge of US government and history is useful (e.g, PLSC 113). This course is designed to complement but not overlap with PLSC 393 (Politics of Identity), PLSC 234 (Civil Rights and Civil Liberties), and PLSC 191 (Nationalism, Ethnicity, and War).

The course grade will be calculated based on two midterm exams, one take-home final exam, and participation in discussion section. The midterm exams will occur during weeks 6 and 13. Questions for each midterm will be distributed three weeks prior to each exam. Each will take place in class and will count for 25% of the overall grade. The take home final will consist of an essay assignment; students will be invited to write on one of several suggested essay topics. This assignment will comprise 40% of the course grade. Finally, participation in discussion section will constitute 10% of the overall grade.



Course Outline

Part I: Patterns of Inter-group Discord

Week 1. Removal of Indigenous Peoples and Modern-Day Ethnic Cleansing

Cocker, Mark. 1998. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conflict with Tribal Peoples. London: J. Cape. Pp. 269-357.

Ramet, Sabrina P.  1999.  Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the War for Kosovo.  Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.  Pp. 202-51.


Diamond, Jared M.  1997.  Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.  New York: W.W. Norton & Company, pp. 354-75.

 

Week 2. The Aftermath of Slavery


Marx, Anthony. 1996. Race-Making and the Nation-State. World Politics 48: 180-206.

Fredrickson, George M. 1980. White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American & South African History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 199-287.

Du Bois, W.E.B. 1935/2001. The Black Codes. In Paula S. Rothenberg (ed.), Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 466-482.


Week 3. Exclusion, Imperialism, and Immigration

Bennett, David H. 1988. The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movements to the New Right in American History.  New York: Vintage Books. Pp. 135-237.

Smith, Rogers M. 1997. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History. New Haven: Yale University Press. Pp. 429-448.

Oshinsky, David M. 1997. "Worse than Slavery": Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. New York: Free Press Paperbacks. Pp. 31-53.



Week 4.  Perspectives on Genocide

Arendt, Hannah. 1951. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt & Brace. Pp. 3-10.

Gourevitch, Philip.  1998.  We wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.  New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

 

Week 5.  Democratic Institutions

Barnum, David G. 1982. Decision Making in a Constitutional Democracy: Policy Formation in the Skokie Free Speech Controversy. Journal of Politics 44: 480-507.

Horowitz, Donald L.  1985.  Ethnic Groups in Conflict.  Berkeley: University of California Press.  Pp. 291-332.

Rogin, Michael Paul. 1967. The Intellectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter. 1967. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press. Pp. 216-260.


Part II: The Role of Ideas

 

Week 6. Racist Ideology and Science

FIRST MIDTERM EXAM (in class)

 

Smedley, Audrey. 1993. Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Pp. 231-293.

Gould, Steven Jay. 1996. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W.W. Norton. Pp. 222-263, 367-390.

Rushton, J. Phillippe. 2000. Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective. 2nd Special Abridged Edition. Chapter 4.

Steele, Claude M. 1997. A Threat in the Air: How Stereotypes Shape Intellectual Identity and Performance. American Psychologist 52: 613-29.

UNESCO International Scholars. 1964, 1967/1993. Proposals on the Biological Aspects of Race. In Daniela Gioseffi (ed.) On Prejudice: A Global Perspective. New York: Anchor Books. Pp. 621-632.

 

Week 7. The Vicious Circle of Inequality and Prejudice

Myrdal, Gunnar. 1944. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem & Modern Democracy. New York: Harper & Row. Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 9.

Cox, Oliver C. 1959. Caste, Class, and Race. New York: Monthly Review Press. Pp. 321-352.

Week 8. Inter-group Competition and Conflict

Le Vine, Robert A., and Donald T. Campbell. 1972. Ethnocentrism: Theories of Conflict, Ethnic Attitudes, and Group Behavior. New York: Wiley. Pp. 29-42, 117-135.

Green, Donald P., Jack Glaser, and Andrew Rich. 1998. From Lynching to Gay-Bashing: The Elusive Connection between Economic Conditions and Hate Crime. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 75: 82-92.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 1919. Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States, 1889-1918. New York: NAACP.

Ignatiev, Noel. 1995. How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge. Pp. 92-121, 178-188.

Week 9. Integration and its Discontents: The Contact Hypothesis

Brewer, Marilynn B., and Norman Miller. 1988. Contact and Cooperation: When Do They Work? In Phyllis A. Katz and Dalmas A. Taylor (eds.), Eliminating Racism: Profiles in Controversy. New York: Plenum Press. Pp. 315-326.

Comstock, Gary David. 1991. Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 5-30.

"Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986." 2001. In Paula S. Rothenberg (ed.), Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: Worth Publishers. Pp. 494-506.

Green, Donald P., Dara Z. Strolovitch, and Janelle S. Wong. 1998. Defended Neighborhoods, Integration, and Racially-Motivated Crime. American Journal of Sociology. 104: 372-403.

Week 10. Detecting Discrimination

LaPiere, Richard T. 1934. Attitudes vs. Actions. Social Forces 13:230-37.

Yinger, John. 1995. Closed Doors, Opportunities Lost: The Continuing Costs of Housing Discrimination. New York: Russell Sage. Read pp. 19-49.

Crosby, F., S. Bromley, and L. Saxe. 1980. Recent Unobtrusive Studies of Black and White Discrimination and Prejudice - a Literature-review. Psychological Bulletin 87: (3) 546-563.

 

Week 11. The meaning and measurement of prejudice

Jaynes, Gerald David, and Robin M. Williams, Jr. 1989. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Pp. 113-160.

Jones E.E. and H. Sigall. 1971. Bogus Pipeline -- New Paradigm For Measuring Affect And Attitude. Psychological Bulletin 76: (5) 349.

Dasgupta N, D.E. Mcghee, Anthony G. Greenwald, and Mahzarin R. Banaji. 2000. Automatic Preference for White Americans: Eliminating the Familiarity Explanation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 36: (3) 316-328.

Week 12. Prejudice and Personality

Allport, Gordon W. 1954.  The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. Pp. 206-218.

Stouffer, Samuel A. 1955. Communism, Conformity, and Civil Liberties: A Cross-section of the Nation Speaks Its Mind. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. Pp. 188-219.

Sanford, Nevitt. 1959. The Approach of The Authoritarian Personality. In James L. McCary (ed.), Psychology of Personality. New York: Grove Press. Pp. 255-319.


Week 13. Discrimination and Racism without Prejudice?

Blumer, Herbert. 1958. Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position. Pacific Sociological Review 1:3-6.

Wellman, David T. 1993. Portraits of White Racism. (2nd ed.) New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1-62.

Asch, S.E. 1958. Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgments. In E.E. Macoby et al. (Eds.) Readings in Social Psychology, 3rd Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Pp.174-183.

Milgram, Stanley. 1974. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper and Row. Pp. 1-27, 123-189.

SECOND MIDTERM EXAM (in class)

TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM DUE TO BE HANDED IN ON SCHEDULED EXAM DATE