UP 209

Critical Race Studies and Public Affairs

Spring 2008
Student-initiated Course

This is a student initiated, and led course. All students enrolled will participate as
“student-teachers/teacher students” to create dialogue, and share collective
responsibility to achieve the course goals.

Course Description: This course will focus on the foundation of Critical Race Theory
(CRT) as applied to urban planning, policy and social work. Rather than surveying issues
and concepts within a "race context," this course attempts to look at the causes and
symptoms of institutional/structural racism, societal racial hierarchies and its application
within the three fields of work. The first half the course will focus on understanding
Critical Race Theory and the second half will focus on applied methods.

Required Text: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, ed., Critical Race Theory: The
Cutting Edge, 2nd Edition, 2000

NOTE: Additional articles will be added on-line throughout the course, if they are not
included in the required text.

Course Requirements: The final grade will be based on individual class participation,
and the final project.

1. Attendance and participation: You are expected to be a prepared active

participant in class discussion and developing the course.

2. Weekly assignments: Each week students will be required to submit short

reading responses (one to two paragraphs). Write ups should reflect understanding of
the material, questions that arose from the reading and discussion points for the class.
Responses must be posted to the online class message board by midnight, the day
before class. This is so that there is sufficient time for others to read your responses
and to engage in classroom discussion.

3. Leading a classroom discussion: One of the goals for this course is to be

able to develop our skills in group facilitation and to be able to grasp the concepts
taught in the course. For each week that there are assigned readings, students can
work on their own or pair up with another classmate to lead the classroom discussion
for one week’s worth of readings. Those will be assigned by week 2.

4. Final Project: During the quarter, students will choose their topic of
interest, based on a list of topics identified within one of the three fields in the
School of Public Affairs (Urban Planning, Public Policy, or Social Welfare). This will
be finalized by the Week 2 of the course. Because this is a student-initiated course,
 Ideas that have been brought up to the CRS working group for the final
project:
• Using a research/term paper written for another class and re-writing
with a CRS framework. In addition, students will do a presentation
(preferably powerpoint or other interactive method) and present to
the rest of the class on their topic.
• Creating a strategic plan for instituting Critical Race Studies in the
School of Public Affairs
• Identifying a social justice issue and applying an interdisciplinary and
CRS framework within all three SPA fields (i.e, Homelessness,
Housing, Community Development, or the class’ topic of choice)
• For week’s 7-10 students can continue building upon the course by
adding readings/discussion for those weeks. This can be the space to
enhance the interdisciplinary aspects of the course/work for SPA.

The written analysis of the presentation will be in preparation for the final product for
the course. We want to emphasize that the goal of the course is to create a working
document and build curriculum that can set the foundation for CRT in our disciplines.

Grading
30% Weekly Responses
30% Presentations
40% Final Projects
Method of evaluation will be discussed during week one.

WEEK 1

Introduction: CRITICAL RACE THEORY: KEY WRITINGS (INTRODUCTION)

Introduction of the Course

What is CRT?
How can CRS applied in planning, policy, social welfare and other disciplines.

Homework Assignment: Read the Executive Summary, Introduction and your field’s
section of the spring 2007 Critical Race Theory Report.
Report can be accessed through the course’s wikipage: Http://crsucla.pbwiki.com

WEEK 2

Discussion of Final Product for the Class

Homework Assignment:
Cheryl Harris- Critical Race Theory: An Introduction
Derrick Bell: Property Rights in Whiteness: Their Legacy, Their Economic Costs

Cheryl Harris: Whiteness as Property

Ian Haney Lopez, “The Legal Construction of Race,” White By Law

James Baldwin, “White Man’s Guilt,” Black on White: Black Writers on What it Means
to be White

WEEK 3

Narratives

Homework Assignment:
Richard Delgado, “Story Telling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative”

Patricia J. Williams, “Alchemical Notes: Reconstructing Ideals from Deconstructed

Rights.”

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, “Images of the Outside in American Law and
Culture: Can Free Expression Remedy Systemic Social Ills?”

Richard Delgado,“‘The Imperial Scholar’ Revisited: How to Marginalize Outsider

Writing, Ten Years Later.”

Robin D. Barnes, “Race Consciousness: The Thematic Content of Racial Distinctiveness

in Critical Race Scholarship,” Harvard Law Review, Vol. 103, No. 8. (Jun., 1990), pp.
1864-1871.

Writing Assignment: “Writing our Narratives”

Please write your narrative pertaining to your experience in your academic department.
We want to provide everyone with the opportunity to incorporate their storied into our
class project. Because this is an opportunity to share your story, the following questions
are intended to guide your narrative, not necessarily define it. (or meant for you to list
your answers to each question)

What has your experience been in your department as a person of color and/or as a person
committed to anti-subordination/anti-racism/intersectional work?

How has your experience impacted your interactions and relationships with other
students and faculty in your department?
Has your experience impacted your scholarly/academic endeavors within department?
For example, research, course writing assignments, group projects, capstone projects, etc.

How has your experience been in your department as a person of color and/or as a person
committed to anti-subordination/anti-racism/intersectional work impacted what your
goals are after graduation?

WEEK 4

Interdisciplinary Approaches in CRT

Juan F. Perea, “The Black/White Binary Paradigm of Race”

Robert Chiang, “Toward an Asian American Legal Scholarship: Critical Race Theory,
Post-Structuralism, and Narrative Space”

Ian Haney Lopez, “Race and Erasure: The Salience of Race to Latinos/as”

Devon Carbado, “Men, Feminism, and Male Heterosexual Privilege”

Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and

Violence against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6. (Jul., 1991),
pp. 1241-1299.

WEEK 5

Melvin L. Oliver, et al, “The Los Angeles Rebellion: A Retrospective View,” Economic
Development Quarterly, Vol. 6 No 4, November 1992, pp. 356-372.

Lisa C. Ikemoto, “Traces of the Master Narrative in the Story of African-

American/Korean-American Conflict: How We Constructed ‘Los Angeles.’”

Saul Sarabia, “The World’s Greatest Vanishing Act”

Interdisciplinary Approaches to CRT (Continued), In Critical Race Theory Reader

Darren Lenard Hutchinson, “Out Yet Unseen: A Racial Critical of Gay and Lesbian
Legal Theory and Political Discourse”

Manning Marable, “Beyond Racial Politics: Toward a Liberation Theory of Multicultural

Democracy”
WEEK 6

Gary Peller, “Race Consciousness,”Duke Law Journal, Vol. 1990, No. 4, Frontiers of
Legal Thought III. (Sep., 1990), pp. 758-847.

Cheryl Harris- Whitewashing Race, Scapegoating Culture

David Roediger, “From the Social Construction of Race to the Abolition of Whiteness,”
Towards the Abolition of Whiteness: Essays on Race, Class, and Working Class History

WEEK 7- Group Project

WEEK 8 – Group Project

WEEK 9 – Group Project

WEEK 10- Group Project

If you have any administrative issues, please contact Professor Jackie Leavitt @
jleavitt@ucla.edu