Anthropology 295

• Barbara J. Fields, “edited transcript”

READING ASSIGNMENTS

The first half of the semester will be focused on a close reading of Robert Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (Routledge 1995) which historicizes and analyzes the notion of difference. The discourse on race as a theory of science and a political ideology emerged on both sides of the Atlantic during the 19^th century and slipped into the concept of culture in the 20^th century. Indeed, since the 1980s, scholars have noted that culture did not displace, but instead became a metonym for, race. Each reading assignment is deliberately short in order to give you time to read it carefully, slowly and to follow-up on footnotes. In addition, there are several supplementary readings.

In the second half of the semester, we will use Kevin R. Johnson, Mixed Race America and the Law (NYU Press, 2004) a compilation of abridged articles on “mixed race.”I will identify additional supplementary reading assignments which contribute to interrogating and theorizing the construction of race and its corollary, mixed-race in greater detail. During this period, we will view several films and documentaries and consider the ways in which the discourse of multiracialism and new representations of race undermine or reinforce racism. NOTE: Several films will be shown at 10:30 on Saturday mornings – if you are unable to attend a screening, you are responsible for viewing the film on your own before Monday’s class meeting. (Films will be on reserve in Burling -- however, I will check them out for 24 hours on Friday afternoons).

Each of the 12 Parts of Kevin Johnson, Mixed Race America and the Law are followed by a set of review questions. You are responsible for reviewing the questions for the assigned reading before class discussion and then addressing them in writing after class discussion as part of the journal entry assignments. Reflections from supplementary readings and handouts, including material that you find independently and feel is of relevance, should be incorporated into these entries or may be entered into your journal as a separate entry.

ü Reflection papers on Films (20%):

Many of the films we will see do not directly compliment the readings – instead, they register various popular and unpopular perspectives intended to influence the viewing audience. You will keep a separate set of entries on the films (commercial, independent, made for TV and documentaries). Your 2-3 page film reflections should draw on insights you gained cumulatively from the readings – they should not model a film critic’s review. Instead, your focus should be on the messages, images, stereotypes, etc which are projected to an audience:

Who does the target audience appear to be? What information is conveyed? How are traditional notions of purity and mixing reenforced or undermined in each film? Whose political concerns are addressed? Is the focus on individual identity or national identity? How are individual agency and institutional structures balanced in the films?

The journals are to be dated, typed, and paginated. Your ideas will not be graded as "correct" or "incorrect" -- rather this is an opportunity to review, explore, and engage with ideas, historical information, theoretical approaches, and new articulations.

Format for typing your entries:

T Class Discussions (5%):

It is appropriate for there to be differences in opinion. This furthers our own understanding of the topic. This class provides the opportunity to engage with a perspective which is in opposition to your own. NOTE: Consensus is not the purpose of class discussion! Each of you is responsible for overcoming the urge to be silent rather than to disagree, or to be constrained by the silencing effect of obsessive politeness. Your efforts should be directed toward developing an informed perspective which serves as a basis for analysis and articulation. Active engagement through discussion helps to sharpen how you articulate your ideas – therefore, being challenged through discussion helps you refine the ways in which you articulate these ideas.

Critical thinking and exchanging ideas depends on listening carefully to another person's perspective and responding respectfully and effectively. The focus should be specifically on what and why there are points of agreement or disagreement -- how is one interpretation different and in what ways should it be valued as more or less persuasive? Personal experience is important, but you may draw on it as an additional resource -- not a substitute -- for information or evidence from the texts we will be reading. In other words, your arguments always need to be situated within the context of the common readings although they may also be supplemented with outside sources. You should therefore always back up your comments with reference to the texts and specific passages and page numbers (hence the notes you bring to class are important)!

You must keep a hard-back folder with three sections for each of your written material (journal entries; film evaluations; final paper) which will be submitted at the end of the semester in a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Do not reprint. If you will be back on campus in Spring semester, you may use your campus mailbox as the returning address.

ALL WRITTEN WORK AND FINAL PAPER ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. FRI 17 DECEMBER 2004. THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO EXTENSIONS – in case of emergency or extenuating circumstances, you must go through the Registrar’s Office, request an incomplete and get an official extension. (Don’t even ask: this is non-negotiable).

Weekly Schedule

Week 1

SAT 28 Aug 10 AM PART 1: AFRICANS IN AMERICA – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/title.html

Syllabi will be distributed – first reading assignments are required for Mon 30 Aug

Mon 30 August

Introductions

Kevin Johnson Part I – A “The History of Anti-Miscegenation Laws”

(JSTOR) Sidney Kaplan, “The Miscegenation Issue in the Election of 1864" Journal of Negro History 34, 3 pp. 274-343.

Wed 1 Sept

Discussion: KJ Part I - B “The Road to Loving v Virginia and Its Impact” and Part C: Beyond Black and White” –

In class: discussion of Review Questions (be prepared: you should have notes and cited passages to highlight in your discussion of the review questions)

Week 2

SAT 4 SEPT 10:30 AM Film: South Pacific [videorecording] / a South Pacific Enterprises, Inc. production (1958) ; produced by Buddy Adler ; directed by Joshua Logan (150 min)

R. Young Colonial Desire: Hybridity & Diaspora

Mon 6 Sept pp. xi-22

Wed 8 Sept pp. 22-28

Week 3

R. Young Colonial Desire: Culture & the History of Difference

Mon 13 Sept pp. 29-43

Discussants:

Wed 15 Sept pp. 43-54

Discussants:

Week 4

R. Young Colonial Desire: The Complicity of Culture

Mon 20 Sept pp. 55-72

Discussants:

Wed 22 Sept pp. 72-89

Discussants:

Week 5

R. Young Colonial Desire: Sex and Inequality

Mon 27 Sept pp. 90-109

Discussants:

Wed 29 Sept pp. 109-117

Discussants

Week 6

R. Young Colonial Desire: Egypt in America

Mon 4 Oct pp. 118-133

Discussants:

Wed 6 Oct pp. 133-141

Discussants:

Week 7

R. Young Colonial Desire

** Mon 11 Oct

White Power, White Desire pp. 142-158 and Colonialism and the Desiring Machine 159-182

** Wed 13 Oct NO CLASS

Last journal entry (5-6 pp) on Colonial Desire should include discussion of the two final chapters as well as a summary of what you learned from the book as a whole, in what ways it intersects with other courses you are taking this semester (in theme and in era) and preliminary thoughts about Robert Young’s concluding question: why do our own forms of racism remain so intimately bound up with sexuality and desire?

....................fall break....................

Week 8

Mon 25 Oct

EBSCO: Gordon, Lewis R. (1995) “Critical Mixed Race.” Social Identities 1, 2

EBSCO: Udry, J. Richard et.al (2003). “Health and Behavior Risks of Adolescents with Mixed-Race Identity.” American Journal of Public Health 93,1.

JSTOR: Foeman & Nance (1999) “From Miscegenation to Multiculturalism: Perception and Stages of Interracial Relationship Development.” Journal of Black Studies 29,4.

In Class: Ethnic man! [videorecording] / Entertaining Diversity presents ; written, produced and directed by Teja Arboleda, Barbara Wilson Arboleda Imprint Evanston, IL : Distributed by AGC/United Learning, c2000 (35 min)

Wed 27 Oct K. Johnson; Part II: Racial Identity

Discussants:

Week 9

SAT 30 OCT 10:30 AM Pinky [videorecording] / Twentieth Century Fox 1949 ; screenplay by Philip Dunne and Dudley Nichols ; produced by Darryl F. Zanuck ; directed by Elia Kazan

‚ Read e-reserve reading by Josephine Boyd Bradley and Kent Anderson Lelise “White Pain Pollen: An Elite Biracial Daugher’s Quandry.”

Discussants:

Wed 10 Nov K. Johnson; Part VI: Discrimination and “Colorism”

Banana split [videorecording] : 25 stories / by Kip Fulbeck

Imprint Chicago, IL : Video Data Bank, c1991 (38 min)

Week 11

Mon 15 Nov K. Johnson; Part VII: Affirmative Action

Discussants:

Wed 17

Continuation of discussion....

Week 12

Mon 22 Nov K. Johnson; Part IX: The Immigration and Naturalization Laws

Discussants:

Wed 24 Nov K. Johnson; Part X: Racial Mixture Outside the U.S.

What my mother told me [videorecording] / a film by Frances-Anne Solomon

Imprint New York, NY : Women Make Movies, 1996 (57 min)

The Body beautiful [videorecording] / a film by Ngozi Onwurah

Imprint New York, NY : Women Make Movies, 1991 (23 min)

Discussants:

Week 13

Mon 29 Nov

(JSTOR) Joachim Warmbold (1992), “If Only She Didn’t Have Negro Blood in Her Veins: The Concept of Metissage in German Colonial Literature.” Journal of Black Studies 23, 2

(EBSCO) Ramsay, Guy (2001). “Myth, Moment and the Challenge of Identities: stories from Australians of Indigenous and Chinese ancestry.

Discussants:

Wed 1 Dec

K. Johnson

Part XI: A Mixed Race Society: The End of Racism?

Part XII: Future Mixed Race Legal Studies

Doubles [videorecording] : Japan and America's intercultural children / produced and directed by Regge Life Edition American version

Imprint [Hohokus, NJ : Doubles Film Library], c1995

Week 14

Mon 6 Dec – Documentaries

Just black? [videorecording] / produced by Francine Winddance Twine, Jonathan Frederick Warren, Francisco Ferrandiz Martin (59 min)

Imprint New York : Filmakers Library, c1991

Interracial marriage [videorecording] : blending the races in America / producer and director, Howard Mass Imprint Princeton, N.J. : Films for the Humanities, c1993 (52 min)

Wed 8 Dec Documentaries

Beyond black and white [videorecording] / Mian Productions ; produced, directed by Nisma Zaman Imprint New York, N.Y. : Women Make Movies [distributor], c1995 (26 min)

Domino [videorecording] : interracial people and the search for identity / a production of the National Film Board of Canada in association with Lucinda Films, Inc

Imprint Princeton, N.J. : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, c1995 (44 min)

Exam Week –

Final paper due 1:00 pm 17 December - no extensions

Final paper: 8-10 page essay, cumulatively informed by the semester’s readings.

Address Robert Young’s concluding question: why do our own forms of racism remain so intimately bound up with sexuality and desire?