RACE & JUSTICE
SOCIOLOGY 128I
FALL 2007
Instructor:
Hiroshi Fukurai
337 College Eight, x 9-2971 (office)
Office Hours - Tuesday 2:00-5:00 or by appointment
TA:
Fran Lanthier, franlan@ucsc.edu
Tu Vu, tuuvuu@gmail.com
Class:
Tuesday and Thursday, 8:00 - 9: 45 a.m., Kresge 321
Course descriptions:
Introduction to comparative and historical analyses of the relationship between race and criminal justice. Today we live in very perilous times, and the true “axis of evil” of inequality and domination is masked by the campaign of misinformation, mischaracterization, and misrepresentation of facts and truth. The only antidote then is our critical and fact-oriented analysis. This kind of intellectual analysis is not only desperately needed, but our survival may also depend on it. Specific topics of discussion in this course include many contemporary issues, such as recent governmental responses to Hurricane Katrina aftermath, military and prison industrial complex, racial profiling, selective prosecution of Muslims and racial minorities, electoral discrimination against people of color and the poor, state and corporate media and propaganda, use of torture as a military method of interrogation, extra-ordinary rendition, jury nullification, and use of warrantless wiretaps and government’s secret surveillance programs. We also focus on other race-related issues in the U.S., and other parts of the world, including Middle East, Central and Latin America, East Asia, Africa, among others. However, major sites of our analysis still remain in the U.S.
Race plays a very crucial role in the administration of justice in the U.S. and elsewhere. First, we attempt to unsettle or disturb the concept of race and ethnicity, examining how race and racial categories are being constructed by the government and courts through the interplay of knowledge, identity, and culture. “Race” is then not based on physical difference, but rather on what we are conditioned to believe about physical difference. This perspective also allows us to explore our own internalized-racial beliefs and deep-rooted assumptions about race and racialized ideas on intelligence, genetics, and behavior.
Requirements:
Attendance at both lectures and discussion sections is mandatory. I would like to emphasize that your attendance at TA sections is very crucial because the sections will become your primary intellectual site to engage in critical discussions about race, examining how race is closely tied to the ways in which socio-legal resources, social opportunities, and legal rights for property and freedom are being allocated and distributed in our society.
Each student is also required to take two mid-term exams and write both a concept paper and a complete essay at the end of the course. Successful completion of two exams and two papers is required to pass the course. The four basic requirements are the following:
Two Tests: two in-class mid-term exams November 1, Thursday and November 29 Thursday (not November 27
as indicated in the Reader).
NO MAKE-UP or FINAL EXAM.
Two Papers: The first concept paper (typed, double-spaced three pages in length or less) is due
on October 25 Thursday (by 5:00 p.m. to your TA or in my mailbox (col.8 faculty services)).
The final paper is due on December 10, 5 p.m.
The final research paper (10 pages MAX. excluding a title page and bibliography or appendix) is due on December 10 (Monday, by 12 p.m. to your TA or in my mailbox). The final paper can be one of two types: (1) a REVIEW PAPER (that describes, summarizes, and reviews existing knowledge about a major question or topic (e.g., topics described in course content above, or police brutality, media and crime, political trials, use of medical marijuana, teens' court, white collar crimes, domestic violence, prison rape, gun laws, political trials, DNA and other forensic research and its validity, etc.), OR (2) a RESEARCH PAPER (e.g., surveys or interviews with judges, prosecutors, public defenders, jury commissioners, probation officers, police officers, jail guards, former jurors, or any other managers of our criminal justice system, field observations at the juvenile court, “ride along” participation with SC police, interviews with jailers, those on jail furlough programs, counselors and/or victims of domestic violence, analysis of archival data on death penalty, handgun violence, police brutality, prosecutorial misconduct, etc). The final paper must cite at least five sources including articles and/or books.
For individual papers, students will be asked to discuss their topic in sections so that other students and the TA can contribute suggestions. Late in the quarter, as these projects near completion, students can present their papers (and show their materials) to other members of the section or class.
The requirements for the final paper (and the required format) are described in detail in this syllabus (see p.4).
Text (all except the reader found at Literary Guillotine at Locust Street, Downtown Santa Cruz, 457-1195):
Walker Samuel, et al. 2007. (Color). Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing.
Goodman, Amy and David Goodman. 2006. Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back. NY: Hyperion.
Fukurai Hiroshi and Richard Krooth 2003. (R&J). Race in the Jury Box: Affirmative Action in Jury Selection. New York: SUNY Press).
Reader. 2007 (Reader). Race and Criminal Justice: Available at UCSC Copy Center.
Course Contents: The course consists of the schedule as indicated below. On some days, films and videos directly related to weekly topics will be shown and discussed.
Wk 1-9/27 Introduction to the Course
Color, chapter 1.
R&J, chapter 1.
Static, Introduction (unembedded)
Wk 2-10/2 Social and Political Construction of Race -- Racial Formation and Ethnic Diversity
R&J, chapter 2 (read this first)
Reader, Racial formation (Michael Omi).
Reader, Are definitions of race just political?
Reader, U.S. Census: Arab population 2000
Reader, I know you are, but who am I? Arab-American Experiences through critical race theory lens
Supplement:
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/ (Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University)
Wk 2-10/4 Race, Lynching, Torture, and Extra-ordinary Rendition
Reader, Oliver Cox, “Lynching and the status quo” (Journal of Negro Education 14: 577-588)
Reader, W.E.B. Dubois, Souls of Black Folks (chap 13)
Reader, Ida B. Wells: Mob rule in New Orleans (Louisiana)
Reader, Amnesty International: Rendition and secret detention: A global system of human rights violation
Static, Chapter 1 (Outlaw Nation), 9 (Torturers’ Apprentice)
Movie, “The Murder of Emmett Till” (60 minutes)
Wk 3-10/9 Police and Race - Black Panther Party and Black Muslim
Reader, Malcolm X: Black man’s history
Reader, Francisco de Costa: Black Panther Party (BPP)
Reader, Huey Newton: Black Panther- Ten Point Program
Reader, C.L.R. James, Revolution and the Negro
Supplement:
http://www.freemumia.com/ (Pro-Mumia Abu-Jamal Website)
http://www.grandlodgefop.org/ (Anti-Mumia Abu-Jamal Website)
http://www.fop.net/causes/faulkner/danny.shtml (Dan Faulkner Information in FOP Website)
Wk 3-10/11 Racial Profiling and Racialized Trial
Reader, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio Broadcast – Police vs. protestors at the port
Reader, Affidavit of Arnold Beverly
Movie, "Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt," Movie (75 minutes).
Wk 4-10/16 Theories of Crimes: Critical Race Theory and Critical Feminist Perspective
Color, chaps 2 and. 3 (read Chapter 3 first)
Reader, conflict & Marxist approaches, critical legal studies, feminism, critical race theory
Reader, Is criminal behavior biologically determined?
Wk 4-10/18 Street Crimes vs. White Collar Crimes (Government and Corporate Crimes)
Reader, “Is the street crime more serious than white-collar crimes?"
Reader, Corporate and governmental deviance (Ermann and Lundman, Chap1)
Color, chap 4
Wk 5-10/23 Government Crime and Hurricane Katrina Aftermath
Documentary, "When the Levees Broke” (110 minutes).
Wk 5-10/25 Government Crime, Public Relation Industry, and Propaganda
Static, chp 3 (news fakers), 4 (unreality tv), 5 (mighty Wurlitzer), 6 (hijacking public media), 7 (whitewashing Haiti)
Reader, Gramsci-Prison Note on Intellectuals (1949)
Reader, Off Balance: Race, Youth, and Media
Wk 6-10/30 Gun Violence, Gun Controls, Police Misconduct, & Blackwater
Reader, "Will gun control reduce crime?"
Reader, Law enforcement and criminal offenders – Failure of local and federal prosecutors to curb police brutality
Reader, Military privatization: Efficiency or Anarchy?
Wk 6-11/1 First Mid-term Exam
Wk 7-11/6 Courts and Jury Nullification -- decisions to file charges vs. decisions to nullify them
Reader, Should jury nullification be used? (read this first)
R&J, Chapters 7 and 8 (jury nullification)
Color, Chapters 5 and 9
Reader, St Patrick’s four protesters offers an explanation (obtain more info. from url below)
Supplement:
http://www.stpatricksfour.org/
Wk 7-11/8 Courts, Jury, and Hate Crime
Movie, "Who killed Vincent Chin?" Movie (83 minutes)
Supplement: (for additional information, see below)
http://modelminority.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=381615&sid=8ea9be9773dd22175deb488846911ac1
Wk 8-11/13 American Jury, Jury Bias, and Political Trials
R&J, chapters 3, 4, and 5
Reader, Mumia Abu-Jamal: Angola Three: 30 years in solitary confinement
Color, Chapters 6 and 7
Wk 8-11/15 Government Surveillance Programs -- COINTELPRO and Racial Oppression by the Government
Static, Chapter 2 (Watching You)
Reader, Anglo-American Privacy and Surveillance
Wk 9-11/20 Caging Lists and Racial Oppression by the Government
Reader, Greg Palast, The con: Kerry won. Now get over it…
Reader, Fukurai, et al., Chapter 4 “The U.S. Supreme Court, the Constitutional Background of Jury Selection, and Racial Representation.”
Short Documentary, "Palast: Caging Lists." (15 min).
Short Documentary, “BBC Banned Documentary – Bush Stole 2004 Elections,”
See http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6164809897767438853&hl=en
Wk 9-11/27 Death Penalty & the Jury: Could We Revoke the Governmental License to Kill?
Reader, Is the death penalty racially discriminatory?
Reader, Bush & Saddam should both stand trial, says Nuremburg Prosecutor
Reader, Don’t tread on me: Absence of jurisdiction by the international criminal court over the U.S.
Color, Chapter 8 (color of death)
Wk 9-11/29 Second Mid-Term Exam
Wk 10-12/4 Prison as Alternative to Slavery??
Documentary, "The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison (Louisiana)" (100 min)
Wk 10-12/6 Prison Industrial Complex -- Putting Them All Together
Reader, White investment in black bondage
Color, Chapters 9 (corrections in America)
R&J, Chapter 9
The Final Paper: The paper must be organized like a journal article (see an issue of The Journal of Criminal Justice, Criminology, or Justice Quarterly). Make TWO COPIES of the paper and hand both in -- one will be returned with comments and the other will not be returned. NOTE: THE FINAL PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED UNLESS THEY CONTAIN ALL THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS:
REVIEW ARTICLES (10 page MAX, excluding a title page, bibliography, abd/or appendix):
(1) a brief, one-paragraph ABSTRACT of 300 words or less that clearly states the research QUESTION, describes briefly the LITERATURE REVIEW, and interpret the FINDINGS;
(2) a LITERATURE REVIEW section, reviewing the relevant research from the most appropriate area and field;
(3) a DISCUSSION section that analyzes the result of the study and interprets the implications;
(4) a REFERENCE list that contains full citations of the books and articles cited in the paper; and
(5) an APPENDIX that contains any other information used in the paper (pictures, maps, etc.)
RESEARCH PAPER (10 page MAX, excluding a title page, bibliography, and/or appendix):
(1) a brief, one-paragraph ABSTRACT of 300 words or less that clearly states the research QUESTION, describes briefly the METHODS used (interview, observation, survey, etc.), and summarizes the major FINDINGS;
(2) an INTRODUCTION section, reviewing the relevant research from the most appropriate area and field;
(3) a METHOD section, describing in detail the procedures used in the study;
(4) a RESULTS AND DISCUSSION section , analyzing the result of the study and interpreting the implications;
(5) a REFERENCE list that contains full citations of the books and articles cited in the paper; and
(6) an APPENDIX that contains any other information used in the paper (pictures, maps, etc.)
FINALLY, THE TA AND I VERY MUCH HOPE THAT YOU ENJOY THE COURSE.