This course reviews texts about racial purpose, focusing on the black experience in the United States since mid-century. A first section of the course will isolate and examine readings on the construction of race as a social category. The course then reviews the use of race by writers in several genres including scientific racism, the construction of whiteness, double consciousness, the American Dilemma, and diaspora and Afrocentric moods. The course will familiarize students with important texts and personalities and challenge students to identify and evaluate political meanings often embedded in the terms of racial complaint, or affirmation. Requirements: class participation, short papers and a final paper of 12-15 pages dealing with race in contemporary black biography. No prerequisites. Political Theory and American Politics Subfields