9/7: Introduction to the Course
9/11: What is a Social Problem and When is it Considered a Problem?
Readings: “Introduction:
Approaches to Social Problems” by (S&C), pp. 1-12.
“The Saints and the Roughnecks” by W. Chambliss,
pp. 24-31.
“Texan Roulette” by G. Sikes, pp. 98-101.
*Smoke and Mirrors by D. Baum, pp. 34-35.
(*Located in 7/28 readings)
7/8: How does Something Become a Social Problem and Who Defines
It?
Readings: “Constructing
Deviance” by Adler & Adler, pp. 69-71.
“The Politics of Definition” by Conrad &
Schneider, pp. 22-25.
“Coffee Drinking: An Emerging Social
Problem?” by Troyer & Markle,
pp. 73-84 (skim 74-78).
“The ‘Discovery’ of Child Abuse” by S. Pfohl, focus on pp. 310, 315-321.
“A Sociological Analysis [of How Children’s
“Hyperactive” Behavior
Became Conceptualized as a Medical Problem]” by Conrad &
Schneider, pp. 159-161.
“A Prescription for Disorder” by H. Washington,
p. 22.
“Planet Prozac” by E. Gilbert, pp. 39-40.
7/9: How does Something Become a Social Problem and Who Defines
It? (Continued)
Readings: “Missing
from the News” by B. Bagdikian in (S&C), pp. 50-56.
“The Global Media Giants” by R. McChesney, pp. 11-12
(skim).
“Missing Children, Misleading Statistics” by J.
Best, pp. 84-92.
*Smoke and Mirrors by D. Baum, pp. 219-221, 232-33.
(See 7/28 readings)
“The Casual Labor Market” by T. Sugrue, pp. 119-121.
7/13: Why are Some Behaviors Labelled as Social Problems?
Readings:
“The Social Construction of Drug Scares” by C. Reinarman, pp. 92-100.
“Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction” by E.
Goode &
N. Ben-Yehuda, pp. 149-169.
*Smoke and Mirrors by D. Baum, pp. 187-189.
(*See 7/28 readings).
“Superscapegoating” by R. Templeton,
pp. 13-14.
7/14: Corporate Power
Readings:
“Corporate Power” in (S&C), pp. 17-19.
“Getting Corporations Off the Public
Dole” by J. Shields (S&C), pp. 21-29.
“Marketing the World” by D. Korten,
pp. 149-158.
“Smoke Screen” by P. Hilts (S&C),
pp. 29-38 (focus on 31-34).
7/15: Corporate Power and Economic Inequality
Readings:
“Race to the Bottom” by D. Korten, pp. 229-237.
“Losing Out to Mexico” by D. Barlett
& J. Steele (S&C), pp. 61-68 (focus
on pp. 64-68).
“Skilled Workers Watch Their Jobs Migrate
Overseas” by K. Bradsher, p.A1
“Sweatshop Beneficiaries” by B. Herbert,
p. A13.
7/16: Economic Inequality and Poverty
Readings:
“Top Heavy” by E. Wolff (S&C), pp. 99-104.
“American Inequality: Its History and
Scary Future” by B. Schwarz, p. A25.
“The Issue is Jobs” by B. Herbert, p.
19.
“Does Lower-Class Culture Perpetuate
Poverty Among Urban Minorities?”
R. Monk, pp. 192-193.
“The Future of the Lower Class” by E.
Banfield, pp. 194-198.
“Blaming the Victim” by W. Ryan, pp.
199-206.
“Poverty’s Children: Growing up in the
South Bronx” by J. Kozol,
pp. 22-27 (focus on p. 25, skim the rest).
“Money is the Root of All Evil” by J.
Ruane & K. Cerulo, pp. 80-84.
Due: Popular
Press Article Title.
7/20: Welfare, Workfare, and Poverty
Readings:
“Should Welfare Recipients be Put to Work?” by G. McKenna & S.
Feingold, pp. 232-233.
“The Cure for the Culture of Poverty”
by M. Kaus, pp. 234-238.
“Punishing the Poor, Again:
The Fraud of Workfare” by R. Cloward &
F. Fox Piven, pp. 239-243.
“Scapegoating Women on Welfare”
by M. Abramovitz & F. Fox Piven, p24
“Welfare is Ruining This Country”
by J. Ruane & K. Cerulo, pp. 138-143.
*“Work, Welfare, and Single Mothers’
Economic Survival Strategies” by
K. Edin & L. Lein, pp. 253-265.
*“Teenage Childbearing and Social
and Reproductive Disadvantage” by
A. Geronimus, pp. 463-470.
* Half the class will be responsible for the Edin & Lein article,
and half for the Geroni-
mus article.
7/21: The Welfare of Children
***Quiz
#1
Readings:
*“Children Are Our Most Precious Commodity” by Ruane & Cerulo,
pp. 18-25.
*“If the Child is Safe” by M.
Wright Edelman, pp. 81-93.
“One Mother’s Search for Child
Care” by C. Posgrove, pp. 16, 18-20.
“What’s Best for the Child?” by
D. Conniff, pp. 21-23.
“Abandoned to Her Fate” by D.
Van Biema, pp. 33-36.
“Cleared of Child Abuse Five Times...”
by W. Glaberson, p. B2.
“Madness As Usual” by B.
Herbert, p. A21.
* Half the class will be responsible for the Ruane & Cerulo article, and half for the Wright Edelman article.
7/22: Crime and Violence
Readings:
“Crime, Violence, and Drugs” in Social Problems by Curran & Renzetti,
excerpts from pp. 347-72.
“Is Street Crime More Harmful Than White Collar
Crime?” by K. Finster-
busch & G. McKenna, pp. 280-281.
“The Impact of Inner City Crime” by J. DiIulio,
pp. 282-287.
“A Crime by Any Other Name” by J. Reiman,
pp. 288-295.
“Murder is Becoming All Too Commonplace on
the Streets of Our Nation”
by Ruane & Cerulo, pp. 106-111.
7/23: Violence: Guns, the Media, and Preventive Strategies
Readings:
“Do We Need Tougher Gun Control Laws?” by G. McKenna & S.
Feingold, pp. 184-185.
“The Strong Case for Gun Control” by
C. Bogus, pp. 186-193.
“The False Promise of Gun Control” by
D. Polsby, pp. 195-202.
Chapters 14, 18, & 23 of Fist Stick
Knife Gun by G. Canada, pp. 99-103,
127-132, 159-167.
“Violence and the Media” in Social Problems
by Curran & Renzetti, p. 356.
Due: Titles
of 2 Journal Articles.
7/27: Drugs: Should They be Legalized and the “War on Drugs”
Abandoned? I
Readings:
“The Case for Legalization” by E. Nadelmann, pp. 222-232.
“Against the Legalization of Drugs”
by J. Q. Wilson, pp. 233-242.
“The War on Drugs: Is it Time
to Surrender?” by C. Mills, pp. 300-305.
Due: Critical
Thought Essay #1.
7/28: Drugs: Should They be Legalized and the “War on Drugs”
Abandoned? II
Readings:
*“Reefer Madness” by E. Schlosser, pp. 45-63.
*“The War on Drugs and Civil Liberties”
by S. Wisotsky, pp. 202-207.
Smoke and Mirrors by D. Baum, pp. 49-50,
176, 62, 69-71, 72, 155-161,
199-201, 256-257, 258-260, 262-273, 306-307, 331-332.
Chapter 11 of Fist Stick Knife Gun by
G. Canada, pp. 77-81.
*Half the class will be responsible for the Schlosser article
and half for the Wisotsky
article.
7/29: Drugs, Crime, & Racism
***Quiz # 2
distributed.
Readings: “Crack
& Punishment: Is Race the Issue?” by C. Jones, p. 1.
Smoke and Mirrors by D. Baum, pp. 222-23, 257, 277.
“More White Users, Black Arrests” by S. McIntosh,
p. 6A.
“Tough Law on Sentences is Criticized” by
F. Buterfield, p. A14.
“Doing Time, Marking Race” by J.E. Wideman,
pp. 503-505.
“Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice
System” by M. Mauer
& T. Huling in (S&C), pp. 396-404.
“Criminal Communities” by M. Muharrar, pp.
15-16.
7/30: Racism I
Readings:
“White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming
to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies”
by P. McIntosh,
pp. 1-19.
“The Continuing Significance of Race:
Antiblack Discrimination in Public
Places” by J. Feagin, pp. 101-115.
“American Apartheid” by Massey &
Denton in (S&C), pp. 143-49 (skim)
“Segregation Forever?” by D. Judd, pp.
740, 742-43.
“America is the Land of Equal Opportunity”
by Ruane & Cerulo,
pp. 95-101 (skim)
Due: Quiz #2
Videos: Eye on America: Some Police Searches are
Only Skin Deep
Prime Time Live: True Colors
8/3: Racism II
Readings: “Immigrants
are Ruining This Nation” by Ruane & Cerulo, pp. 145-150.
“Immigration to the Burn Zone” by R. Suro in (S&C),
pp. 163-173.
“Asian Americans: The Myth of the Model Minority”
by R. Takaki in
(S&C), pp. 174-180.
Due: Paper analyzing
popular press article.
Video: Who Killed
Vincent Chin?
8/4: Affirmative Action
Readings: “Is Affirmative
Action Reverse Discrimination?” by McKenna & Feingold,
pp. 204-205.
“Affirmative Action: The Price of Preference”
by S. Steele, pp. 206-211.
(continued on next page)
“Reverse Racism, or How the Pot Got to Call the
Kettle Black” by S. Fish,
pp. 212-217.
“In Defense of Affirmative Action” by H. Schwartz,
pp. 215-220.
“The Struggle to Return to Self-Help” by G. Loury,
pp. 186-190.
“Occupational Apartheid” by S. Steinberg, pp. 744-746.
8/5: Education, Racism, and Economic Inequality
Readings: “Life on
the Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois” by J. Kozol in (S&C),
pp. 341-348.
“Will Reforming School Funding Remove Savage Inequalities”
by J. Noll,
pp. 104-105.
“Separate and Unequal” by R. Sidel, pp. 106-109.
“Savage Equalities” by P.Schrag, pp. 110-113.
“Education is the Great Equalizer” by Ruane &
Cerulo, pp. 156-161.
“The Great School Sell-Off” by P. Schrag in (S&C),
pp. 356-364 (skim).
*or
“Do Cultural Differences Between Home and School
Explain the High
Dropout Rates for American Indian Students” by R. Monk, pp. 102-3
“American Indians Out of School: A Review
of School-Based Causes and
Solutions” by J. Reyhner, pp. 104-112.
“Is Cultural Discontinuity an Adequate Explanation
for Dropping Out?” by
S. Ledlow, pp. 113-122.
“Fourth Grade Failure Syndrome” by J. Kunjufu, pp.
5-7, 10-15.
*Half of the class will be responsible for the 1st set of readings
and half for the 2nd.
8/6: Sexism/ Gender Inequality
Readings: “You’ve
Come a Long Way Baby” by Ruane & Cerulo, pp. 87-92.
“Learning Silence” by P. Orenstein in (S&C),
pp. 189-197.
“The Wages of Backlash” by S. Faludi in (S&C),
pp. 183-188.
“Sex Discrimination-Subtle and Covert” by
N. Benokraitis & J. Feagin, pp.
133-141.
“What Glass Ceiling?” by M. Lynch & K. Post,
pp. 27-36.
8/10: Sexism & Violence
Readings:
“Crimes of Gender” by L. Heise, pp. 277-284.
“Fraternities and Rape on Campus” by
Martin & Hummer, pp. 457-71.
“A Hazing in a Deadly Sorority” by G.
Sikes, pp. 101-103.
Video:
Warning: The Media may be Hazardous to Your Health
8/11: Sexism and Reproductive and Familial Issues
***Quiz # 3
Readings:
“Fetal Rights” by K. Pollitt, pp. 198-208.
“Life Without Father” by L. Flanders,
pp. 6-8.
8/12: Heterosexism & AIDS
Readings:
“AIDS: Plague or Epidemic?” by R. Searles Walker, pp. 1-12.
“Prejudice That Kills: The Toll in AIDS” by Solomon & Cohen,
pp. 121-23
“Chameleons by Day, Peacocks by Night:
Guppies (Gay Yuppies) in
Suburbia” by W. Brekhus
“Masculinity, Homophobia, and Misogyny”
by M. Messner, pp. 142-146.
Due: Critical
Thought Essay # 2.
The Medicating of the American Populace
*** “Planet Prozac” by E. Gilbert, The Village Voice, Aug. 12,
1997 (ProQuest Direct)
Race, Friendship, & Diversity
Readings:
**** “Growing Up, Growing Apart” by T. Lewin
(http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/featured_articles/000626monday.html)
**** “The Minority Quarterback” by I. Berkow
(http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/featured_articles/000703Monday.html)