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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: April 7, 2005
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 352: Law and Social Change

You will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

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Week 13: Week of April 10, 2005

Topic: Queer Theory and Asian Americans

Special Announcements:



• April 11th -- Fall 2005 registration begins.
• April 22nd, beginning of class -- ABSOLUTE FINAL DEADLINE. Materials submitted after this deadline will NOT be accepted.
• May 6th - Last Day of Class
  

  Preparatory Readings:

• Arrigo. Social Justice/Criminal Justice, Chapter 12.
• Mann and Zatz. Images of Color, Images of Crime, Chapters 15 and 20 .
• Video: "Better Luck Tomorrow" (to be shown in class).
  
  

  Lecture related links:
  
  

• Japanese American Internment
• Japanese American National Museum
• Auto-Poietic Learning Systems
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
• Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.
  
  

  Concepts to be covered:
  

• ACT UP
• queer politics
• African American and Korean American relations
• Asian Americans as a "wedge"
• legacy of fear
• immigrants and refugees
• alien smuggling
• Chinese Exclusion Act
• Alien Land Act
  

  Discussion Questions:

  Note: In order to answer these discussion questions, you must view the movie, "Better Luck Tomorrow" to be shown in class.

  1. What are some ways that sexuality is regulated by our society? (Arrigo, p. 249, Q. 1).

  2. How is social inequality linked to AIDS? (Arrigo, p. 249, Q.3)

  3. Discuss the reasons for the lack of participation in civic and political life by many Asian Americans. (Mann & Zatz).

  4. A typical "bad" stereotype in American culture refers to Asians as sinister villains and brute hordes bent on sheer destructiveness. Why do crime statistics not reflect those images? What are the contributing factors in stereotyping Asians in American society? (Mann & Zatz).

  5. Why has the criminal justice system responded so poorly to crimes against Asian Americans? (Mann & Zatz).
  
  

  Suggested Creative Measures:

  
  
  • new Imagine that all college/university students were ordered to internment camps with less than two week's notice. You can take "only what you can carry." What items would you take? Why. How disruptive would such an order be on your life? Why.
  • new View the movie, "The Wedding Banquet." Connect this movie to the readings in both books.
  • Examine the political and cultural context of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
  • Explore Asian American ethnic enclaves (i.e., Chinatown, Little Saigon, Koreatown, Little Tokyo).
  • Research one of the following topics: 1) Asian gangs, 2) Southeast Asian refugees, 3) the Suzy Wong stereotype, 4) the Fu Manchu stereotype.
  • Beyond examples discussed in class, examine how the mass media portrays Asian Americans.
  • Read one of the recommended books listed below on Asian Americans. Email me a brief book review.
  • Trace the origins and persistence of the "model minority" stereotype of Asian Americans. Is this a positive or negative stereotype? Why.
  • Trace either prime time television or movie images of Asian Americans from past to present.
  • Research one of the following Asian Americans: Senator Daniel K. Inouye, S.I. Hayakawa, Maya Lin or other prominent figures.
  • Trace the historical and contemporary origins of the Japanese American Citizens League.
  • Explore some of the political and economic strategies used by Asian Americans.
  
  
  
• Note: All creative measures: 1) Must relate to "law and social change." 2) Must be pre-approved. 3) Cannot be something that you are doing for another course. 4) Research cannot be 100% online (i.e., google, askjeeves). Must conduct library research using scholarly works, (not the popular press -- Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated).

Recommended Readings:

• new Siobhan Somerville. Queering the Color Line: Race and the Invention of Homosexuality in American Culture.
• David Eng. Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America.
• Jose Quiroga. Tropics of Desire: Interventions from Queer Latino America.
• Thomas Wirth. Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent.
• Arnaldo Cruz-Malave and Martin Manalansan. Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism.
  
  
  
• Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Farewell to Manzanar.
• Michi Weglyn. Years of Infamy.
• Roger Daniel. Politics of Prejudice.
• Ronald Takaki. Iron Cages..
• Amy Tan. The Joy Luck Club.
• Lawson Fusao Inada. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience.
• Greg Robinson. By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans.
• Victor Nee. Longtime Californ'.
• H. Kim. A Legal History of Asian Americans, 1790-1990 .
• Tetsuden Kashima. Judgment without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II.
  
  
• Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
• Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law.

Course Syllabus

Links to the Sociology of Law Handbook readings
-- Introduction
-- Chapter 1, part 1
-- Chapter 1, part 2
-- Chapter 2