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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: February 28, 2008
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 352 Law and Social Change

You will be held accountable for the readings and discussion questions 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.

* * * * *

Week 7: Week of March 2, 2008

Reminders:

--Friday, March 7th -- The Final Day for Midterm Meetings

--Monday, March 10th -- Midterm Visual Projects due

--Friday, March 14th -- Last Day to drop a semester long class

Topic: Prophetic Criticism/African American

Preparatory Readings

• Arrigo. Social Justice/Criminal Justice. Chapter 4.
• Mann, Zatz & Rodriguez. Images of Color, Images of Crime. Chapter 2 & 7 .
• Documentary/Film: "When the Levees Broke" (shown in class)
  

Lecture related links:



• Participate in the Community Building discussion group .
  
• Curran and Takata. Sociology of Law Handbook:
  -- Introduction
  -- Chapter 1, part 1
  -- Chapter 1, part 2
  -- Chapter 2

• Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.
  
  
• "My Role in Social Change" Poem by LaTricia White (Spring 2004)
  
• "They Ain't Us: Identity as an Anti-Norm"
  
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
  
  

Concepts to be covered:



• what "is" and what "ought" to be
• Richard Quinney
• capitalist justice
• prophetic justice
• African American stereotypes



Discussion Questions:

Note: In order to answer these discussion questions, you will need to do all of the assigned readings for this week, and view "When the Levees Broke" to be shown in class.

1. What is prophetic criticism? (Arrigo, p. 89, Q.1). How does prophetic criticism apply to the documentary, "When the Levees Broke"?

2. What role do individuals assume in creating and sustaining prophetic justice? (Arrigo, p. 89, Q.7). Relate this to Images of Color, Images of Crime.

3. In the previous edition, Mann & Zatz state: "... It is striking that all of the authors in this section share a common ideological thread: the unwarranted stigmatization of African Americans, especially African American males, through the use of assumptions about urban violence (although a majority of the inner-city African Americans are nonviolent) and drug involvement (although the majority of African Americans do not use drugs)," (p. 74). Why do these "unwarranted stigmatizations" persist?

4. Based on Chapters 2 & 6 in MZR, what is the solution to alleviating racist stereotyping? Why.





Self-Assessment Questions for each Visual Project (due Monday, March 10th):




1. List the names of the individuals in your group. What did you do exactly for this visual project? (If in a group, explain the division of labor and your individual contribution to this visual project).
2. Briefly explain how your visual project relates to "law and social change" (i.e., the readings, the documentaries). What did you learn?
3. Assess how the 6Cs apply to your visual project, with special attention on competence and creativity. What is your visual project self-assessment (provide a letter grade) ___ ? Why.



Suggested Visual Projects:




Note: Start thinking about ideas for your creative measures. Must relate to "law and social change." Must be approved before starting your creative measure. Cannot be something that you are doing or have done for another course. 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). You will need to submit a bibliography with each project. No term papers! Allow time to dialogue and present your creative measure in class. Email me your ideas ASAP!



• In the Quinney chapter, Arrigo asks: "What role does contemporary capitalism assume in creating and sustaining the form of justice in our society today?"
• Beyond examples discussed in class, historically trace an example of "prophetic justice"?
• Read one of the recommended books listed below on African Americans. Email me a brief book review.
• Examine how stereotypes and the stereotyping of the African American. How and why have such stereotypes changed from the past to present day?
• Trace either prime time television or movie images of African Americans from past to present.
• Examine the legal case of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. or other African American leaders.
• Trace the historical and contemporary origins of "DWB" (driving while black).
• Explore some of the strategies used by African Americans (i.e., integrationism, separatism).



Recommended Readings:




• Derrick Bell. Faces at the Bottom of the Well.

• Derrick Bell. Race, Racism and American Law.

• Randall Kennedy. Race, Crime and the Law . (If you have not read it for my "Race, Crime, Law" class)

• Marc Mauer. Race to Incarcerate

• David Cole. No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Justice System.
  

• Jerome Miller. Search and Destroy: African-American Males in the Criminal Justice System.
  

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
  

• Walter Dean Myers. The Dream Bearer.

• Robert Blauner. Still the Big New: Racial Oppression in America.
  
  

  --- Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
  --- Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.

  
  
  

Course Syllabus for CRMJ/SOCA 352 "Law and Social Change"

takata@uwp.edu