For
years, College of Ethnic Studies students could choose from classes
in American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Black Studies and
Raza Studies. This spring, for the first time ever, dozens of students
are embarking on a new course on what it means to be white in America.
The class
-- "Making Whites: Race-Making in America" --
examines the meaning of whiteness from the country's earliest days
as a colonial
outpost until today. Also offered with the History Department, the course
has enrolled about 40 students.
"Historically, if we look at what it has meant to be white in terms
of relationships with other races, we might be better able to understand
race relations and racism," said Amy Sueyoshi, a scholar on the
history of race relations in America who created and teaches the course.
Sueyoshi
said she realizes that whiteness studies has both its friends and foes. "Some have applauded the field as addressing Anglo-Americans
in a post-Civil Rights, multicultural era where whites feel strangely
neglected," said Sueyoshi, who is Japanese American. "Others
fear that courses on white Americans take resources away from hard-won
courses in ethnic studies."
The subject is worthy of study, Sueyoshi explained, because the racial
construction of whiteness has played a critical role in the history of
American race relations and racism.
"In
the past we have looked at race relations from the perspective of people
of color; with this course we look at race relations from a
white perspective. Being white has meant being privileged in this country
whether people realize it or not and that has a lot to do with race relations," Sueyoshi
said.
The course
explores whiteness from historical, political and social points of
view, looking
at how whiteness has been defined over time. "I
want students to study not only the evolution of whiteness in America
but its larger significance in an increasingly multiracial America," said
Sueyoshi, who has a doctorate in history from UCLA and taught there before
coming to SFSU two years ago.
More than 30 universities nationwide reportedly offer whiteness studies
classes with the majority created within the last 15 years. Tomas Almaguer,
dean of the College of Ethnic Studies, thought it was time for SFSU to
offer such a class.
"Who
is and who is not 'white' has never been transparently self-evident
in this country," said Almaguer, a leading scholar on race in America. "At
one point historically the Irish, Italians, Armenians and Jews were
racialized as 'non-white' while Mexicans, South Asians and Arabs were
deemed 'honorary whites.' No one would disagree that these status designations
have been inverted at the present time.
"This
course is important because ethnic studies has the responsibility of
critically
interrogating the meaning of race in this country. That
most certainly involves tracking this convoluted history and exposing
the illogic of racial thinking."
Sueyoshi took on the challenge of creating the course from scratch.
She researched current scholarship on whiteness studies and consulted
faculty on campus and elsewhere.
The class covers such areas as the meaning of whiteness studies, the
founding fathers, preserving whiteness in the West, the rise of conservatism
and whiteness in the 21st century.
"Through these discussions we will be able to construct what it
has meant to be white in America over time so we might see how we got
to where we are today in terms of race relations," Sueyoshi said.
-- Ted
DeAdwyler
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