Asian and Latino Politics in the United States Government 1577
Harvard University
Fall 1995
306 Sever Hall
Professor Michael Jones-Correa
Class Hours: MW 11-12 am
Office: Littauer G-5
Office hours: Th 4-5 pm Tel: 495-8280
(or by appointment)
E-mail: correa@fas.harvard.edu

This seminar will provide a general survey of constraints and opportunities in minority politics, focusing on tensions between immigrants and minorities, separatism and assimilation, electoral politics and protest politics, and cooperation and competition within and among minority groups. The purpose of the course is not only to pinpoint the similarities and differences of the agendas and strategies adopted by minority groups, but to indicate the interaction between minority politics and American politics as a whole.

Requirements

Students are required to write one short (7-10 page) paper approximately mid-way through the semester (around November 6). A longer paper of 15 pages will be due during reading period. This paper should allow students to focus in more depth on one of the issues we have studied and should be responsive to the theoretical issues raised in class. Students should consult with the professor about their ideas for the longer paper by December 10. In addition, there will be a scheduled final exam at the end of the semester (January 17).

Papers should be typed, and follow an accepted social science footnote and bibliographic style. Be careful--cite your sources! Suggested page length does not include title page and bibliography. Papers will be due by 5 p.m. of the date specified. Thereafter, papers will be considered late, and will be penalized a half-grade for every day they are not turned in.

The first paper will be 20% of your grade. The second paper will be worth 40%, and the final exam will count for 30% of the grade. 10% of your grade will be based on your participation in class and weekly sections.

Books

All required reading will be on reserve in Lamont and Hilles libraries. Many of the books are also available to buy at the Coop. These should include:

Sucheng Chan Asian Americans: An Interpretive History

Yen Le Espiritu, Asian-American Panethnicity

Carol Hardy-Fanta, Latina Politics/ Latino Politics

Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Immigrant America

Arthur Schlesinger, The Disuniting of America

Peter Skerry, Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority

Stokely, Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power

Selections from the following books are also required reading. Their purchase is recommended. However, if you choose not to buy these books, they will be found on reserve at Lamont Library.

Steven Erie, Rainbows End

Rodney Hero, Latinos and the U.S. Political System: Two-Tiered Pluralism (readings from Hero are also included in packet below)

Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency

Ronald Takaki ed., From Different Shores

In addition there is a packet of reading material available at the copy center at the Law School. The packet includes additional articles required of all students. It includes readings which are not available in any of the books listed above, and which are not necessarily on reserve. These readings are marked below as (P). The packet will be available at the Copy Center in the basement of Pound Hall in the Law School by Tuesday, September 19. The copy should be listed under the course or as packet number CM-4.

Course Outline and Reading Assignments

The Players: Asians and Latinos in the U.S.

September 18 Introduction

September 20 Old and New Immigrants: Asians and Latinos to the U.S.

Readings: Portes and Rumbaut, Immigrant America ch. 1-4 Higham "Strangers in the Land" pp. 67-72 in Takaki ed.

September 25 Asians in the U.S.: A Brief Overview

Readings: Chan, Asian Americans, all

September 27

October 2 Latinos in the U.S.: A Brief Overview

Readings: Hero, Latinos and the U.S. Political System ch. 3

October 4 Skerry, Peter Mexican Americans ch. 1,2,3

Creating a 'Minority' Politics

October 9 Political Machines: Incorporation at the Margins

Readings: Steven Erie Rainbow's End (University of California Press, 1988) ch. 1, 6, 7

October 11 Civil Rights: Mobilizing for Incorporation

Readings: Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency (University of Chicago Press 1982) ch. 5-7

October 16 Protest and Civil Unrest

Readings: Blauner "Colonized and Immigrant Minorities"

October 18 pp. 149-160 in Takaki ed.

Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton, Black Power: the Politics of Liberation in America (New York: Vintage, 1967) all, esp. ch. 2-3.

Gary Orfield, "Race and the Liberal Agenda: The Loss of the Integrationist Dream, 1965-1974" in Weir et al. eds. The Politics of Social Policy in the United States (Princeton University Press, 1988) ch. 9. (P)

Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail (P)

October 23 Electoral Strategies: The Voting Rights Act and Its Consequences Readings: Abigail Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count? (Cambridge: October 25 Harvard University Press 1987) ch. 1-3, 9, and Conclusion (P)

Bruce Cain, "Voting Rights and Democratic Theory: Toward a

Color Blind Society?" in Grofman and Davidson eds. Controversies in Minority Voting pp. 261-277. (P)

Luis Fraga, Lani Guinier, and Carol Swain"Comments" in Grofman and Davidson pp. 278-299. (P)

October 30 Legal Strategies: Affirmative Action and Civil Rights

Readings: Thurow "Affirmative Action in a Zero-Sum Society" November 1 pp. 235-240 in Takaki ed.

Nathan Glazer, Ethnic Dilemmas (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1981) ch. 9 (P)

Ronald Dworkin "Reverse Discrimination" in Taking Rights Seriously (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977) ch. 9 (P)

Clarence Thomas "Civil Rights as a Principle versus Civil Rights as an Interest" Assessing the Reagan Years ed. by David Boaz (Washington D.C.: the Cato Institute, 1988). (P)

Paul Gewirtz, "Discrimination Endgame" The New Republic 18:23 (August 12, 1991) (P)

Critiques

November 6 Has There Been Progress? A Critique from the Left

Readings: Hero, Latinos and the U.S. Political System ch. 1, 2, 11

November 8 Has There Been Progress? The Success and Failure of Multi- Ethnic Coalitions

November 13 Readings: Browning, Marshall, and Tabb Protest is Not Enough, ch. 7 (P)

Espiritu ch. 3

Elaine Kim "Between Black and White: An Interview with Bong

Hwan Kim" in Karen Aguilar-San Juan ed. The State of Asian America (South End Press, Boston 1994) (P)

"Hispanic Population Outnumbers Blacks in Four Cities as Nation's Demographics Shift" New York Times October 9, 1994. (P)

November 15 Has There Been Progress? Who's Left Out? The Issue of Gender

Readings: Hardy-Fanta, Latina Politics/Latino Politics all except November 20 ch. 4

Ngan-Ling Chow "The Feminist Movement: Where are all the Asian American Women?" pp. 184-191 in Takaki ed.

November 22 Thanksgiving Recess

November 27 Is There Really a Pan-Ethnic Identity in the First Place? Views from Left and Right

November 29 Readings: Espiritu, Asian-American an-Ethnicity, ch. 1, 5, 6, and 7

Skerry, Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority ch. 10, 11

Nathan Glazer, "Who's Available?" Ethnic Dilemmas, ch. 11 (P)

Clara Rodriguez, Puerto Ricans: Born in the U.S.A. (Unwin Hyman 1989) ch. 3

December 4 White/Black Backlash

Readings: Jonathan Rieder, Carnarsie (Harvard University Press, December 5 (1985) ch. 3, 4, and 6. (P)

Jack Citrin et al. "The 'Official English' Movement and the Symbolic Politics of Language in the United States" Western Political Quarterly 43:3 pp. 533-560 (P)

Peter Schuck, "The Message of 187" The American Prospect

Spring 1995 v. 21 pp. 85-92. (P)

December 11 Is Mobilization Based on Ethnic Identity Dangerous? Critiques from the Right, Responses from the Left

December 13 Readings: Schlesinger, The Disuniting of America, all

Portes and Rumbaut, ch. 6.

Raspberry, "Beyond Racism,"

Sowell, "We've More Than Our Quota of Quotas," pp. 225-234 in Takaki ed.

Asante, "The Afrocentric Idea", and Ravitch "Cultural Pluralism" and Takaki, "At The End of the Century" in Takaki ed.

December 18 Conclusion: Where Are We? Where Are We Going? What Should Be Done?