Course Description
Perspectives on race, ethnicity, and the family. Focuses on how these three areas function as social institutions, how people are socialized to think and communicate about race and ethnicity, as well as how to engage in communication as a way to enact social change and overcome difference, particularly in families.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Extra readings and research paper will be required.
Athena Title
Ethnicity Race and Family
Undergraduate Pre or Corequisite
AFAM 2000 or PSYC(AFAM) 2150 or AFAM(PSYC) 3150 or COMM 1500
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is designed to give both undergraduates and graduate students an opportunity to: • Understand how our interpretations of race, ethnicity, and family are sustained and changed through communication. • Identify family communication patterns, behaviors, and attitudes that shape our understanding of race and ethnicity. • Identify and understand how race and ethnicity impact social structures around us, especially the family. • Understand different forms of family and ethnic-racial diversity in the United States.
Topical Outline
Introduction Defining Family Communication and models of family Wholistic Perspectives on African American Families Theory and Methods in Family African Heritage of African American Families and a Just Society Western World View African Philosophy and cosmology Harmonizing and Unifying the warring souls affecrtion, intimacy, and conflict Male-female equality and parallel complementary empowerment power, control, and decision making Erosion of balanced male-female principle through slavery, colonalism, neocolonialism and internal colonialism African American marriages Communication, marriage types anfd marital satisfaction Interracial marriages Communication in various family forms (stepfamilies, cohabiting, homosexual) Strengthening and repairing family relationships
Syllabus