Sociol 221G Track 1 Coronavirus Pandemic through a Racial Lens ——————————————————————————————————————-
In this paper, you are exploring the Coronavirus Pandemic primarily through the lens of race, but not limited to it. Now you may say, how? Here are some research questions to guide your exploration: (a) is understanding the pandemic only about the virus itself? Are diseases simply biological, or are they also social? If the latter, what significance does this have for how you explore the pandemic?; (b) while the focus of the papers on the current pandemic, it is perfectly fine to include past policies and practices as long as you are showing how the past (past can refer to anything before the pandemic) is informing the present; (c) has the discourse/rhetoric around the pandemic been racialized and if so, by whom?; (d) has the pandemic ignited any acts of racial discrimination at the micro level and if so, describe?; (e) is how we are experiencing the pandemic impacted by existing racial inequalities connected to Americas institutions?; (f) are racial /ethnic groups experiencing the pandemic similarly?; (g) how is the pandemic exposing and deepening existing racial inequalities; and do you and/or your familys racial location influence how you and your family are experiencing the pandemic?
1. Format: Use Times font, size 12, double-spacing, and one-inch standard margins. Use the following format: At the very top of the first page on one line, type in your name, Sociol 221G. On the next line: Title. Be creative! And on the following line, begin your paper.
2. Length: 7 pages. You are welcome to go over the length, but not more than three pages.
3. Citation: You must use a combination of quotes and paraphrasing with at least one quotation per text. Make sure to cite (with the page number) all borrowed specific ideas within the essay, be they paraphrased or quoted. Use parenthetical citations. You will also need to provide a works cited page (using MLA or APA style), which doesnt count towards essays length. Please note, while in the syllabus and in this handout, I have referred to articles in Getting Real About Race via essay #, you must refer only to articles by their titles and authors, both within the paper and in the works cited page. For the works cited page, when you cite a text that has been posted on Blackboard, you are to cite it as if you had the print book as it is not publicly available to everyone. You must cite them as either articles from an anthology/collection (a book edited by an author/s) or from a book (written by the same author). And lastly, for any outside course electronic texts, you must include the http link in the works cited page, so I can directly access the text. Go to Blackboard- Owl Purdue MLA or APA- to learn how to cite (both within the paper and to construct a works cited page). DO NOT take your essay and place it in an automatic citation program. It will not come out correct. This is a mistake that many students do.
4. Edit your writing for spelling, punctuation and syntax, organization/flow of ideas (both within paragraphs and between paragraphs). Edit your essay three (3) times.
Quality of Writing (20%) Reflects overall quality of writing such as organization of ideas -both within and between paragraphs, sentence coherency, grammar and spelling.
Citation (10%) within the paper and works cited page. Refer to the above citation instructions as well as the Owl Purdue link in Blackboard to learn how to cite properly.
      Turn to next page for specific requirements
Textual Engagements (70%): Each textual engagement is weighted at 10%. Engagement is not simply presenting an idea or experience mentioned in a text, but how you understand and use that idea/experience to explore the subject matter. With the exception of requirement #1, you must engage twice with each text. Once with a central concept/idea/argument and the second time with another central concept/idea/argument OR experience/history. If the article includes an abstract written by an editor, you can not engage with the abstract. Book reviews are not accepted as an outside source.
The order in which the below texts appear should NOT be the order in which you engage with them. They are listed arbitrarily. You must think about where and how you want to engage with each text to help you explore the question.
Each textual engagement must be contributing something different to the paper.
Where it says to engage twice with a text, at least one of the engagements must be conceptual (with a concept/idea/argument) while the other engagement can be conceptual or empirical (to history/experience)
I want to see a balanced mixture of quoting and paraphrasing. You are to include in your citations the page number.
At least once in the paper, you must package together two different texts to both show connections between different concepts/ideas/experiences-practices-policies and to help you write more concisely.
1- Working definition/s of racism that will inform your essay from two of the following readings of which Bonilla-Silva must be one of them. Select one other reading from one of the following: GRR essay# 4 Garner & Selod, Omi & Winant, Tatum, Blauner, or McIntosh.
2- One of the following to explore race and residence/housing: Must engage twice with the reading. Farley & Squires or Shapiro
3- Select two of below texts: Schooling/Education: Kozol or Lee
or
Labor Market /Workplace: Pager, Neckerman & Kershernman, Wilson
or
race and the (built) environment: Zenk, Bullard or Dyson
or
race and incarceration: Alexander, chapter 1 of New Jim Crow or GRR essay #18 Doude
4- For race and health: GRR Essay 20: Mouzon
5- One other text (either from our course syllabus or from an outside scholarly journal or book that
is helpful to gain another vantage point into the topic.
6- Will need to draw on national/local/community news to help you learn about the pandemic and ways in which it is being constructed: national or local newspapers, TV news stations: CNN, MSNBC, FOX, BBC, NPR, and Democracy Now.