LASS248 Why Didn’t I Learn This Before: (in Word and Video) 3cr

The information about things you’ve never learned is in plain view: in the media, in the books anyone can get in the bookstore or order on Amazon, in TV documentaries, in podcasts readily available online. The information is also on the ground, all around us: all over the cities we live in, in the store where we shop for food and clothes, in our neighborhood police station, in art galleries and museums. Then why haven’t I learned it all before??? Few Americans are able to honestly explain why some people have mansions, while others are served eviction notices and thrown out on the street with their families. And few can explain why the area around MassArt, for example, is pretty much all white, while Roxbury, only a few miles further east, is mostly black. Is it really just because people want to live close to people who look like them? The answers are everywhere, and yet they are hidden from view. In this course we will examine the questions, and the answers - in word and video.

[Formerly Titled The Hood: Life and History]
[Formerly Titled White Privilege]

Prerequisites: FRSM-100 and LALW-100

Lecture

Spring