AAS 3853

This course does a great job explaining the systemic targeting of minorities by the government. It shifts students away from the false paradigm of working hard to get ahead. Some Americans, no matter how hard they try, are doomed from the start.

This course educates white students for white students about the manifestations of white supremacy. In my experience as a student of color, I did not find any personal growth in taking this course or understanding my place in dismantling the forces of systemic racism in the real estate industry. Because it is also cross-listed as a history course, many students who are not AAS majors take the course, the overwhelming majority of whom are white. Not coincidentally, this shifts the baseline understanding of race in the course to a level that can be traumatic to students of color. Professor Kahrl does not use this as an opportunity to confront race and racism and dismantle its dynamics in the course. Instead, perhaps because of his experiences as a white professor who uses his studies in AAS to justify his expertise in the field, he steers the course around white academia, rather than the real life experiences of the people most affected by systemic racism.

If you are interested in this topic in particular, this course will be beneficial to you because it is rather in depth in the material that it covers. If you are interested in negotiating race, however, this course does not (and perhaps cannot) do that to any applicable, worthwhile ends.