Instructor

Traci Jo Elliott
Email

Uncovering Whiteness
Syllabus

tje3@pdx.edu
Office Location
Cramer Hall 317O
Office Hours
Thurs. 12-1:30 pm

Intended Audience for Course

This course is intended for both freshman, sophomores, and possibly juniors at
Portland State University, this is because the course will have a high amount of
reading and critical thinking that is required for the entirety of the course. The
readings will make up a bulk amount of the homework in the course, but there
are still two short response essays and one final essay which must also be
factored into homework time, my estimation for possible time per week
studying and working on this class would be a minimum of four hours per
week and a maximum of twelve hours. This class is primarily for sophomores
who have already developed the necessary skills and can further develop their
own critical thinking, specifically on the idea of whiteness and also race and
social justice as a whole. Juniors may find the course slightly rudimentary in
terms of work load and freshman may find the readings to be too much
considering it is their first year, but both are welcome to enroll in the course.
Whomever may take the course should be prepared for a discussion-based class
rather than a lecture-based as we will be doing readings, examining current

culture around racism, white supremacy, white privilege, etc. Because there will be such sensitive a
certain level of maturity and respect is required especially considering this will be a discussion-based
course.

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Required Text
The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, George Lipsitz
Lessons from the Color of Fear, Jamie P. Ross*
Beyond Guilt: How to Deal with Societal Racism, Lauren N. Nile*
A Journey to Tolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Hate, Leanne Claire Serbulo*
*available online via the Portland State Library PDXScholar Website

Learning Objectives
The course will provide whomever may take the course with a furthered perspective on race and how
whiteness has affected the political, economic, and culture in which we all live in. The key skills that
will be covered and focused on throughout the course are thinking critically about the concept of race
and how whiteness has been portrayed both in current and past times, how whiteness has affected the
current political and societal landscape in which we live in, as well as how whiteness has affected our
own lives. One of the other skills that will further develop for those taking this course is reading
comprehension, the majority of readings done in the class will be at a higher level of reading and will
strengthen the readers comprehension skills especially when paired along with the discussions inclass. The in-class discussions, which we will be doing a bulk of our class time, will serve to allow
students to understand differing perspectives and further develop their own opinions on the subject
material in which we will be covering throughout the term.

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Rationale behind course material

The primary reading for this course is George Lipsitz book, The Possessive Investment in
Whiteness, the reason in which this book was chosen as the course-long focused reading was because
it specifically focuses on the whiteness in a manner that addresses how whiteness has continually been
used throughout history to prioritize whiteness and ensure that people of color are below those who
are labeled white. This book covers how whiteness has effected a multitude of people of color and the
ramifications that have happened over decades of history that have led to the structural and societal
racism in American society. There are three readings on top of this book reading, the first is A
Journey to Tolerence: Overcoming the Politics of Hate, because this short eight page article serves to
show that racism has and continues to affect our own area in Multnomah County as well as just in the
broad spectrum of American Society. This reading also specifically focuses in on extremist hate
groups and the history they have in our own community and how in which these hate groups not only
continue but how they currently do affect the community. The next reading that will be featured is the
Lessons from the Color of Fear and serves to show more of how white race ignorance is normalized
in society and focuses on different forms of media in which that has been highlighted and how
whiteness remains powerful and has increased privilege due to the normalization of whiteness. The
last reading that accompanies George Lipsitz book is Beyond Guilt: How to Deal with Societal
Racism and the reason in which I included this was because of the fact that I felt it necessary to have
some sort of proposed solution to white privilege and thought it would be interesting to discuss as
well as there are more than just this one proposed solution, the article itself focuses on dealing with
societal racism as a European American, often called white, and the guilt that accompanies that and
how to cope and deal with such guilt as well as addressing the question of if whites should feel guilty.

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Course Schedule

Week

Readings

Week 1

Introduction & Chapter 1 of The

Assignments due

Possessive Investment in
Whiteness
Week 2

Chapter 2 of The Possessive

Investment in Whiteness and A
Journey to Tolerance:
Overcoming the Politics of Hate

Week 3

Chapter 3 of The Possessive

Short Response Essay

Investment in Whiteness
Week 4

Chapter 4 of The Possessive

Investment in Whiteness

Week 5

Chapter 5 of The Possessive

Investment in Whiteness and
Lessons from the Color of Fear

Week 6

Chapter 6 of The Possessive

Short Response Essay

Investment in Whiteness
Week 7

Chapter 7 of The Possessive

Investment in Whiteness

Week 8

Chapter 8 and 9 of The Possessive

Investment in Whiteness

Week 9

Chapter 10 of The Possessive

Investment in Whiteness and

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Beyond Guilt: How to Deal with

Societal Racism
Week 10

Chapter 11 of The Possessive

Final Essay

Investment in Whiteness
Outline/Schedule

Week

What is being done in class

Week 1

Tuesday: I will be handing out and going over the syllabus, would
like the introduction and chapter 1 read by the next class period so
all would be ready to discuss. We will be watching a video about
AJ+ entitled What is White Privilege? and then discussing in
small groups of 3-5 what whiteness personally means to us and then
coming back to discuss it as a whole class.
Thursday: Expected to have read chapter 1 and the introduction for
Lipsitz book, will be discussing as a class and then breaking off into
smaller groups to discuss the chapter further.

Week 2

Tuesday: Discussion on Chapter 2 and formulating opinions on how

the civil rights laws have helped or hindered white supremacy,
breaking off into small groups to argue on opinions formulated.
Thursday: Discussion on A Journey to Tolerance: Overcoming the
Politics of Hate and relating this to the chapter previously done
and discussing how in our own area we can see the effects of white
power and gentrification, as well as discussing in small groups the

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history that is covered in this article as well as chapter 2.

Week 3

Tuesday: Discussion of chapter 3 as well as immigration in our own

country and how immigration has furthered whiteness, there will
also be time to have peer editing that day for the first essay due the
next class period.
Thursday: SHORT RESPONSE ESSAY DUE AT THE
BEGINNING OF CLASS. Discussing more identity politics and
the ways in which the United States classifies race and how
whiteness factors in to this, small groups discuss how racial identity
has affected them in their own lives and how they feel whiteness
has effected immigration policies.

Week 4

Tuesday: Discuss chapter 4 and go into small groups to discuss how

whiteness effects war and the ramification whiteness has due to war
and vice versa.
Thursday: Watching of the video from the David Pakman Show,
White Privilege is Real, discussing as a large group what they
think about Tim Wises responses and what they agree and disagree
with him about

Week 5

Tuesday: Discussion on chapter 5, focusing in on how whiteness

functions, as well as exploring in small groups how whiteness
effects our own lives.
Thursday: Discussion of Lessons from the Color of Fear and how
we view whiteness in through media and how that has shaped our
views on whiteness as a whole, as well as how media portrays

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people of color against those who are white will be discussed in

small groups.
Week 6

Tuesday: Video shown entitled Why White Privilege Matters and

discussion about the video as well as debate surrounding the
reasons in which he provides and if one agrees with said reasons or
not and why which will be asked during small group discussions.
Thursday: SHORT RESPONSE ESSAY DUE AT THE
BEGINNING OF CLASS. Discussion of chapter 6, small groups
can break off to discuss chapter 6 more in-depth and how they
personally feel about Robert Johnsons death.

Week 7

Tuesday: Discussion of chapter 7 and how identity politics are

currently effecting our society.
Thursday: Video shown from Tim Wise on white privilege,
discussion of opinions on what Wise addresses in the video and how
this video can be connected to immigration politics.

Week 8

Tuesday: Chapter 8 discussion focusing on how we construe

whiteness and white identity as well as how racism fits in to that.
Small group discussion will be focused on how white identity has
shaped our own racial identity.
Thursday: Chapter 9 discussion focused on how whiteness has
affected all people of color and the ramifications addressed in the
chapter as well as others that can be pulled from the text.

Week 9

Tuesday: Chapter 10 discussion focused on how historically racism

and the power and influence whiteness has been experienced across

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the United States of America and how that is highlighted in the

chapter.
Thursday: Videos show of several spoken word poets speaking on
racism and whiteness, discussion and thoughts as whole class after
each video is shown and then once all videos shown breaking off
into small groups to discuss which video resonated with you the
most.
Week 10

Tuesday: Video Shown from Paul Joseph Watson entitled I Love

My White Male Privilege, discussion of points Watson made in
video and thoughts surrounding what he had to say and whether one
disagrees or agrees with him. Small groups meet to discuss favorite
part of Lipsitz book until coming together as a full class to discuss it
more.
Thursday: No class, turn in final paper to drop-box submissions.

Student Assignments

There will be two short response essays, which should range from 3-4 pages typed, and should
focus on a specific chapter or article and should not summarize the article but rather be a
response to it. This means thinking critically and developing an opinion on the article. This
assignment is thesis driven and should be very analytical and have original ideas and not simply
restate the ideas presented in the article/chapter that one has chosen. This will help the student
develop their own opinions on the course material and help them think critically about what
they are reading as well as demonstrate to me that they are read comprehended and most
importantly analyzed the material that has been given to them.

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The final paper will be an eight to ten page paper highlighting at least three chapters, articles, or
videos (there can only be one video though highlighted in the essay) that the student feels have
exemplified how whiteness functions in their own lives and the ramifications that whiteness has
had on them. This final assignment will help to know that the student has understanding of the
material covered as well as provide an examination of how they can relate the course material
to their own lives and evaluate the opinions they have come up with from analyzation
throughout the course, which should be evident through the essay.

Additional Information
Here are the links to the youtube videos if curious:
Shown week 10, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TU50Bz3Ey0
David Pakman Show, shown week 4 on Thursday, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9ndyej7YUU
AJ+, shown Week 1 on Tuesday, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQK8H0z-irM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Xe1kX7Wsc
Shown week 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Wf8y_5Yn4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwP6uQorEWQ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rYL83kHQ8Y
Shown week 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGo3_fU1n6s&list=PLcY3PgkksG7fiZIMh5SZ8kfo_U7oDzf4X

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