Great job on your presentations!  Thanks for all of the yummy treats.   A few final reminders and concluding remarks:

First, please make sure you complete the online course evaluations.  The written portion is shared only with me but the numbers are shared more widely and are important.

Second, I will hold regular office hours on Monday and will also be around on Wednesday from 3:30-5:30.  Please bring your papers.  The website should be completed by May 23rd.

Finally, it was a pleasure to have you all as students!  I am very proud of the work you accomplished.   If you will permit me one last piece of sociology, I’d like to share with you a quote that speaks to the larger objective of our course: “The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in” (James Baldwin).  Good luck with finals and keep in touch!

Kyra Gaunt recorded Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s talk for us and you can access it here. It’s only sound. If you want to start at the Q&A, it’s about 48:00 minutes in:

https://soundcloud.com/kyraocity/eduardo-bonilla-silva-at-baruch-college-0-48-00-qa

Also, the clip of Eduardo discussing Obama and racial politics is here and is 15:53 minutes in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYJUrBhHFEg

As a reminder, we agreed that papers would be due on May 21st.  I need a hard copy by 5:30.  The site should be complete by May 23rd, which is the end of the final exam period.

“You know, Amy, there’s an expression when we talk about rape culture, for example, that the definition of it is not just the crime, but it’s people who see what’s happening but choose to do nothing. There is a racism culture in the ownership ranks of the NBA. In other words, not every owner is as outward a racist as Donald Sterling, but for decades they have chosen to enable him and look the other way…I think Kareem makes a very good point in that we’re so quick to attack people who say racist things, yet we don’t look at the manifestations of institutionalized racism. I think that’s the great contribution of Michelle Alexander’s book, The New Jim Crow, is that it looks at the prison system, as she puts it, in the “post-racial” society, the way racism manifests itself. And so, we can wag our fingers at Donald Sterling and not look at the institutionalized racism that still exists.”

That’s an excerpt from the  interview I mentioned today with sports columnist Dave Zirin:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/29/secret_tape_could_oust_clippers_owner

Zirin wrote “The Muhammad Ali Handbook.”

The meeting times are listed here: http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/beeman14/?post_type=document&p=714

We will meet in my office, Room 4-271.  Enter through the Black and Latino Studies Dept.

Sorry for the recent barrage of emails but I must let you know that I will not have office hours today, 4/28.  I’ll be observing another class at that time.

FYI:

CUNY Student Protests Against Austerity and for Jobs in the 1930s: Applying Lessons from the Past to Demand a Federal Government Works Program in the Present, Tuesday, April 29th, 7 pm, College of Staten Island, Building 1P, Room 120 (Recital Hall).

Remember to bring your laptops and work tomorrow for our class with Amanda.

I will fill you in briefly on Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s visit.  His talk was engaging and hilarious as usual.  He also led a wonderfully open and honest discussion afterwards.  There were a number of people still talking to him so he agreed to move to the sociology conference room and stayed with the group until 4:00!  A faculty member may be able to share a sound recording.  I’m looking into it.

Remember to bring your laptops to class on Monday to work on the website.  Here is the link to Slavery by Another Name: http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/

Here, you can read about the author and the documentary.  If you scroll down the page, you will see a link to watch the film.  We saw the first 15 minutes which sets up the political environment that would help develop the system of convict leasing.  You’ll also see actors portraying some of the stories bringing the archival data to life!