Race is an ever-present feature of American life. It is a polarizing topic in our politics and a prism through which we perceive social differences. In this course, we examine the major institutions and societal forces that shape the reality of race in thought and in material reality. Moving from past to present, we consider how slavery, segregation, the urban ghetto, and mass incarceration contribute to the social construction of race. By reviewing traditions of research on race in the U.S. and abroad, students will analyze how legacies of race and racism in the U.S. continue to influence our identities, culture, politics, and relations of power and inequality.