This class is pretty interesting and informative and you get to learn a lot about black studies. If you take it during summer there are three lectures per week with readings accompanied and sometimes there are also screenings to watch, which can be a lot of work so it's very important to stay on track. The grading consists of 30% discussion board questions, 35% midterm and 35% final. Midterm and final are short answer and long essay questions, both open book. The lectures are done by multiple professors so it's really nice to get different perspectives. I definitely recommend this class for everyone!

This class has been one of the most interesting classes I've taken at UCLA. This was my first Black Studies class and just when you think you are educated on topics like racism and Black History, this class shows how we don't really know much about African American studies, but the surface of it. For this class, you do have to read articles, but I didn't mind reading them because they were so intriguing. My TA was awesome as well and you can tell that everyone is so passionate on this topic and I have never seen a more passionate professor than Pierre and the other professors that helped her teach this topic. I would take this class again, it isn't much work. You watch the lectures, you have two discussion posts each week and one discussion post in the week of your midterm and final. If you watch the lectures and do the reading and take detailed notes, you are good to go for the midterm and final. Got a perfect score on my discussion post, midterm, and final!

difficult class in that the readings were super dense. the class was structured around three ethnographic novels that were difficult to understand, very dense, like graduate level stuff tbh (this was my perspective as a non-anthro major). but you can get by if you understand the basic concepts from section and ask questions. the lectures are AMAZING though, professor Pierre takes a very liberal stance when it comes to capitalism and I loved learning from her. I learned so much about US imperialism, indigenous struggles against settler colonialism, and neoliberalism in the West African context.

This class is an easy GE, but it is a little tedious in regards to the readings/ lectures we had every week. It was interesting in the beginning, but I felt so disconnected halfway through the quarter because it felt as if I was watching/ reading the material simply to get it done and I did not gain much from it. This class is essentially self-paced, so I eventually stopped reading the material and only really watched the lectures. I only read the material when required for the discussion forums that we had + midterms/ finals.

Your grade is made up of weekly discussion forums, one paper, midterms, and finals. Your midterms and finals are simply short answer + long answer questions to the material that you should have read/ watched within the previous weeks. So pretty easy!

The only complaint I have about this class is that it is literally impossible to reach the TAs + professor of this class. I am 99% sure that they read our emails but choose not to reply to them which is honestly so unprofessional of them. So good luck with that! Your best bet in getting your questions answered is asking your peers in the class. Be sure to join the GroupMe or create one if there isn’t one already!