As this is my first quarter after transferring to UCLA, I was super concerned about my grades and adjusting to a large university like UCLA, especially given the fast-paced quarter system. Fortunately, I was able to enroll in this class. Dr. Mays is an excellent professor who possesses a deep knowledge of the subject, which is very personal to him. He is down-to-earth, and I appreciate that he doesn't have the Hotep attitude that some professors in African American Studies may exhibit. The course content is very manageable, and if you have previously taken an African American Studies or Indigenous Studies class, you should find this class a breeze! Good luck, yall!

The professor does not align what he tells students in class about grading to his actual grades. Would highly not recommend.

Professor Mays has to be one of my favorite lecturers at UCLA. Not only is he INCREDIBLY knowledgable about this subject, but he is also super down to earth which made learning online a lot less stressful which ultimately led me to being much more engaged in the material. I was confident that I would enjoy this class to at least a certain extent when first enrolling; however, I never expected that I would take as much from it as I did. Overall, this class was an instructive, introductory course on how to better decolonize the mind. Whether it be through the sprawling set of readings we were assigned, the eye-opening films, or the insightful (and very funny) lectures, this class has challenged me to unlearn false parts of the American history taught to me in my childhood.