Prof Ortiz is incredibly organized and communicative and sends out a weekly email with the plan for the week with everything you need to know. She's an alright lecturer and kind of skims over things sometimes. I have a background in most of the topics she talks about but I assume it might be a little confusing if you didn't since she names events/terms without describing them sometimes. I also asked a question once and she was a little rude about it saying "I don't know why you're asking about this." Overall though, I would take this class again and really enjoyed the first quarter of this cluster. I learned so much that I didn't know before and appreciate how this class takes on a different perspective than one I had in high school. Discussions kind of suck and are so draining (2 hours), but lectures are mostly very interesting. Weekly readings can be a lot but you can skim the long ones (you have to leave one comment on the document to show you read it, but it can be anywhere and about anything. there are deadlines but they don't take off any points as long as you comment before the end of the quarter). The class is really easy after week 8 when the main paper is due.

The entire Cluster20A teaching team was extremely supportive and accommodating during COVID-19 times. They go out of their way to make sure students aren't being overwhelmed during the pandemic.
Content wise, I found this cluster really interesting, especially since I'm personally interested in these topics with the heightened awareness since summer 2020. But with that said, if this class does not sound interesting to you maybe don't take it, because you have two 1.25hour lectures a week, one 2 hour discussion, and a ton of weekly readings about interracial dynamics.
Again, I thought all of this was manageable and captivating because I thought the subject was interesting.
As long as you do the bare minimum you should get 100% on the participation portion which accounts for 40% of your grade.
The other 60% is from a paper (30%) about the book, Bad Indians, and the final (30%) which was 3 short essays tying in concepts learned throughout the quarter.
Because of this, YOUR TA basically determines YOUR GRADE, I had Laura Terrance and she was an absolute angel! So sweet, good discussions, always there to support you and recommends office hours, and a very fair grader. Definitely take her if you can!
My final grade in the class was about a 96.
You get 4 out of 6 of your GE's finished (if you are a STEM major) and also if you are in the college honors, this gives you 6 units hnrs collegium and writing II credit from the spring quarter.

For anyone interested in the topics covered by this class, I HIGHLY recommend you take it. Clusters are a great way to get GEs out of the way and from what I have heard, this cluster, in particular, is one of the better ones. In addition, the content included in this course is relevant and is certainly beneficial to you as a college student in the United States.

The course content is very easy, and the workload is what you make of it. Lectures are engaging if you choose to pay attention and the weekly assigned readings are bearable (most of the time). The only downside to this course is that there is a fair amount of reading. As I mentioned previously, there are weekly readings, and in addition to that, we had to finish reading a relatively short book by week 7. However, I can assure you plenty of classmates never even touched the reading materials, but it is in your best interest to actually read the book as your final essay is centered around the content of the novel. It is a decent book and as someone who hates reading, I found it pretty easy to finish.

Overall liked this cluster and it wasn't super challenging to get an A in the course since I am a pretty good writer. If you struggle with writing, this class could be tough. Midterm fall quarter is VERY EASY and pure memorization that you can do in two days. Final winter quarter is also fairly easy and can be learned in two days. Reading from the course reader is not entirely necessary you will come to realize. SELLING COURSE READERS FOR FALL AND WINTER QUARTER FOR $20 (this saves you over $100). Text ********** if you're interested!

Very interesting and insightful to learn more about the history of race in our country, as well as the affect of racism and discrimination on minorities today. Course work is relatively light and provides a great chance to sharpen ones writing skills. Great class to take for the education and extra writing credit!

This class is a super easy A+. There are no tests, a midterm that is an OUTLINE for an essay, and the final being said essay, Due to the TA strike, the test part of the final was optional but even then, the final was supposed to be essays based on class content. I loved going to discussions that were more engaging than the lectures, to be entirely honest. I only attended two lectures but then stopped because it was not engaging but I still ended the class with an A+ due to my participation in attending discussions, completing perusal comments (only ever wrote one sentence), turning in lecture observations (only ever wrote one sentence), and completed the final paper (did not even read the book for the final paper). If you enjoy history, this class will be an easy A. If you hate history like me, as long as you attempt to participate in the slightest, you will be fine! Take this class if you are interested in a Cluster!

This class is great because it knocks out a whole lot of GE credits. However, this class (though it covered a great deal of consequential content) was progressively more and more boring. Lectures provided students with a whole bunch of information, but they often felt unorganized, as professors would often go off on tangents for a great deal of time. Honestly, if you read the Bad Indians book, and know a couple key details about each social group in society (Chinese Americans, African Americans, Native Americans) then you will be fine. Would not take again though.

The professors are very passionate and involved in this class. The topics and lectures are interesting and relevant. I liked this class overall as it wasn't very difficult and the workload was very manageable.

Professor Ortiz was super knowledgable, and always gave very thoughtful responses to our questions and raised really important issues. This cluster in general I would definitely recommend, because it was the most useful information for general life and being a good citizen that I got from anywhere.

Professor Ortiz is one of the first professors I've had in college. She is so kind and genuinely cares about her students, even though we never got to meet in person.