This seminar course is an overview of the contemporary sociological literature on the black experience in America. Some of the topics to be addressed include (but are not limited to) the debate over the "significance of race," tensions over the cultural/attitudinal adaptation to inequality, and emerging disputes within the black community regarding what it "means to be black" in the post-Civil Rights Era. By the end of this course, students should be more aware of the important role that class position plays in shaping African-American identities and ideologies.