This course offers an introduction to the body of research and understanding about race and diverse identities and cultures, particularly in the context of the United States. Students will identify and describe terminology relating to race and diversity and will explore and describe the concepts of race, culture, class, sex, and gender identity as social constructs. Students will be asked to think critically about assumptions related to race- and sex-based hierarchical ideas and the effects of those assumptions on equitable economic, social, and political participation in the United States. Students will explore, and explain, the meaning of intersectionality as it relates to diverse identities (e.g. race, ethnicity, sex and gender, etc.).