Producers: Governors State University

An introspective look at Middle-Eastern cultures in the U.S. as they appear in the media and are perceived by the American society. Studio Guest: Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Chicago. Video Inserts: Dr. Jack Shaheen’s film Reel Bad Arabs.

The fastest growing religion in the U.S. is Islam; it is also one of the most controversial as a result of 9/11. Studio Guest: Imam Kifah Mustapha (from a Mosque located in Bridgeview, IL) who is also the Associate Director of The Mosque Foundation and Dr. Aminah Beverly McCloud, a Professor of Islamic Studies at DePaul University. Video Inserts: Dr. Azizan Baharuddin from the Centre for Civilizational Dialogue at the University of Malaysia, and a mini-case study on the Islamic community in Waukegan, Illinois.

Explore your peers’ and your own individual ethnic/racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

Discuss how to use the Social Interaction Model (SIM) as an analytical tool for understanding human behavior in social settings.

Explore some of the varieties of communication styles in the U.S. as well as in other cultures around the world. Studio Guests: Isabel Lamptey, Western Illinois University, and Michel Nguessan, Governors State University. Video Insert: Asma Abdullah and Peter Shepherd, an Islamic couple from Malaysia.

Profile the rapidly changing demographic trends affecting the U.S. and other countries around the world. Studio Guest: Michel Nguessan. Video Inserts: Plaza De Los Angeles; Professor Alexander Astin, UCLA; and Wave Theory.

Learn the history of Immigration laws and social policies in the U.S. Studio Guest: Fred Tsao, Policy Director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Video Inserts: Marian Smith of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); White Racialist David Duke; and Marcelo Suarez, former director of Harvard University’s Immigration Study.

Explore one of our nation’s most complex and difficult problems, the concept of race. Video Inserts: Dr. Michael Omi, Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

The impact of social economics on the lives of families and individuals in the U.S. Studio Guest: Linzey Jones, Mayor of Olympia Fields, and Don DeGraff, Mayor of South Holland, Illinois. Video Inserts: White Flight in South Suburbia.

Examine the multifaceted issues surrounding gender in our society. Video Inserts: Professor Peggy McIntosh, Wellesley College, and Byron Hurt, Director of the film Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.