Definitely take this class. Professor Speer makes his lectures extremely clear and if you come to class and take notes, you will do well on the exams. The weekly readings can get dense, but are usually pretty interesting.

One of the best classes I have taken at UCLA. So relevant to current events and so interesting to learn about the evolution of race and how ultimately race is socially constructed. Not to mention my TA was actually the GOAT. Joauquin is the best if you can have him as a TA, you should and you will be blessed

Overall, this was a pretty good class. Political power, wealth inequality, gender inequality, etc are all discussed and honestly most of it you probably already know. You have weekly homework assignments where you have to do the readings and answer around 8 written questions, but they were graded on completion. Midterm and final were honestly really easy, for both it was 20 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions. The only thing that was slightly tricky was the final paper where it was based on one of the readings and you had to agree or disagree with it, but it was nothing too bad as long as you take your time on it. Professor Speer is so helpful and his lectures are very clear and understandable, you can tell he takes the time to make sure his students succeed :)
also ta benjamin is the besttt

Having a good TA is crucial in this class, as his lectures IMO are quite boring and don't actually help very much (other than understanding the neccessary vocabulary that is found in the readings).
I really wish he opened up dicusssions more and a back and forth between the students-- because he mostly just read from the slides and its hard to pay attention because its quite boring.
Mid.

Love professor speer! As others have said, the workload is fair but it is so straightforward that it makes it easy to do the tests, etc.,

a big fat smooch for professor speer. You're doing great mama, love youuuuu

Tip: do the homework, would help you out with the tests so much