DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOUR TA IS NATALINA MONTEIRO!!!
I read all of the reviews and thought this class would be an easy A in the summer with relatively interesting content but I was utterly fucked over by my TA. In the async format, the grading is split into 30% discussion board posts, 35% midterm, 35% final. The midterm is a take-home exam composed of short responses and two essays based on content from Weeks 1-3. It's a lot of writing and kinda time-consuming but mostly follows the content from the lectures. The final (I didn't take it because I dropped) is a similar format of being a take-home exam with essay questions on Weeks 4-6. Every week, you have to watch lectures, films, and do readings and write two discussion board posts and two replies. There are three "lessons" each week, each with its own set of readings and/or films as well as 1-2 30-60 min lecture videos. The discussion board questions align very closely to the lecture topics and aren't too difficult. This class would have been easy and stress-free but my TA graded unnecessarily harshly, giving out 2/3s and 2.5/3s on the discussion posts because she didn't think you "proved you read the material" even if you had. The only directions for the posts were that they had to be more than 5 sentences but her expectations were upwards of 400-500 words per post with time stamps and citations, even when the directions did not specify that. The 2s and 2.5s added up and made it basically impossible for me to get an A in the course before my midterm was even graded, which is why I dropped. She didn't grade anything until the end of Week 5 out of 6 so I couldn't even drop for a refund. She also never responded to my email asking about why she took off random points for my discussion posts. The class content is actually really interesting so it's a shame I had to drop because of a shitty TA :/ I'm sure the class is an easy A and well worth your time if you get another TA though

Professor Pierre is no doubt an extremely knowledgeable and helpful professor who loves what she does and has much to offer. She is kind, accepting, and accommodating in every way. The workload is fairly reasonable with weekly readings (student purchased) followed by weekly reflection papers and three exams. With that being said, the structure of this class did not work well with me. This class should be considered two separate classes with how it is broken up and structured. There is lecture and discussion that both seem to encompass two completely different concepts, ideas, and set of materials. In discussion, students are expected to read multiple books and write weekly reflections on them. These discussions, which are heavily student driven, consist of students talking about the key points and ideas of the books. Conversely, when attending lecture, often the readings are not even discussed, brought up, or relevant to the lecture itself. These lectures also consist of Professor Pierre almost entirely reading slideshows verbatim. Personally, I feel attending lecture is useless when a professor takes an hour and a half to read a slideshow that is available online that I could read in 15 minutes on my own. Furthermore, she talks extremely fast and often stumbles over her words making it sometimes difficult to follow what she is saying or where she is going with her thoughts. Again though, this is counterbalanced by a very heavy reliance on slideshows but is also bolstered by her frequent asking of student questions with further explanations if necessary. Overall, Professor Pierre is a wonderful professor who no doubt has a passion for what she does, but personally, the style of her teaching doesn't work well with me.

Prof Pierre gives amazing lectures and her TA was pretty decent. The only A+ I've gotten at UCLA

i really enjoyed this class and professor! appreciated that she offered it online because it worked super well with my schedule but I still feel like i got a ton out of it!! learned a lot more than anticipated.

Amazing class, if you need to knock off a GE this is a go-to. The class is at your pace and all assignments are easy as long as you pay attention to the lectures. You will have a blast while educating yourself on important issues!!

This class is so great! You learn about very important issues and Dr. Pierre is a great lecturer. The books we read for this class are very interesting, and the readings and lectures are too. Dr. Pierre brings in amazing guest lecturers and I really like that. You can tell she's very smart and passionate and that's great to be around (it was an online class, but I still like her energy).

There are not that many assignments week-to-week, but I say the midterm and final exam are time consuming.

I had Joelle Julien as my T.A. and she was great too!

Overall, great class, great professor, and I would take it again.

This class is the easiest of Ws. You learn quite a lot of important concepts as well; I would even suggest that this class be mandatory for students here, since it is so crucial to understanding American social struggles, and everyone can take away something important from this course. Highly recommend this course for anyone who wants an easy GE, while also wanting to learn a bit too. 10/10

Quick Summary if you do not want to read the following: not an easy class, but you can learn a lot indeed.

Looking at the past gradings of this class, one might assume that this is an easy class and want to take it to fulfill the GE requirement. Please do not assume that if you are taking it in summer. The workload was enormous. Basically, every week you have video lectures, some documentaries, lots of readings, and there are two novels to be finished along with the progress of this class. Weekly assignments are the discussion posts. You would easily procrastinate because you are not necessarily pushed to do all the reading and watch all the documentaries, but then here comes the midterm and final. I wrote 10 pages for the midterm and 20 pages for the final.

Nevertheless, this is a very very insightful class if you really pay attention to all the details mentioned. The recordings included not only Dr. Pierre's lectures, but also interviews with scholars, and lectures given by scholars in the specific fields. You acquire not only historical facts, but also different perspectives and approaches to understand and analyze the "black experience" (not only in the United States, but actually across the world).

I never had the chance to interact with Dr. Pierre personally as all lectures were prerecorded BUT this class was AMAZING. It was very easy yet also very engaging. There was a variety of lecturers who all offered unique and personal perspectives on a variety of topics. The material was all super interesting and very eye-opening as well. I saw another review that suggested this class be required for all students and if that was ever possible I would agree 100%.
Overall: easy, interesting, and very manageable workload. Best possible GE you could take IMO.

I learned so much more than I was expecting to about the history of the United States through this class, and believe that this class should be required for every college student! The professor Dr. Pierre was incredibly kind as well, considering the hardships a lot of students have faced during the pandemic. The workload is manageable and the class was asynchronous! Definitely would recommend this as a GE to fulfill one of your requirements!