Professor Masuoka’s lectures were in whole irrelevant to the material presented in the books we read for the course and the tests reflected little from lecture slides. In fact, the lectures were not engaging. They were boring to sit through even though the subject itself could be presented in a fascinating manner. By the end of the quarter the class felt as if there was no strong point it attempted to convey and felt like a bit of a waste of my time. There are three books assigned for the quarter accompanied by three 5 page papers summarizing the key points of each one. These were not easy reads nor were they page turners. The tests were graded very critically and most everyone I know in the class who are A students got mediocre grades due to the specificity the professor wanted from our answers even though we were responsible for an untenable plethora of book and lecture knowledge. The Teaching assistants didn’t seem to care about our understanding of the readings and did little to help us understand the fundamental ideas presented in the books and the lectures. Maybe the professor designed her course to be overly strenuous on a subject that should be graspable to any political science student because it is her first year at UCLA and she wants to make a statement for future employers by including too much material on her syllabus to look ultra professional, but this class should be a hard skip for anyone reading this. I didn’t take away anything of value from the class and in retrospect should have taken a more engaging and manageable course.

This class definitely had its pros and cons

Pros:
Professor Masuoka is an experiences lecturer and her subject matter was very informative, useful, interesting, and powerful at times. She provided all her students with the readings which were of no cost, and she also provided students with lots of support whenever they needed academic guidance with the course material.

Cons:
Professor Masuoka does make attendance mandatory, and missing just one class will have you behind on the lecture topics needed for the in person, on paper, closed note exams. Missing discussion sections were also penalized after one absence. The worst part about the class is the lack of rubric and structure that the course needs, and we never really knew how we were being graded. Her TA Tricia was extremely defensive and passive aggressive in her discussion sections, making me and my fellow peers afraid of even being able to talk to her because the way she taught was so arrogant and rude. She was also so unhelpful with any concerns we had regarding the exam and final paper.

Professor Masuoka is certainly knowledgeable and passionate about racial politics. The biggest issue with the class is the lack of rubric and structure. The professor and TA didn't exactly specify what they were looking for in terms of the midterm so a lot of people got lower grades, iirc the average was around a low 80%. However they definitely gave us more support for the final paper and the final exam, I went to office hours and the TAs were really helpful. I think the final paper and exam averages were around a 90-95%, so that helped bring up the overall grade for most everyone after the low midterm grades.

This class really helped me open my eyes on how institutions and policies shaped how minorities lived throughout history. This was by far one of my favorite polisci class that I have taken. There were 3 books assigned, but you only choose 2 to write a paper for. My TA Jessica was very helpful! She helped me go over my outline for all my papers as well as clarify any topics that were confusing. I highly recommend taking this class if it is offered once again. Sure, there is a good amount of work that you need to put into, but for this class, you definitely get the grade that you deserve based on how much effort you put into studying for the exams.

I really enjoyed this class and professor Masuoka! I learned so much about the different policies that constrain minorities in our political processes. All of the three books assigned were interesting and eye opening. I thought my TA Izul graded a little harder than she should have but oh well. I would definitely take this class if you can, you will learn something!

This was an incredible and hands-on class! Professor Masuoka did an amazing job of mixing in guest lecturers with time to work hands-on with our project groups in order to plan and execute our project. Overall, this was a great activism-based class that allowed students the opportunity to create a tangible impact and count underrepresented groups on the 2020 Census.

Professor Masuoka's class was nothing short of incredible. Her lectures were engaging and the topics covered were relevant and very interesting. The class focused on racial minority politics involving African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans - there's quite a bit of history involved in the first half of the class leading up to the midterm, but then mostly recent material afterwards. There are three books assigned and papers on 2 of them due throughout the quarter (your choice as to which 2) with 1 question about each book on the exams. The midterm and final accounted for 20% and 30% of your grade, respectively, and consisted of 10 free response questions (about 5-6 sentences each). My TA was Izul and she was very helpful in helping us go through the books, understand the main points, and review for exams.

Take this class if you can and don't make your decision not to based on one whiny review from a student who complains about how "overly strenuous" the course is. It really isn't much harder than any other political science course I've taken and I finished it feeling so much more educated and intrigued by racial minority politics.