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.

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 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.

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.