How do artists and writers attempt to resolve long-standing political, social and economic issues regarding interracial justice? This course will examine how literary and filmic texts are used to attempt to heal deep political, economic, and social rifts in US society, especially over issues of racial justice and settler colonialism.  We will look at the controversial beginnings of race and racism and how it motivated policies of removal, exclusion, and containment and determined formal apologies and monetary reparations in United States politics within the last thirty years. We will examine how these political developments are reflected in contemporary US literature: how tensions are resolved and reconciled or remain marginal and overlooked. Through present-day discussions of past historical injustices, we will develop advanced critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. We will consider novels, short stories, poetry, music, films, and essays about African chattel slavery, genocide and forced removal of Native Americans, Japanese American concentration camps, Nazi death camps, and immigration in order to develop cogent arguments and marshal evidence in support of our opinions about controversial issues today.