Prof Ortiz is incredibly organized and communicative and sends out a weekly email with the plan for the week with everything you need to know. She's an alright lecturer and kind of skims over things sometimes. I have a background in most of the topics she talks about but I assume it might be a little confusing if you didn't since she names events/terms without describing them sometimes. I also asked a question once and she was a little rude about it saying "I don't know why you're asking about this." Overall though, I would take this class again and really enjoyed the first quarter of this cluster. I learned so much that I didn't know before and appreciate how this class takes on a different perspective than one I had in high school. Discussions kind of suck and are so draining (2 hours), but lectures are mostly very interesting. Weekly readings can be a lot but you can skim the long ones (you have to leave one comment on the document to show you read it, but it can be anywhere and about anything. there are deadlines but they don't take off any points as long as you comment before the end of the quarter). The class is really easy after week 8 when the main paper is due.

The entire Cluster20A teaching team was extremely supportive and accommodating during COVID-19 times. They go out of their way to make sure students aren't being overwhelmed during the pandemic.
Content wise, I found this cluster really interesting, especially since I'm personally interested in these topics with the heightened awareness since summer 2020. But with that said, if this class does not sound interesting to you maybe don't take it, because you have two 1.25hour lectures a week, one 2 hour discussion, and a ton of weekly readings about interracial dynamics.
Again, I thought all of this was manageable and captivating because I thought the subject was interesting.
As long as you do the bare minimum you should get 100% on the participation portion which accounts for 40% of your grade.
The other 60% is from a paper (30%) about the book, Bad Indians, and the final (30%) which was 3 short essays tying in concepts learned throughout the quarter.
Because of this, YOUR TA basically determines YOUR GRADE, I had Laura Terrance and she was an absolute angel! So sweet, good discussions, always there to support you and recommends office hours, and a very fair grader. Definitely take her if you can!
My final grade in the class was about a 96.
You get 4 out of 6 of your GE's finished (if you are a STEM major) and also if you are in the college honors, this gives you 6 units hnrs collegium and writing II credit from the spring quarter.

For anyone interested in the topics covered by this class, I HIGHLY recommend you take it. Clusters are a great way to get GEs out of the way and from what I have heard, this cluster, in particular, is one of the better ones. In addition, the content included in this course is relevant and is certainly beneficial to you as a college student in the United States.

The course content is very easy, and the workload is what you make of it. Lectures are engaging if you choose to pay attention and the weekly assigned readings are bearable (most of the time). The only downside to this course is that there is a fair amount of reading. As I mentioned previously, there are weekly readings, and in addition to that, we had to finish reading a relatively short book by week 7. However, I can assure you plenty of classmates never even touched the reading materials, but it is in your best interest to actually read the book as your final essay is centered around the content of the novel. It is a decent book and as someone who hates reading, I found it pretty easy to finish.

The professors are very passionate and involved in this class. The topics and lectures are interesting and relevant. I liked this class overall as it wasn't very difficult and the workload was very manageable.

Professor Ortiz was super knowledgable, and always gave very thoughtful responses to our questions and raised really important issues. This cluster in general I would definitely recommend, because it was the most useful information for general life and being a good citizen that I got from anywhere.

Professor Ortiz is one of the first professors I've had in college. She is so kind and genuinely cares about her students, even though we never got to meet in person.

COIVD EDITION******
LEctures are not mandatory but the discussion is. After each lecture the professor uploads a question based on the lecture that you have to answer. There are only two papers based on the book Bad Indians that they make you purchase. They also have a lot of readings that are used through perusal but I'm not sure if they'll continue you that. The reading is heavy but I would suggest to just read every other week. or take light notes. I would recommend you watch the lecture though cus I had to cram them the last 2 weeks. this class is fairly easy but if you slack on the readings you will fall behind.

Don't take this cluster just bc it is a cluster, take it because you are interested or else you will become very bored. Lectures are entertaining but I found the reading to be SO overwhelming week after week. You spend all this money on two readers and barely use them. Fall quarter you take a midterm and write a paper (no final) and winter quarter you write a big paper and then take a big final. On the bright side, participation (just showing up) makes up a huge part of your grade, which is nice. The best part was spring quarter, where you got 6 units for going to one 3 hour discussion a week with a TA who was usually chill and didnt assign much. The A+ in the 3rd quarter almost makes this class worth it. I was interested in fall, but by spring I was tired of the class.

Selling EVERYTHING you need for both quarters of the cluster, including both course readers and the required reading Bad Indians, for CHEAP!! Willing to negotiate for more than 50% off. Text 916-895-1698 if interested!

The class was okay. Definitely do the readings to get an idea of what they are about, because you will need to recall information from specific readings for the midterm. They come in a course reader, which I heard was upward of $60 if you bought it new. I bought one from someone who took it last year for cheap and just looked up the readings online that it didn't include.
The essays came with seemingly easy prompts, but they stressed me out like crazy because I wasn't 100% sure what the TA wanted. Right after they assign the essays, GO TO YOUR TA'S OFFICE HOURS. Office hours helped me so, so much with writing the essay. Even if you think you're confident on the prompt, GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Show your TA that you're committed and looking to improve your writing. Ask them their opinion on your thesis. Ask them anything you're not fully confident about. Please, just go to office hours. I swear this helps your writing.
As for the course material, it wasn't too boring. I'm interested in interracial dynamics, but I was hoping for more contemporary material that went over current events. What we read so far was pretty historical and shouldn't be too hard to understand if you know basic American history. Some articles were pretty eye-opening, though. I can say that my eyes have been opened, and my perspective on some subjects have been broadened because of the readings. I really liked Bad Indians (the book you read for the first essay). It's a collection of all these different types of texts from different perspectives through time, and it was my favorite thing to read for the class.