Cultural products act as mirrors for the ideologies, anxieties, and hopes of their creators. In the 20th century, popular culture gained greater prominence as new mediums, technologies, and social movements gave culture more social and political currency. Pop culture was designed to commercially prey on people’s nostalgia and desires to belong or be seen. But can still be fun and can be an important aspect of a person’s identity. We should examine this contradiction to understand if it is even possible to responsibly consume problematic media.This course is designed to explore how popular culture has been a powerful tool for both racial subjugation and empowerment in the 20th century United States. It highlights how important moments in U.S. history impacted cultural products and the people who enjoyed them.It is structured chronologically from the late 19th to the early 21st century exploring how events such as Gilded Age immigration, the Cold War, and liberal economic policies impacted peoples lives and the culture they produced and consumed. Each week will focus thematically on a specific medium including minstrel culture, romance novels, and video games. While race is the primary focus of this course, it also examines class, gender, and politics to understand how these historical intersections complicated the impacts popular culture had on individuals and communities. Major themes will include historical and cultural memory, representation, and identity.