The Dynamics of Inequality Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States

by Gagne, Patricia; Tewksbury, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780130976376
• ISBN10: 0130976377
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-21
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This anthology helps readers understand issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality at the individual level--by including stories by or about people who have actually experienced discrimination, prejudice, or inequality because of who they were. It then explains the historical, cultural, and institutional roots of inequality, before turning to theoretical explanations, and finally to a section on activism oriented toward social change. For United States citizens working for unity--while celebrating diversity--in the land they call home.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
The Personal Experience of Inequality	1	(29)
Ragtime, My Time	3	(3)
Alton Fitzgerald White
The End of the Line	6	(11)
Samuel G. Freedman
Coming Out Now	17	(2)
J. Baker
N. Joseph
Race, Skin Color, and Body Parts	19	(2)
Ta'Shia Asanti
Becoming a Man: The Personal Account of a Female-to-Male Transsexual	21	(9)
Mark Rees
Getting Involved	29	(1)
Site-Seeing	29	(1)
Linking the Past with the Present	30	(59)
The Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity in Corporate America	32	(4)
George Davis
Alabama Prison Chain Gangs: Reverting to Archaic Punishment to Reduce Crime and Discipline Offenders	36	(7)
James F. Anderson
Laronistine Dyson
Willie Brooks, Jr.
Gender and the ``American Way of Life'': Women in the Americanization Movement	43	(11)
John F. McClymer
The Hidden Half: A History of Native American Women's Education	54	(9)
Deirdre A. Almeida
Lesbian/Gay Rights and Immigration Policy: Lobbying to End the Medical Model	63	(12)
William B. Turner
Lifting the Ban on Gays in the Civil Service: Federal Policy Toward Gay and Lesbian Employees Since the Cold War	75	(14)
Gregory B. Lewis
Getting Involved	88	(1)
Site-Seeing	88	(1)
How Inequality Is Perpetuated: Culture and Its Impact	89	(54)
The Problem of the Color Line	92	(2)
Anna Quindlen
The Enemy Within: The Demonization of Poor Women	94	(6)
Ruth Sidel
Cross-Class Perceptions of Social Class	100	(12)
Thomas J. Gorman
The Beauty Myth	112	(2)
Patricia J. Williams
Never Too Buff	114	(3)
John Cloud
Racial Warriors and Weekend Warriors	117	(19)
Abby L. Ferber
The Hardening Face of Anti-Semitism	136	(3)
Mark Sappenfield
James N. Thurman
William Echikson
Corinna Schuler
Tom Regan
Peter Grier
Overcoming Reservations about Leaving the Reservation	139	(4)
Michael Ridgway
Getting Involved	141	(1)
Site-Seeing	142	(1)
Barriers to Equality	143	(195)
Economic Barriers to Equality	143	(4)
40 Acres and a Mule	147	(5)
Dalton Conley
A Busted Trust	152	(1)
Colman McCarthy
How the Government Killed Affordable Housing	153	(5)
John O. Norquist
Race in the Workplace	158	(4)
Robert J. Grossman
Institutional and Racial Barriers to Employment Equity for Hispanics	162	(5)
Jerry Yaffe
Temps Are Here to Stay	167	(4)
Jan Larson
Women in Management: How Far Have We Come and What Needs to Be Done as We Approach 2000?	171	(8)
Jeanne M. Brett
Linda K. Stroh
Designing Mom-Size Jobs	179	(1)
Joan Williams
Where Are the Civil Rights for Gay and Lesbian Teachers?	180	(4)
Christine Yared
Conformity Pressures and Gender Resistance Among Transgendered Individuals	184	(22)
Patricia Gagne
Richard Tewksbury
Getting Involved	203	(1)
Site-Seeing	203	(1)
Institutional Barriers to Equality in Health Care	204	(2)
Pain Relief in U.S. Emergency Rooms Is Related to Patient's Race	206	(1)
Deborah Josefson
The Health of African American Men	207	(8)
John A. Rich
Inadequate Housing: A Health Crisis for the Children of the Poor	215	(7)
Joshua Sharfstein
Megan Sandel
Constructions of Masculinity and Their Influence on Men's Well-Being: A Theory of Gender and Health	222	(20)
Will H. Courtenay
The Impact of Medical and Sexual Politics on Women's Health	242	(12)
Linda Gannon
Stigma, Health Beliefs and Experiences with Health Care in Lesbian Women	254	(11)
Patricia E. Stevens
Joanne M. Hall
Getting Involved	262	(1)
Site-Seeing	262	(1)
Educational Barriers to Equality	263	(2)
Busing Rolls to a Stop	265	(4)
Lucille Renwick
Racial Desegregation	269	(9)
Loretta F. Meeks
Wendell A. Meeks
Claudia A. Warren
Gender Equity: Still Knocking at the Classroom Door	278	(5)
David Sadker
Back Seat Boys Christian Science Monitor	283	(4)
Triumph Over Trauma	287	(5)
Sabrina McIntosh
Getting Involved	288	(1)
Site-Seeing	289	(1)
Criminal Justice and Legal Barriers to Equality	289	(3)
New Facts on Racial Profiling	292	(1)
Jeffrey Prescott
Police Brutality Must End	293	(3)
The Progressive
Too Poor to Be Defended	296	(2)
Economist
Requiem for a Public Defender	298	(7)
Alan Berlow
An Ethnographic Assessment of the Policing of Domestic Violence in Rural Eastern Kentucky	305	(14)
Neil Websdale
Out in This World: The Social and Legal Context of Gay and Lesbian Families	319	(14)
Katherine Arnup
Legal Scholars of Gay Rights Offer Strategies to Combat the ``Apartheid of the Closet''	333	(5)
D. W. Miller
Getting Involved	337	(1)
Site-Seeing	337	(1)
Violent Barriers to Equality	338	(55)
High-Decibel Hate	341	(2)
Bob Herbert
The Code of the Streets	343	(10)
Elijah Anderson
Factors Contributing to Juvenile Violence in Indian Communities	353	(5)
Larry EchoHawk
In Their Own Words: Battered Women's Assessment of the Criminal Processing System's Responses	358	(15)
Edna Erez
Joanne Balknap
Wife Rape: A Social Problem for the 21st Century	373	(3)
Kersti Yllo
``Honey, We Don't Do Men''	376	(6)
Denise A. Donnelly
Stacy Kenyon
The Execution of Pvt. Barry Winchell: The Real Story Behind the ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' Murder	382	(11)
Thomas Hackett
Getting Involved	392	(1)
Site-Seeing	392	(1)
Theoretical Perspectives on Race, Class, Gender, and Sexualities	393	(54)
Simple Justice: Affirmative Action and American Racism in Historical Perspective	396	(8)
J. Blaine Hudson
Invisible Masculinity	404	(9)
Michael S. Kimmel
Race, Gender, Class in the Lives of Asian Americans	413	(5)
Yen L. Espiritu
Reflections on Race, Class, and Gender in the U.S.A.	418	(10)
Lisa Lowe
Angela Davis
Embattled Terrain: Gender and Sexuality	428	(19)
Judith Lorber
Getting Involved	446	(1)
Site-Seeing	446	(1)
Social Movements and Resistance	447	(3)
A New Civil Rights Agenda	450	(3)
Joyce A. Ladner
Dismantling Environmental Racism in the U.S.A.	453	(10)
Robert D. Bullard
The Ugly Side of the Modeling Business	463	(4)
Deborah Gregory
Patricia Jacobs
Race, Gender, and Class: The Challenges Facing Labor Educators	467	(1)
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Women of Color in Leadership	468	(4)
Helen Zia
The Rise of the Workplace Movement: Fighting for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Rights in Corporate America	472	(19)
Nicole C. Raeburn
The Promise of Stonewall	491	(2)
Ann-Marie Cusac
Whose Movement Is It?	493	(3)
Mubarak Dahir
Getting Involved	496	(1)
Site-Seeing	496

Excerpts

What is it about the United States that makes it so unique? It may be the freedoms U.S. citizens enjoy, yet in many democracies of the world, people enjoy similar liberties. Some say the United States offers an unparalleled standard of living, but luxury is common in many nations of the world. What makes the United States different from any other nation in the world is its cultural diversity. The United States is the only nation on earth founded by immigrants and based on the premise that all who enter U.S. borders can expect to find opportunities and freedoms that, as newcomers, they would fail to find anywhere else in the world. There are differences in the amount of wealth Americans enjoy; still, each person is constitutionally entitled to the same protections as any other citizen, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, social class, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. And with very few exceptions, each person is legally entitled to the same opportunities as everyone else. Indeed, these are laudable ideals. But has the United States lived up to them? This book suggests that U.S. society has a long way to go before equal protection under the law and equality of opportunity are realities. The articles here give voice to the Americans that freedom and opportunity have neglected. In the first section, authors talk about their personal experiences with prejudice and discrimination, demonstrating just some of the ways that inequality is perpetuated in U.S. society today. The second section offers insights into the nation''s long history of inequality based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. The authors discuss racial inequality and violence, lack of political liberties for women, distrust of new immigrants, and discrimination in official government policy against gay men and lesbians. The articles in the third section examine the impact of today''s dominant culture in perpetuating inequality. The authors examine belief systems, stereotypes, and prejudices and discuss some of the ways that racist, sexist, classist, and homophobic biases are perpetuated by the media and certain social groups. The fourth section provides articles that explain some of the ways that inequalities have been built into the very structure of U.S. society. That section is divided into four subsections, which discuss how key social institutions--the economy, education, medicine, and legal system--perpetuate prejudice, discrimination, and inequality. In the fifth section, authors discuss some of the ways that violence against women, people of color, gay men, lesbians, and others is used to intimidate individuals and perpetuate the dominance of those who perpetrate violence against them. As these articles make clear, violence affects not only individual victims, but also all those who are intimidated from exercising their rights and freedoms for fear of attack. Since the United States was founded on principles of equality of opportunity and equal protection under the law, how is it that inequalities continue? In the sixth section, authors offer explanations for inequality based on race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as the myriad ways in which these individual characteristics and social statures intersect with one another. Such explanations are crucial to efforts to challenge, resist, and overthrow the barriers to equality that continue to exist in U.S. society. A number of social movements of the twentieth century focused on resisting and challenging systems of domination. These and continuing efforts are the focus of the seventh section of this book. The civil rights movement made unprecedented gains in challenging the system of social, political, and economic apartheid that was part of the fabric of U.S. society. And people of color of all races benefitted from that movement''s efforts. Similarly, the women''s movement challenged the oppression of women, and the gay and lesbian movement resisted prejudice and worked to change institutionalized discrimination. Yet one of the most daunting challenges of the twenty-first century will be for activists to find ways to address prejudice, discrimination, and oppression that occur at the intersections of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and sexuality. Specifically, the civil rights movement succeeded at improving the rights and liberties of African Americans, while the feminist movement increased the rights of women. Yet women of color find that they continue to be targets of prejudice and discrimination in ways neither movement has understood or anticipated. Furthermore, identity-based politics, through which people work together to improve their status--as people of color, as women, as gay men, as lesbians, as transgenders, as poor people, or as members of the working class--makes it increasingly difficult for individuals to reach beyond group boundaries. Even as these groups struggle for full and equal participation in society, each has a tendency to isolate itself from others who are different. The only way that inequality will be successfully challenged in the twenty-first century is for these'' groups and others to reach beyond the boundaries that have allowed each to work for its own members'' rights. People of color, women, sexual minorities, the poor, and members of the working class must work together in coalition, focusing on the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexualities. It is only by working for unity while celebrating diversity that all people will come to enjoy the freedoms, civil liberties, and equality of opportunity that are the foundation upon which the United States claims to be founded. With this book, we hope to show some of the challenges that people in the United States have faced and continue to encounter as they strive to overcome the barriers to equality and enjoy full participation in society. We wish to thank Nancy Roberts, Merrill Peterson, Cynthia McCloud, Deanna McGaughey, and Mark Richard for their editorial and administrative assistance in the production of this book. We could not have produced it without their valuable help. We also wish to thank the following reviewers: Susan E. Chase, University of Tulsa; Trudie Coker, Florida Atlantic University; William P. Nye, Hollins University; and Magalene Harris Taylor, University of Arkansas.