The Meaning of Difference

by Rosenblum, Karen E.; Travis, Toni-Michelle C.

• ISBN13: 9780072296020
• ISBN10: 007229602X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: McGraw Hill College Div

Summary

"The Meaning of Difference" is a combined text-reader about the social construction of difference as that operates in American formulations of race, sex and gender, social class, and sexual orientation. It is premised on the conviction that similar processes are operating when we see difference of color, gender, class, and sexuality - and that these processes likely also apply to other master statuses such as disability, ethnicity, or national-origin. Three framework essays provide the conceptual structure for the book. Each framework essay is followed by a set of readings that illustrate the concepts developed in the essays. Readings have been selected because they identify concepts that are generalizable to a variety of statuses.

Table of Contents

SECTION I. Framework Essay: CONSTRUCTING CATEGORIES OF DIFFERENCE

What is Race?

1. Who is Black? One Nation's Definition, F. James Davis

A Wonderful Opportunity, R.M.A

2. The New Colored People, Jon Michael Spencer

3. Federal Indian Identification Policy, M. Annette Jaimes

4. La Raza and the Melting Pot: A Comparative Look at Multiethnicity, Carlos A. Fernandez

5. Asian American Panethnicity, Yen Le Espiritu

I Thought My Race Was Invisible, Sherri H. Pereira

6. Whiteness as an 'Unmarked' Cultural Category, Ruth Frankenberg

What is Sex? What is Gender?

7. The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough, Anne Fausto-Sterling

8. The Berdache Tradition, Walter L. Williams

9. Gender Stereotypes and Roles, Susan Basow

He Hit Her, Tim Norton

What is Social Class?

10. The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action, Richard D. Kahlenberg

11. The Underclass: Concept, Controversy, and Evidence, Ronald B. Mincy

I Am a Pakistani Woman , Hoorie I. Siddique

What is Sexual Orientation?

12. The Invention of Heterosexuality, Jonathan Ned Katz

13. Homosexuality: A Social Phenomenon, Barbara Sherman Heyl

14. The Development of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Identities, Heidi Levine & Nancy J. Evans

An Opportunity to Get Even , Carol A. Mabry

SECTION II. Framework Essay: EXPERIENCING DIFFERENCE

15. What Are You?, Joanne Nobuko Miyamoto

16. Oppression, Marilyn Frye

17. 'Can You See the Rainbow?' The Roots of Denial, Sally French

18. Disability Beyond Stigma: Social Interaction, Discrimination, and Activism, Michelle Fine and Adrienne Asch

I am Legally Blind, Beth Omansky Gordon

19. Time to Look and Listen, Magdoline Asfahani

20. The Accidental Asian, Eric Liu

21. Can Asian Americans Turn the Media Tide?, Helen Zia

22. Missing People and Others: Joining Together to Expand the Circle, Arturo Madrid

Going Home, Keeva Haynes

23. Talking Past Each Other: Black and White Languages of Race, Bob Blauner

Where Are You From?, C.C

24. Driving While Black, John Lamberth

25. Darkness Made Visible: Law, Metaphor, and the Racial Self, D. Marvin Jones

Play Some Rolling Stones , Mark Donald Stockenberg

26. Of Race and Rights, Patricia Williams

27. Wears Jump Suit. Sensible Shoes. Uses Husband's Last Name, Deborah Tannen

28. Gender Bending, Judith Lorber

A White Male Rescued Me, Meticia Watson

29. A Question of Class, Dorothy Allison

That Moment of Visibility, Rose B. Pascarell

30. Why Are Droves of Unqualified, Unprepared Kids Getting into Our Top Colleges? Because Their Dads are Alumni, John Larew

SECTION III. Framework Essay: THE MEANING OF DIFFERENCE

Law, Politics, and Policy

31. Key Supreme Court Cases

32. The Rise and Fall of Affirmative Action, James E. Jones, Jr.

33. The Shape of the River: The Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions, William G. Bowen and Derek Bok

34. Social Movements and the Politics of Difference, Cheryl Zarlenga Kerchis and Iris Marion Young Memories of Summer Camp , Patricia Kelly

The Economy

35. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics, George Lipsitz

36. Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration is Transforming America, Robert Suro

37. The Gender Gap: Contours and Causes, Andrew Hacker

Science

38. The DNA Mystique, Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee

39. The Health of Black Folk: Disease, Class, and Ideology in Science, Nancy Krieger and Mary Bassett

40. Media Science and Sexual Ideology: The Promotion of Sexual Stability, Gilbert Zicklin

You Can't Forget Humiliation , Amy L. Helm

41. Disability Definitions: The Politics of Meaning, Michael Oliver

Seeing Race, Seeing Disability, R.B.

Popular Culture

42.Backlash, Susan Faludi

Just Something You Did as a Man , Francisco Hernandez

"Basketball," Andrea M. Busch

43. Ideological and Cultural Resistance: Constructing Our Own Images, Yen Le Espiritu

44. What Americans Don't Know About Indians, Jerry Mander

Language

45. English in a Multicultural America, Dennis Baron

46. Racism in the English Language, Robert B. Moore

47. Gender Stereotyping in the English Language, Laurel Richardson

Becoming a Minority , Elizabeth Lukos

48. To Be and Be Seen: The Politics of Reality, Marilyn Fry