Meaning of Difference : American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability

by Rosenblum, Karen E.

• ISBN13: 9780072997460
• ISBN10: 007299746X
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-18
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

The Meaning of Difference is a text-reader about the social construction of difference as it operates in American formulations of race, sex and gender, social class, and sexual orientation. The book is based on the conviction that similar processes are at work in the construction of differences of color, sex and gender, class, and sexuality and that these processes likely also apply to other master statuses such as disability. Four framework essays provide the conceptual structure for the book. Following each framework essay is a set of readings that illustrate the concepts and processes described in the essays. The readings have been selected for readability, conceptual depth, and applicability to a variety of statuses.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
SECTION I---CONSTRUCTING CATEGORIES OF DIFFERENCE
Framework Essay
What Is Race?
Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition	37	(8)
F. James Davis
The Evolution of Identity	45	(1)
Washington Post
Census 2000: Seventeen Questions from the Long Form	46	(3)
Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America	49	(8)
Eva Marie Garroutte
Latinos in the U.S. Race Structure	57	(7)
Clara E. Rodriguez
Personal Account: What's in a Name?	63	(1)
Ruth C. Feldsberg
Tripping on the Color Line: Black-White Multiracial Families in a Racially Divided World	64	(5)
Heather M. Dalmage
Personal Account: The Best of Both Worlds	70
Mindy Peral
Asian American Panethnicity	69	(11)
Yen Le Espiritu
Personal Account: I Thought My Race Was Invisible	79	(1)
Sherri H. Pereira
Whiteness as an ``Unmarked'' Cultural Category	80	(7)
Ruth Frankenberg
What Is Sex? What Is Gender?
The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough	87	(4)
Anne Fausto-Sterling
The Berdache Tradition	91	(9)
Walter L. Williams
The Gendered Society	100	(9)
Michael S. Kimmel
Personal Account: Basketball	108	(1)
Andrea M. Busch
It's Your Gender, Stupid!	109	(6)
Riki Wilchins
What Is Social Class?
What's Class Got to Do with It?	115	(3)
Michael Zweig
Getting Ahead: Economic and Social Mobility in America	118	(8)
Daniel P. McMurrer
Isabel V. Sawhill
Personal Account: Lucky Americans	125	(1)
LeiLani Page
America's Economic Transformation	126	(9)
Nancy Wiefek
Personal Account: I Am a Pakistani Woman	134	(1)
Hoorie I. Siddique
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America	135	(11)
Barbara Ehrenreich
This Hard-Earned Money Comes Stuffed in Their Genes	146	(2)
Dusty Horwitt
What Is Sexual Orientation?
The Hazards of Naming Sexual Attraction	148	(5)
Michael R. Kauth
Personal Account: Living Invisibly	153	(1)
Tara S. Ellison
Is Homosexual a Noun?	153	(3)
Paul R. Abramson
Steven D. Pinkerton
The End of Gay (and the Death of Heterosexuality)	156	(9)
Bert Archer
SECTION II---EXPERIENCING DIFFERENCE
Framework Essay	165	(29)
Oppression	194	(5)
Marilyn Frye
Race and Ethnicity
What Are You?	199	(1)
Joanne Nobuko Miyamoto
Everybody's Ethnic Enigma	200	(1)
Jelita McLeod
Ethnic Identity and Racial Formations: Race and Racism American-Style and a lo Latino	201	(6)
Marta Cruz-Janzen
The Cost of Whiteness	207	(6)
Thandeka
Personal Account: Play Some Rolling Stones	213	(1)
Mark Donald Stockenberg
``Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?''	213	(10)
Beverly Daniel Tatum
The Minority Quarterback	223	(11)
Ira Berkow
A Day in the Life of Two Americas	234	(4)
Leonard Steinhorn
Barbara Diggs-Brown
At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die	238	(9)
Charlie LeDuff
Diversity and Its Discontents	247	(5)
Arturo Madrid
Sex and Gender
Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut	252	(6)
Emily White
Personal Account: Just Something You Did as a Man	258	(1)
Francisco Hernandez
How Do We Know What Manhood Really Is?	258	(5)
John Stoltenberg
Personal Account: He Hit Her	262	(1)
Tim Norton
Chappals and Gym Shorts: An Indian-Muslim Woman in the Land of Oz	263	(4)
Almas Sayeed
Sexual Orientation
Anti-gay Slurs Common at School: A Lesson in Cruelty	267	(3)
Laura Sessions Stepp
Personal Account: An Opportunity to Get Even	269	(1)
Gillian Carroll
For Children of Gays, Marriage Brings Joy	270	(2)
Patricia Leigh Brown
Social Class
All Souls	272	(4)
Michael Patrick MacDonald
Stupid Rich Bastards	276	(7)
Laurel Johnson Black
Personal Account: That Moment of Visibility	282	(1)
Rose B. Pascarell
Why are Droves of Unqualified, Unprepared Kids Getting into Our Top Colleges? Because Their Dads Are Alumni	283	(5)
John Larew
Disability
Public Transit	288	(8)
John Hockenberry
Personal Account: I Am Legally Blind	295	(1)
Beth Omansky
``Can You See the Rainbow?'' The Roots of Denial	296	(8)
Sally French
SECTION III---THE MEANING OF DIFFERENCE
Framework Essay	304	(17)
Law, Politics, and Policy
Thirteen Supreme Court Cases and the Civil War Amendments	321	(28)
Social Movements and the Politics of Difference	349	(12)
Cheryl Zarlenga Kerchis
Iris Marion Young
After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation	361	(10)
Charles T. Clotfelter
The Minority Rights Revolution	371	(7)
John D. Skrentny
The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics	378	(5)
George Lipsitz
What's Good Enough?	383	(4)
Peter Schrag
Economy
Gender Discrimination in the Workplace	387	(9)
Jeanette N. Cleveland
Margaret Stockdale
Kevin R. Murphy
The Bankruptcy of Virtuous Markets: Racial Inequality, Poverty, and ``Individual Failure''	396	(8)
Michael K. Brown
Martin Carnoy
Elliott Currie
Troy Duster
David B. Oppenheimer
Marjorie M. Schultz
David Wellman
Personal Account: Just Like My Mama Said	403	(1)
Anthony McNeill
The Model Minority: Asian American ``Success'' as a Race Relations Failure	404	(8)
Frank Wu
Personal Account: Let Me Work for It	411	(1)
Isabelle Nguyen
Science
A World of Their Own	412	(6)
Liza Mundy
Disability Definitions: The Politics of Meaning	418	(4)
Michael Oliver
Cause of Death: Inequality	422	(3)
Alejandro Reuss
Popular Culture
Generation E.A.: Ethnically Ambiguous	425	(2)
Ruth La Ferla
Patriarchy Gets Funky: The Triumph of Identity Marketing	427	(5)
Naomi Klein
Is Race Over?	432	(6)
David R. Roediger
Black Men: How to Perpetuate Prejudice without Really Trying	438	(7)
Barry Glassner
Racism in the English Language	445	(7)
Robert B. Moore
Gender Stereotyping in the English Language	452	(6)
Laurel Richardson
Let's Spread the ``Fun'' Around: The Issue of Sports Team Names and Mascots	458	(2)
Ward Churchill
To Be and Be Seen: The Politics of Reality	460	(8)
Marilyn Frye
SECTION IV---BRIDGING DIFFERENCES
Framework Essay	468	(8)
Influencing Public Policy	476	(10)
Jeanine C. Cogan
What Can We Do? Becoming Part of the Solution	486	(5)
Allan G. Johnson
Personal Account: Parents' Underestimated Love	490	(1)
Octavio N. Espinal
In Defense of Rich Kids	491	(3)
William Upski Wimsatt
Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice	494
Paul Kivel
Personal Account: Where Are You From?	499
Permissions	1	(1)
Index	1