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

by Rosenblum, Karen; Travis, Toni-Michelle

• ISBN13: 9780078111648
• ISBN10: 0078111641
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-11
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Summary

In The Meaning of Difference, Karen Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis examine the social construction of difference in American lifeparticularly in regard to race and ethnicity, sex and gender, social class, sexual orientation, and disability. This text-reader contains four framework essays that examine the construction of difference, the experience of difference, the social meaning of difference, and social actions that might bridge differences. Each essay is followed by a set of readings selected for readability, conceptual depth, and application to a variety of statuses. Boxed boxes, most written by students, illustrate personal experiences. This sixth edition includes twenty-four new readings and ten new personal accounts. The framework essays have been substantively revised and updated. The new readings, many from authors who have captured national attention, have been chosen because they speak to contemporary assumptions of a "post-racial" America.

Table of Contents

Preface

SECTION I—CONSTRUCTING CATEGORIES OF DIFFERENCE

Framework Essay

WHAT IS RACE? WHAT IS ETHNICITY?

1. “Race” and the Construction of Human Identity, Audrey Smedley

2. Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition, F. James Davis

3. The Evolution of Identity, The Washington Post

Personal Account: A Loaded Vacation, Niah Grimes

4. Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America, Eva Marie Garroutte

5. Asian American Panethnicity: Contemporary National and Transnational Possibilities, Yen Le Espiritu

Personal Account: I Thought My Race Was Invisible, Sherri H. Pereira

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

7. America’s Changing Color Lines: Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, and Multiracial Identification, Jennifer Lee and Frank D. Bean

Personal Account: The Price of Nonconformity, Julia Morgenstern

8. From Friendly Foreigner to Enemy Race, John Tehranian

Personal Account: Master Status: Pride and Danger, Sumaya Al-Hajebi

WHAT IS SEX? WHAT IS GENDER?

9. The Gendered Society, Michael S. Kimmel

Personal Account: Basketball, Andrea M. Busch

10. Where’s the Rulebook for Sex Verification? Alice Dreger

11. All Together Now: Intersex Infants and IGM, Riki Wilchins

WHAT IS SOCIAL CLASS?

12. What’s Class Got to Do with It?, Michael Zweig

13. More or Less Equal?, The Economist

14. The Silver Spoon: Inheritance and the Staggered Start, Stephen J. McNamee and Robert K. Miller Jr.

Personal Account: I Am a Pakistani Woman, Hoorie I. Siddique

WHAT IS SEXUAL ORIENTATION?

15. The Biology of the Homosexual, Roger N. Lancaster

16. A New Paradigm for Understanding Women’s Sexuality and Sexual Orientation, Letitia Anne Peplau and Linda D. Garnets

17. The Heterosexual Questionnaire, Martin Rochlin

WHAT IS DISABILITY?

18. Disability Definitions: The Politics of Meaning, Mike Oliver

Personal Account: Invisibly Disabled, Heather L. Shaw

19. A World of Their Own, Liza Mundy

20. Ethnicity, Ethics, and the Deaf-World, Harlan Lane

SECTION II—EXPERIENCING DIFFERENCE

Framework Essay

RACE AND ETHNICITY

21. Formulating Identity in a Globalized World, Carola Suárez-Orozco

Personal Account: Hair, Sarah Faragalla

22. Latinos in the U.S. Race Structure, Clara E. Rodríguez

23. Everybody’s Ethnic Enigma, Jelita McLeod

Personal Account: My Strategies, Eric Jackson

SEX AND GENDER

24. It’s All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation, Patricia Hill Collins

25. Proving Manhood, Timothy Beneke

Personal Account: Just Something You Did as a Man, Francisco Hernandez

26. Gendered Sexuality in Young Adulthood: Double Binds and Flawed Options, Laura Hamilton and Elizabeth A. Armstrong

SEXUAL ORIENTATION

27. Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life, Steven Seidman

Personal Account: Living Invisibly, Tara S. Ellison

28. "Dude, You’re a Fag": Adolescent Male Homophobia, C.J. Pascoe

29. Sexual Orientation and Sex in Women’s Lives: Conceptual and Methodological Issues, Esther D. Rothblum

SOCIAL CLASS

30. Class and the Transition to Adulthood, Annette Lareau and Elliott B. Weininger

Personal Account: That Moment of Visibility, Rose B. Pascarell

31. Cause of Death: Inequality, Alejandro Reuss

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

DISABILITY

33. Public Transit, John Hockenberry

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

35. Not Blind Enough: Living in the Borderland Called Legal Blindness, Beth Omansky

Personal Account: A Time I Didn't Feel Normal, Heather Callender

SECTION III—THE MEANING OF DIFFERENCE

Framework Essay

36. Blink in Black and White, Malcolm Gladwell

Personal Account: Just Like My Mama Said, Anthony McNeill

37. See Baby Discriminate, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

38. Between Barack and a Hard Place, Tim Wise

39. The Model Minority: Asian American “Success” as a Race Relations Failure, Frank Wu

Personal Account: Let Me Work for It!, Isabelle Nguyen

40. The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled, Paula England

LAW, PUBLIC POLICY, AND ECONOMY

41. Thirteen Key Supreme Court Cases and the Civil War Amendments

42. Segregation: The Rising Costs for America, James H. Carr and Nandinee K. Kutty

Personal Account: Learning My Own Privilege, Mireille M. Cecil

43. Land Rich, Dirt Poor: Challenges to Asset Building in Native America, Meizhu Liu, Bárbara J. Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose M. Brewer, and Rebecca Adamson

44. Crossing the Color Line: A Historical Assessment and Personal Narrative of Loving v. Virginia, Robert A. Pratt

POPULAR CULTURE

45. Framing Class: Media Representations of Wealth and Poverty in America, Diana Kendall

46. Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?, Cheryl L. Harris and Devon W. Carbado

Personal Account: He Hit Her, Tim Norton

47. The Protean N-Word, Randall Kennedy

48. Disability and Representation, Rosemarie Garland-Thompson

SECTION IV—BRIDGING DIFFERENCES

Framework Essay

49. Lilly’s Big Day, Gail Collins

50. The Other Movement that Rosa Parks Inspired: By Sitting Down, She Made Room for the Disabled, Charles Wilson

51. Influencing Public Policy, Jeanine C. Cogan

52. What Can We Do? Becoming Part of the Solution, Allan G. Johnson

Personal Account: Parents' Underestimated Love, Octavio N. Espinal

53. In Defense of Rich Kids, William Upski Wimsatt

Personal Account: Where Are You From?, C.C.

54. Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice, Paul Kivel

55. I/Me/Mine: Intersectional Identities as Negotiated Minefields, Shuddhabrata Sengupta

Credits

Index