The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality

by Ore, Tracy E.

• ISBN13: 9780767429283
• ISBN10: 0767429281
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-09
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

This anthology examines the social construction of race, class, gender, and sexuality and the institutional bases for these relations. While other texts discuss various forms of stratification and the impact of these on members of marginalized groups, Ore provides a thorough discussion of how such systems of stratification are formed and perpetuated and how forms of stratification are interconnected. The anthology supplies sufficient pedagogical tools to aid the student in understanding how the material relates to her/his own life and how her/his own attitudes, actions, and perspectives may serve to perpetuate a stratified system.

Table of Contents

Part I: Constructing Differences

Examining what categories are constructed, how this is done, and why such categories of difference are constructed.

Race & Ethnicity.

1. Racial Formations- Michael Omi and Howard Winant

2. Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?- Mary C.Waters

3. "They are Absolutely Obsessed with Us": Anti-Arab Bias in American Discourse and Policy- Hussein Ibish

4. How Jews Became White- Karen Brodkin Sacks

Social Class

5. Race, Wealth, and Equality- Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro

6. Media Magic: Making Class Invisible- Gregory Mantsios

7. The Growing Wealth Gap- Holly Sklar; Chuck Collins; and Betsy Leondar-Wright

8. Corporate Welfare- Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele

Sex & Gender

9. The Social Construction of Gender- Judith Lorber

10. Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough- Anne Fausto-Sterling

11. The Transgender Paradigm Shift toward Free Expression- Holly Boswell

12. Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity- Michael S.Kimmel

Sexuality

13. The Invention of Heterosexuality- Jonathan Ned Katz

14. Pills and Power Tools- Susan Bordo

15. Sexual Identity and Bisexual Identities: The Struggle for Self-Description in a Changing Sexual Landscape- Paula C Rust

16. Naming All the Parts- Kate Bornstein

Part II: Maintaining Inequalities: Systems of Oppression & Privilege

Examining what elements of social structure work to maintain systems of stratification based on constructions of difference.

Social Institutions: Family

17. Our Mothers’ Grief: Racial Ethnic Women and the Maintenance of Families- Bonnie Thornton Dill

18. Families on the Fault Line: America’s Working Class Speaks About the Family, the Economy, Race, and Ethnicity- Lillian B. Rubin

19. Stability and Change in Chicano Men’s Family Lives- Scott Coltrane

20. Sexual Dissent and the Family: The Sharon Kowalski Case- Nan D. Hunter

21. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools- Jonathan Kozol

22. Preparing for Power: Cultural Capital and Curricula in America’s Elite Boarding Schools- Peter W. Cookson, Jr and Caroline Hodges Persell

23. Civilize Them with a Stick- Mary Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes

24. Missing in Interaction- Myra Sadker and David Sadker

Work & the Economy

25. Jobless Ghettos: The Social Implications of the Disappearance of Work in Segregated Neighborhoods- William J. Wilson

26. "We’d Love to Hire Them But…": The Meaning of Race for Employers- Joleen Kirschenman and Kathryn M. Neckerman.

27. The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the ‘Female’ Professions- Christine L. Williams

28. Cause of Death: Inequality- Alejandro Reuss

The State & Public Policy

29. It’s a Family Affair: Women, Poverty, and Welfare- Randy Albelda and Chris Tilly

30. No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System- David Cole

31. The Effects of Affirmative Action on Other Stakeholders- Barbara Reskin

32. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the ‘White’ Problem in American Studies- George Lipsitz

Media

33. Ralph, Fred, Archie and Homer: Why Television Keeps Recreating the White Male Working-Class Buffoon- Richard Butsch

34. Distorted Reality: Hispanic Characters in TV Entertainment- Robert S. Lichter and Daniel R. Amundson

35. Changing Gay and Lesbian Images in the Media- Peter Nardi

36. The ‘F’ Word: How the Media Frame Feminism- Debra Baker Beck

Language

37. Racism in the English Language- Robert B. Moore

38. Self, Identity & the Naming Question: Reflections on the Language of Disability- Irving Kenneth Zola

39. How to Tame a Wild Tongue- Gloria Anzaldúa

40. The Dark Side of Sports Symbols- Stanley D. Eitzen, and Maxine Baca Zinn

Violence & Social Control

41. Where Race and Gender Meet: Racism, Hate Crimes, and Pornography- Helen Zia

42. Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?- A. Ayres Boswell & Joan Z. Spade

43. The Construction of Masculinity and the Triad of Men’s Violence- Michael Kaufman

44. Homophobia as a Weapon of Sexism- Suzanne Pharr

Part III: Experiencing Difference & Inequality in Everyday Life

Examining the impact of constructions of difference and maintaining inequalities on members of society.

45. White Privilege Shapes the U. S.- Robert Jensen

46. It’s not Easy Being Arab-American: One Person’s Experience- Sherri Muzher

47. A Dozen Demons- Ellis Cose

48. The Story of My Body- Judith Ortiz Cofer

49. "Gee, You Don’t Seem Like An Indian From the Reservation"- Barbara Cameron

50. On Being Blackanese- Mitzi Uehara-Carter

51. Nickel and Dimed: On (not) Getting by in America- Barbara Ehrenreich

52. I am Your Welfare Reform- Annie Downey

53. Learning to Fight- Geoffrey Canada

54. Appearances- carmen Vázquez

55. Bisexuality, Feminism, Men, and Me- Robyn Ochs

Part IV: Resistance & Social Change

Examining how people working within individual and institutional contexts transform difference from a system of inequality to a system of liberation.

56. Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection- Patricia Hill collins

57. Cultural Resistance: Reconstructing Our Own Images- Yen Le Espiritu

58. "No Evictions. We Won’t Move!": The Struggle to Save the I-Hotel- Larry Solomon

59. Seeing More Than Black & White: Latinos, Racism, and the Cultural Divides- Elizabeth Martinez

60. Dismantling Noah’s Ark: Gender and Equality- Judith Lorber

61. The New Student Movement- Liza Featherstone