Race Class and Gender in the United States

Race, Class, And Gender in the United States

The purpose of the book Race, Class, and Gender in the United States by Paula Rothenberg is to explore sociological implications of these three topics. The book discusses how each of these ideas, which some believe to be innate, are actually mere labels that people have given to describe certain generalizations. Each of these sociological terms is coupled with the actual term. Rothenberg asks readers to critically think about the words we use to describe different groups and if the meaning we intend to apply is different than the term defines it as. There is the delineation between race and ethnicity, between class and social standing, and the difference between gender and sex.

The first portion of Rothenberg's book deals with the understanding of the terminology applied to race, glass, and gender and how the words people use with regard to these ideas are socially constructed. Whereas ethnicity is the term used to describe an individual's origin and often details the shade of the person's skin, there is a difference between this and the idea of race. "The claim that race is a social construction is not meant to deny the obvious differences in skin color and physical characteristics that people manifest. It simply sees these differences on a continuum of diversity rather than as reflecting innate genetic differences among peoples" (Rothenberg 2010,-page 10). Historically, racial differences have been used, as well as nationalistic and religious differences to separate one group from another. The use of other has been used by the dominate group to create an ideology of superiority over another group which they classify as inferior.

In the past, before biological research proved that all humans have the same potential for intelligence, skill, and reason no matter what the ethnic differences, people actually believed that different groups were inferior or superior based on physical characteristics (page 16). Racial terms such as "black" or "white" all have sociological implications beyond their superficial meanings. No one is actually black colored or white colored. Instead the terms illustrate a psychological othering which reflects back to the times when light-skinned individuals considered themselves better than darker-skinned ones. White is traditionally the color of purity and goodness and the color black is often associated with darkness, depression, and terror. The United States has a history of separation and mistreatment based on differences. One group that has been historically marginalized was the Jews. Institutionalized racism can be found in the heritages of almost every major industry in the nation, including higher education where Protestant white would often refuse admission to those they felt were undeserving, such as the unwashed Jewish population (page 42).

Of equal importance to Rothenberg's thesis of social construction is the history of patriarchy in the United States. Even in the supposedly "equal" modern age, there is still a stigma attached to a woman who speaks her mind and desires to be treated on par with males. "Many women, of course, do dare to see and speak the truth, but they are always in danger of being attacked and discredited in order to maintain the silence. Even those who would never call themselves feminists often know there is something terribly wrong with the structures of dominance and control" (page 163). Many people refuse to acknowledge that there is still an issue with gender oppression in the United States. Social and racial differences are considered the preeminent issues of differentiation and separation in the country and any oppression beyond those categories is looked on as less important. "Women are subordinated and treated as inferior because they are culturally defined as inferior as women, just as many racial and ethnic minorities are devalued simply because they aren't considered to be white" (page 164). Subjugation of an individual because of gender is just as harmful as treating someone as if they were inferior due to race or ethnicity. Even the process of gendering is a sociological phenomenon. Although biologically there is a difference between male and female, this sexual difference has little to do with the labels of gender.