Experiencing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States

Roberta Fiske-Rusciano is adjunct assistant professor of political science, global studies, multicultural studies, and gender studies at Rider University.

Preface

Identity

Part I Racial and Ethnic Identity
1. Just ‘Cause I’m Mixed by Afro DZ aka (Peter Shungu)
2. American Anthropological Association “Statement on Race”
3. Ethnicity in American Life: The Historical Perspective by John Hope Franklin
4. Toward a More Perfect Union by Barack Obama
5. ‘Racial Impostor Syndrome’: Here Are Your Stories by National Public Radio
6. Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone by James Baldwin
7. The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley
8. To Be Hopi or American by Polingaysi Qoyawayma (Elizabeth Q. White)
9. People of Color Who Never Felt They Were Black by Darryl Fears
10. Rosa Wakefield by John Langston Gwaltney
11. I’m Not Your Miss Saigon by Jillian Montilla
12. In the Aloha State, All (Identity) Politics is Local by Eric Pape
13. American Dreamer by Bharati Mukherjee
14. On the Other Side of the War: A Story by Elizabeth Gordon
15. Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American Women and Cosmetic Surgery by Eugenia Kaw
16. Before the Great Gorge by Carlos Cumpián
17. Race in a Genetic World by Harvard Magazine
18. Exploring the Cuban Conundrum: Exiles, Immigrants, Americans or Illegals? by Mercedes Diaz
Suggestions for Responding to Part I

Part II Gender and Sexual Identity
19. Adam Rippon: When I Came Out is When I Started to Own Who I Am As a Person by Karen Price
20. Why Are White Men Stockpiling Guns? by Jeremy Adam Smith
21. There’s a Petition Calling for the First Transgender Barbie by Huffington Post
22. Where I Come From Is Like This by Paula Gunn Allen
23. The Male Role Stereotype by Doug Cooper Thompson
24. Transgender Rights in the United States: A Short History by Tom Head
25. A Transsexual’s Story by Jessica R. Stearns
26. Two Sexes Are Not Enough by Anne Fausto-Sterling
27. Same-Sex-Marriage Flashpoint: Alabama Considers Quitting the Marriage Business by Debbie Elliott
28. When the Political Is Personal by Ann Marie Nicolosi
Suggestions for Responding to Part II

Part III Economics and the American Dream
29. Decloaking Class: Why Class Identity and Consciousness Count by Janet Zandy
30. The Truth About Growing Up Rich by Sallie Bingham
31. Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education by bell hooks
32. Daddy Tucked the Blanket by Randall Williams
33. Homeless in America by Sabena Siddiqui
34. Student Debt Lives On Hold by Consumer Reports
Suggestions for Responding to Part III
Suggestion for Responding to Identity

Power

Part IV Power and Racism
35. Why “Birth of a Nation” Still Matters in American Politics by Frank Louis Rusciano
36. ICE Spokesman Quits, Bashes Trump Administration on Immigration Raids by Willa Frej
37. Historical Discrimination in the Immigration Laws by U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
38. Immigration Laws since 1980: The Closing Door by Barbara Franz
39. Consider the Trauma Immigration Raids Cause for Children by Dr. Rebekah Diamond
40. The Year in Hate: Trump Buoyed White Supremacists in 2017, Sparking Backlash Among Black Nationalist Groups by oDouth
41. 2-205 by Reshma Baig
42. Something About the Subject Makes It Hard to Name by Gloria Yamato
43. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
44. Native Americans vs. the U.S. Government by Michael Dorris
45. Urban Native Americans by Roberta Fiske-Rusciano
46. Sex, Class, and Race Intersections: Visions of Women of Color by Carol Lee Sanchez
47. Crimes Against Humanity by Ward Churchill
48. Anti-Semitism in the United States by Robert Cherry
49. Seeing More Than Black and White by Elizabeth Martinez
50. Behind Barbed Wire by John Hersey
51. Asian Americans Battle “Model Minority” Stereotype by Robert Daseler
52. “Jim Crow” Law by Benjamin Quarles
53. Jim Crow Revived in Cyberspace by Greg Palast and Martin Luther King III
54. It’s Not Just Starbucks: White Fear is an American Problem by Renee Graham
55. Emmett Louis Till, 1941–1955 by Southern Poverty Law Center
56. Subtle vs. Overt Racism by David K. Shipler
57. Blacks Feel Indignities by Robert Anthony Watts
Suggestions for Responding to Part IV

Part VPower and Sexism
58. Citizenship and Violence by The American Prospect
59. Manhood on the Mat by Jackson Katz and Sut Jhally
60. For Women’s History Month, a Look at Gender Gains—and Gender Gaps—in the U.S. by Abigail Geiger and Kim Parker
61. Sexual Harassment at Work in the Era of #MeToo by Nikki Graf
62. Sexual Harassment: The Nature of the Beast by Anita Hill
63. Breaking Down Gender Bias in the Construction Industry by Kate Stephenson
64. Congress Passes Bill to Protect Young Athletes From Sexual Abuse by Feminist Newswire
65. A More Hidden Crime: Adolescent Battered Women by Nancy Worcester
66. Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? by Clarethia Ellerbe
67. Rape and Sexual Assault by James A. Doyle
68. The Sexual Assault Epidemic That No One Talks About by Joseph Shapiro
69. “The Rape” of Mr. Smith by Unknown
70. Roe v. Wade Turns 45, But There’s No Time to Celebrate by Ilyse Hogue
71. Unions Are Fighting For Families by Liz Shuler
Suggestions for Responding to Part V
Part VI Power and Classism
72. Warren Buffett Calls for Higher Taxes for US Super-Rich by Graeme Wearden
73. Imagine a Country by Holly Sklar
74. Bulging Jails Are Other American Exception by Albert R. Hunt
75. What the Dip in Life Expectancy is Really About: Inequality by Julia Belluz
76. The Opioid Epidemic Explained by German Lopez
77. Institutionalized Discrimination by Robert Cherry
78. Jury Whops Insurer by Leslie Brown
79. The Spectre of Regionalism by Hunter O’Hara
80. Why People Love “Assistance to the Poor” But Hate “Welfare” by Ashley Jardina
81. Mothers Dying After Childbirth is a Medical Issue—But Cultural Too by Erin Sagen
82. The Tainted Water Crisis in Upstate New York That Andrew Cuomo Can’t Shake by Alexander C. Kaufman
Suggestions for Responding to Part VI

Part VII Race, Class, and Gender During the Obama and Trump Administrations: A Comparative Look
83. How America Changed During Barack Obama’s Presidency by Michael Dimick
84. Ousted Standing Rock Leader on the Pipeline Protest That Almost Succeeded by Phil McKenna
85. Trump Wants Immigrants To Be Afraid by Dara Lind
86. 25 Texas Mosques Open Their Doors to Harvey Survivors by Dean Obeidalla
87. The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer: The Politics of Racism in Trump’s America by Shorenstein Center
88. The Trump Administration Isn’t Just Curtailing Women’s Rights, It’s Systematically Eroding Trust in Women by Annalisa Merelli
89. The Pendulum Effect: The Science That Took Us From Obama to Trump by Marjorie M. Fuller
90. Environmental Justice in the Age of Trump by Michael J. Brogan
91. The Power to Count: Citizenship and the Census by Victor Thompson
Suggestions for Responding to Part VII
Suggestions for Responding to Power
Change
Part VIII Taking Action
92. Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum by Eric Holder
93. Diversity and Its Discontents by Arturo Madrid
94. Breakfast at Perkins by Derek Schork
95. Five Ways to Help Prevent Domestic Violence by Richard Tolman
96. Going Public with Our Vision by Charlotte Bunch
97. A Manifesto for Men by Andrew Kimbrell
98. Resistance to Change by Kathleen Ryan
99. The March for our Lives, Explained by Jen Kirby
100. Freedom for the Thought We Hate by Gerald Gunther
101. The Oklahoma Teachers’ Strike is 26 Years in the Making by Jon Hazell
Suggestions for Responding to Part VIII
Part IX Change Makers
102. Boys State by Michael Moore
103. Victory at Arnot by Mary Harris “Mother” Jones
104. The Organizer’s Tale by César Chávez
105. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act by Ramon Johnson
106. Free at Last by Southern Poverty Law Center
107. The Movement by Anne Moody
108. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Muriel Tillinghast
109. “Don’t Tell Us It Can’t Be Done” by Michael Ryan
110. Saving Native Lands by Valerie Taliman
111. Cecilia Fire Thunder: She Inspires Her People by Ann Davis
112. Claiming Respect for Ancestral Remains: Repatriation and the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma by Robert L. Cast, Bobby Gonzalez, and Timothy K. Perttula
113. The Weinstein Effect by Linda Barstyn
114. A New Lynching Memorial Highlights America’s Grim Legacy of Racial Terrorism by P.R. Lockhart
115. Message to My Daughters by Edwidge Danticat
Suggestions for Responding to Part IX
Suggestions for Responding to Change

Credits C1

Index I1