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| W.E.B. Du Bois, the first African American PH. D. from harvard University, is a classic sociological analyst. In this well-known essay, he develops the idea that African Americans have a "double consciousness"--one that they must develop as a protective strategy to understand how whites see them. Originally writing this essay in 1903, Du Bois also reflects on the long struggle for Black freedom |
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| Charles A. Gallagher discusses the problem of a color-blind approach to race and race relations in this country. By denying race as a structural basis for inequality, we fail to recognize the privilege of Whiteness. With the blurring of racial lines, WWhite college students lack a clear understanding of how the existing social, political, and economic systems advantage or privilege Whites. |
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The Social Construction of Gender
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| In this essay, Margaret Anderson outlines the meaning of the "social construction of gender." She discusses the difference between the terms "sex" and "gender" and defines sexuality as it relates to both. After a brief discussion of the cultural basis of gender, the essay outlines the difference between gender roles conceptualization of gender and the gendered institutions approach. |
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| Maxine Leeds Craig shows how ideals of beauty are shaped by the dominant culture, but by examining Black women, she also shows how dominant constructions can be contested. In addition, her article analyzes the dynamic between gender and race in the social construction of women's identities. |
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| A black women took my job |
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| Michael Kimmel examines how changes in women's lives resulting from the feminist movement are affecting men. He also argues that the feminist revolution has the possibility of improving life for men as well as for women. |
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| Who's body is it, Anyways? |
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| By reflecting on her own life, Pamela Fletcher provides a powerful and painful narrative that explores social myths about violence against women. She asks us to imagine a world in which destructive thinking about violence is transformed by women's empowerment. |
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| The service society and the changing Experience of Work |
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| The U.S. economy has changed form being based primarily on manufacturing to being based on service industries. the transition to more "service work" has changed the character of workplace control. The service economy is embedded in systems of race, gender, and class stratification that are revealed in patterns of employment and perceptions of who is most fit for particular jobs. |
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| C. Wright Mill's classic book, The Power Elite, first published in 1956, remains an important analysis of the system of power in the United States. He argues that national power is located in three particular institutions: the economy, politics, and the military. An important point in his article is that the power of elites is derived from their institutional location, not their individual attributes. |
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| The Genius of the Civil Rights Movement Can it Happen Again? |
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| The civil rights movement was arguably the most influential movement in the United States during the twentieth century. Aldon Morris reviews the development of the civil rights movements and notes the products of this movements and the transformations in academic scholarship that the movement generated. By identifying the particular historical and social circumstances in which the civil rights movement developed, he also asks whether such a movement is possible. |
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| Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton argue that segregation, particulary residential segregation, is a fundamental dimension of race relations in the United States and is all too often ignored by policymakers and even scholars. It is a major cause of many of the ills of race relations in this country. the argue that it is the "missing link" in past attempts to understand the urban poor. |
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