Race, Class, And Gender In The United States Essay

Book Review:
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States
Leigh Anne Haygood
August 10, 2010
Liberty University
HSER 509
Dr. Nicole Cross

Rothenberg, P. (2010), Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: Worth Publishers.

Abstract

Rothenberg paints an oppressive picture for women, the financially oppressed and minority members of society.   The author presents compelling essays of race, gender and class which examine the social construct of each issue.   Race has been defined as the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.   This has produced the view that Euro-Americans’ social, cultural, and economic advantaged position must be maintained at the expense of others as the normal life.   The influential power of race, gender and class are explained and illustrated through the collection of essays. The dynamics of power are divided based on different social classifications.

Concrete Responses
      The essays included present a compelling but biased study within the context of class, race and gender.   History shows racism has been clearly practiced in the past; however much has been done to correct the unbridgeable and immutable differences in race, gender and class status in the United States.   Rothenberg emphasizes, in the collection of essays, past views of Euro-Americans’ superiority in intelligence and abilities over darker skinned races.   Throughout the history of the United States, discrimination against race and gender has been documented thus creating various classes according to race and gender.   Racism has been defined as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2010).   While discrimination is described as being “the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded...