Below I offer a list of readings and themes that will inform a Race, Class, Gender, and
Sexuality course. This list is still underdevelopment, but it provides a general framework on how such a course would progress.
SECTION I: UNDERSTANDING “DIFFERENCE”
Conceptualizing Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality and their Intersections
Johnson, Allan. (2001). Privilege, Power, and Difference.
London: Mayfield Publishers.
 Chapter 2: “We Can’t Talk about It If We Can’t Use the Words”
West, Cornel. (1994). “Race Matters.” Pp. 121-126. In
Race, Class and Gender: An
Anthology.
(2004). Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins (Eds.). Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Leaning.
Gans, Herbert. (1995). The War Against the Poor.
New York: Basic Books.

Chapter 1: Labeling the Poor; Chapter 2: The Invention of the Underclass
Collins, Patricia Hill. (1999). “Moving Beyond Gender: Intersectionality and Scientific
Knowledge.” Pp. 261-284. In
Revisioning Gender.
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith
Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (Eds.). London: Sage Publications.

Collins analyzes science and modernity and discusses how both are simultaneously raced and gendered and how the way of thinking in “rational, objective, universal, and abstract” ways developed to justify subordination and conquest of White European men in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Collins, Patricia Hill. (2003). Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the
New Racism.
New York: Routledge.
 Chapter 2: “The Past is Ever Present: Recognizing the New Racism”
 Chapter 3: “Prisons for Our Bodies, Closets for Our Minds: Racism,
Heterosexism, and Black Sexuality”
SECTION II: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF STATUS, IDENTITY AND
DIFFERENCE
Conell, R. W. (1999). “Making Gendered People: Bodies, Identities, Sexualities.” Pp.
449-472. In Revisioning Gender.
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B.
Hess (Eds.). London: Sage Publications.
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. (1999). “The Social Construction and Institutionalization of

Gender and Race: An Integrative Framework.” Pp.3-43. In
Publications.
SECTION III: PRIVILEGE
Understanding the Hidden Dimensions of Acceptance
Revisioning Gender.
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (Eds.). London: Sage
McIntosh, Peggy. (1988). “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Pp. 103
107. In Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology.
(2004). Margaret Andersen and
Patricia Hill Collins (Eds.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Leaning.
Johnson, Allan. (2001). Privilege, Power, and Difference.
London: Mayfield Publishing.
 Chapter 3: “The Trouble We’re In: Privilege, Power and Difference”
 Chapter 5: “Making Privilege Happen”
 Chapter 8: “How Systems of Privilege Work”
Wise, Tim. (2005). White Like Me: Reflections of Race from a Privileged Son. New
York: Soft Skull Press.
 Chapter 1: “Born to Belonging”
 Chapter 2: “Privilege”
Rubin, Lillian. (1994). “‘Is This a White Country, or What?’.” Pp. 410-417. In
Race,
Class and Gender: An Anthology.
(2004). Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill
Collins (Eds.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Leaning.
SECTION IV: EVERYDAY INTERACTIONS
Reflecting on Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Interactions
Glich, Peter and Susan T. Fiske. (1999). “Gender, Power Dynamics, and Social
Interaction.” Pp. 365-398. In Revisioning Gender.
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith
Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (Eds.). London: Sage Publications.

An interactionist and social psychology discussion of how gendered stereotypes are reproduced in everyday life and how the reflect the basic inequality built into the settings of interaction—home, school, work, voluntary associations.
Sered, Susan Starr. (1999). “‘Woman’ as Symbol and Women as Agents: Gendered
Religious Discourses and Practices.” Pp. 193-221. In Revisioning Gender.
Myra
Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (Eds.). London: Sage Publications.

Analyzes the intersections of gender and religion, women as actual people and
“woman” as symbolic religious construct conflating gender, sex and sexuality.
Much control occurs at the meeting point of symbol and agency.
Milkie, Melissa A. (1999). “Social Comparisons, Reflected Appraisals, and Mass Media:

The Impact of Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls’ Self-
Concepts.” Social Psychology Quarterly. 62(X): xx-xx.
SECTION V: INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL POLICIES
Understanding the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in our Social
Structure
Ehrenreich, Barbara. (2001). Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
New
York: Henry Holt.

Chapter 1, 2, 3 (pick one)
 Chapter 4: “Evaluation”
Moghadam, Valentine, M. (1999). “Gender and the Global Economy.” Pp. 128-160. In
Revisioning Gender.
Myra Marx Ferree, Judith Lorber, and Beth B. Hess (Eds.).
London: Sage Publications.

How gender is institutionalized into economic restructuring and globalization where government, transnational corporations, and international organization are the main actors
Mantsios, Gregeory. (1998). “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible.” Pp. 329-336. In
Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology.
(2004). Margaret Andersen and
Patricia Hill Collins (Eds.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Leaning.
Kendall, Diana. (2005). Framing Class: Media Representations of Wealth And Poverty
In America.
New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
 Chapter 4: “Fragile Frames: The Poor and Homeless”
 Chapter 5: “Tarnished Metal Frames: The Working Class and the Working
Poor”
Burnham, Linda. (2002). “Welfare Reform, Family Hardship, and Women of Color.” Pp.
371-378, In Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology.
(2004). Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins (Eds.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Leaning.
Silliman, Jael. (2002). “Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization.” Pp.
379-382. In Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology.
(2004). Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill Collins (Eds.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Leaning.
Cookson, Peter W. Jr. and Caroline Hodges Persell. (1985). “Preparing for Power: Prep
Schools and Higher Education.” Pp. 167-189. In Preparing for Power: America’s
Elite Boarding Schools . Basic Books.
SECTION VI: SOLUTIONS
Collins, Patricia Hill. (2003). Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the
New Racism.
New York: Routledge.

 Chapter 9: “Why We Can’t Wait: Black Sexual Politics and the Challenge of
HIV/AIDS
Johnson, Allan. (2001). Privilege, Power, and Difference.
London: Mayfield Publishing.
 Chapter 10: “What Can We Do? Becoming Part of the Solution”
Wise, Tim. (2005). White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.
New
York: Soft Skull Press.
 Chapter 3: “Resistance”
 Chapter 5: “Loss”