American Culture and Society:
Class, Race and Gender
王恩铭
上海外国语大学
Class
“America is basically a classless society.”
----George Bush, Jr.
Class: (1) USA vs Europe
In Europe
In the US
1. the class division line was
1. the class division line is
and still is difficult to cross,
blurred, vague and crossable.
and oftentimes fixed.
2. the social ladder is not
2. the social barrier is too
very steep and relatively
high to climb over.
easy to climb.
3. nobility is still held in
3. natural aristocracy is
great respect.
preferred to hereditary
aristocracy.
4. family connection and
royal blood are still very
4. meritocracy is practiced
much cherished.
5. equality is viewed as a
5. hierarchy is still very
sacred principle.
much in place.
Class: (2)Mobility
America enjoys the highest mobility in the world.
Three M-factors in American Society:
• Mobility:
horizontal vs vertical mobility
geographical vs social mobility
physical vs intellectual mobility
• Movement: on the move
on the go
on the run
on the road/hit the road
• Motivation: better opportunity and better life
Tomorrow will be better than today
Your Children will better than you.
Things will turn around if you push harder.
Hope, confidence, expectation, dream, optimism, will
Class: (3)Belief/Values: Equalitarianism and egalitarianism
• Fundamental belief: “All men are created equal”.
• Religious belief:
Everyone is equal before God.
• Constitutional belief: Everyone is equal before the law.
• Social belief:
Equality for all and privileges for none.
• Economic belief:
Fair play and level playing field
• Political belief:
Your vote is as important as everybody
else’s vote.
Class
• Conclusion:
America is not class-free, nor classless, but class in the US is
not the same as that in other countries. Instead of having a
fixed and unalterable class division line that separates one
group of people from another, America has a class line
characterized by fluid and mobile nature, a blurred line
relatively easy to cross over. That is why the US has such
myths as “from rags to riches” and “from a log cabin to the
White House”.
Race
• The United States is said to be more
race-conscious than class-conscious.
Race: (1) Not all men are created equal
In “All men are created equal”,
Blacks, Indians and Women were not included.
A. Black Experience:
Indentured Servants----Slaves-----Subhuman Beings---Second-Class Citizens
Slavery-----Segregation------Desegregation-----Integration
B. Native American Experience:
Slaughtering-----Removal-------Second-Class Citizens---Indian Reservations
Race: (1) Not all men are created equal
C. Asian American Experience:
Chinese: Kuli (railway construction, laundry, restaurant,
mining work, domestic maids) ----Chinatown (ghettoized)---Exclusion----Intermarriage Banned
Japanese: Domestic Maid, Gardening Workers, Intermarriage
Banned, Interment Camp during World War II)
Race: (1) Not all men are created equal
D. Jewish American Experience:
Jewish Ghettos-----Excluded from Prestigious Society
(fraternity, rotary club)
Anti-Semitism
E. Latino American Experience:
Discrimination in employment, promotion, bank loan,
housing
Hate Crime----racially based
America is a heavily racialized and indeed racist country
Race: (2)White Supremacy
• George Washington-----a big slave-owner
• Thomas Jefferson-----a big slave-owner, had a black slave
woman as a mistress
comparing slavery institution as a wolf by the ears
some people are always more equal than others
• Abraham Lincoln: Slavery is an evil, but people of different
races are not likely, if not never, to be equal.
Race: (2)White Supremacy
• Colonization Plan----sending blacks to Africa
• “Separate but equal” principle made by the US Supreme Court
• Ku Klux Klan
• Second-class status-----segregated society
• Immigration Policy----quota system in favor of Europeans
• Intermarriage first banned, later allowed, but now its rate is
still quite low
Race: (2)White Supremacy
• Discrimination in every form and in every shape----job market,
school administration, income, housing, loan, promotion,
sports, suffrage, public accommodations, military services, law
enforcement (prisoners)
Race: (3)Changes and Continuity
Busing Program
Head Start Program
Food Stamp Program
Welfare---Workfare
Affirmative Action
Racial Profiling
Politically Correct
Speech Code
Multiculturalism
Race: (3)Changes and Continuity
• Open and explicit to subtle and implicit discrimination
• Barack Obama case----birth certificate? Muslim? rodeo clown
• Henry Louise case----arrest---white policemen, the White
House Bear Party
• Hate Crime is still committed often
• Police Brutality towards to Blacks, Asians, Latinos
Conclusion: The U.S. is not color-blind as yet.
Gender: (1) Theories
A.Sex and Gender:
Sex is something one is born with.
Gender is something socially acquired
B. Anatomy is destiny:
Biological essentialism vs Social Construction
C.Are women human beings who happen to be female, or are
women female who happen to be human beings?
D.Feminism:
Liberal feminism, radical feminism, black feminism,
cultural feminism,
Eco-feminism, socialist feminism, Marxist feminism
Gender: (2)American Women’s Experience
A. Colonial American Women: the British Common Law
B. Republican American Women: Republican Motherhood
C. Industrial Era: the Cult of True Womanhood---pious, pure,
submissive, domestic
D. Seneca Falls Convention: Suffrage Movement
E. Modern Era: New Women----flapper girl vs moral guardian
Gender: (2)American Women’s Experience
F. The problem that has no name---Betty Friedan
G. Post- World War II: Sexual Revolution----Equal Rights
Movement
H. The Personal is political
I. Sisterhood is powerful
J. The person who changes diapers changes the world.
K. The glass ceiling, lean in vs lean on
Conclusion: women are more equal to men now than before.
Thank you!