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 the US

1. the class division line is blurred, vague and crossable.

2. the social ladder is not very steep and relatively easy to climb.

3. natural aristocracy is preferred to hereditary aristocracy.

4. meritocracy is practiced

5. equality is viewed as a sacred principle.

In Europe

1. the class division line was and still is difficult to cross, and oftentimes fixed.

2. the social barrier is too high to climb over.

3. nobility is still held in great respect.

4. family connection and royal blood are still very much cherished.

5. hierarchy is still very 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 ProgramHead Start Program

Food Stamp ProgramWelfare---WorkfareAffirmative Action

Racial ProfilingPolitically Correct

Speech CodeMulticulturalism

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!