[EDEQUITY Male Dialogue] Intersection of race & gender

From: Dsadker@aol.com
Date: Mon Dec 11 2000 - 12:07:08 EST


I think Peggy Weeks has put her finger on an important, and
nagging, issue: the difficulty we all have considering more than one factor

at a time. We seem able to focus on gender, or race, or special needs, one
at
a time: taken together, we are overwhelmed. I am continually amazed at the

almost invisible power that social economic class exerts on all these
issues.
 I find gender stereotypes, or race issues, for example, to be strongly
influenced by class, yet class is too rarely considered along with these
other factors.
     Whenever I can, I encourage doctoral students to organize their
studies
to tease out these critical factors in their dissertations. Masculinity in
the African American community is quite different than it is in the Jewish
American community, for example. Too often, these distinctions are lost.
     As an example, let me recommend an article by Michael Kimmel, "A War
Against Boys?" in a recent issue of Tikkun magazine. Much has been said
about
the current "shortage" of male college students. Kimmel points out the
critical roles that race and class play in these college enrollment
statistics. Basically, for white students, there is no college gap. Kimmel

points out that 51% of the college students are female, 49% male. These
numbers pretty much reflect the population. For African American males,
however, the is a very real college gender gap, with 37% of African
American
males in college, contrasted with 63 % of African American females. For
Hispanic students, it is 45% male to 55% female. We need to do a better job

in our research and writing efforts to make certain that we reflect these
critical distinctions.

David Sadker



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