Understanding Inequality: The Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender

Combining classic writings with some of the best new work on the intersectionalities of race, class, and gender, this anthology offers insights and illustrations of how inequalities in the United States are maintained and reproduced. Understanding Inequality should prompt scholars and students to think about future possibilities for conceptual innovations and expanded notions of social justice.--Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, University of Southern California This is a rich collection of very readable essays that explores a range of gender, ethnicity, race, class, and age issues. It is also deliberative in including material on white males, a group that is often neglected in such readers. Rather than blaming, stigmatizing or instilling guilt in any group as the oppressor, this collection focuses on broad-ranging systemic causes of inequality and the consequences for all of us. Arrighi's introduction at the outset provides excellent advice to students regarding how to read these essays critically, then the essays are left to stand on their own. The hand of a fine teacher is at work in the compilation and presentation of this anthology.--Keith A. Roberts, Hanover College

This book brings together essays by some of the most influential writers of our time - including Derrick Bell, bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and Deborah Tannen - offering a systematic and integrated portrait of social inequality in America today. Unusual in its combination of both statistical analyses and descriptive accounts, this up-to-date book is a cogent introduction to race, class, gender and other current dimensions of social and economic inequalities. It also serves as an invaluable reference source for any university, research, or large public library.