Alexis de Tocqueville makes a moral assessment of America, pointing out that the "goodness" inherent in American values like freedom and liberty is what makes the nation "great." The term "great" refers to the nation's power, status, and enduring prestige. However, social critics throughout American history have endeavored to point out the gross shortcomings in the country's policies and its hypocritical practices. In The Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B. DuBois discusses the ongoing problem of racism in America to show that the values of freedom and liberty have not been fulfilled. Charlotte Perkins Gillman's novel Herland offers a scathing critique of the patriarchal and sexist values and norms that persist in American society in spite of the faAade of offering "liberty and justice for all." Both DuBois and Gillman provide road maps to a better America, one that recognizes the essential equality of all human beings.
In The Souls of Black Folks, DuBois shows how African-Americans have developed a "double consciousness" because of racial inequality and social injustice. It has become impossible for African-Americans to recognize themselves as "Americans" because of the ways blacks have been systematically excluded from access to wealth and social capital. Similarly, Gillman uses the medium of fiction and literary irony to show that women have been constrained by their gender, as men hold positions of power and dictate the roles and norms of women. Gillman illustrates what a society is like when it becomes dominated by only one gender, only half of the population.
Both DuBois and Gillman suggest that a "good" America is one that recognizes its faults and comes to terms with them. Eliminating social hierarchies is one step toward creating a "good" America. America can become "great" when it empowers all its citizens instead of only a small portion, based on accidents of birth leading to determinations of gender, race, and social class. Instead of pretending that America is egalitarian, it would be better to see how institutionalized sexism and racism continue to impact the status and integrity of the United States.
2. When Paine suggested that life, liberty, and the...
The different "isms" such as sexism, heterosexism, and racism are creating very real schisms -- in our minds, and between people. The chasms of communication that are created by hatred and misunderstanding are socially constructed. They can be socially deconstructed too. Such rifts occur between groups of people and between whole cultures. In some pockets of the United States, social conservatism threatens to erase the social progress made since the
In the Struggle for Democracy (Greenberg, 483-84) the author explains that gradually, little by little, the Supreme Court of the United States responded to the need to rule segregation unconstitutional. And in the process the Court ruled that any law passed using the criteria of race was also unconstitutional. The Brown v. Board of Education vote in 1954 meant that segregation in schools was not constitutional and it was the
The predominating media sentiment according to Ransby was that of 'blaming the victim,' or blaming the impoverished residents for being insufficiently prepared for the disaster. Ransby suggests that the fortitude shown by residents, even in the absence of aid, was often considerable, considering their meager resources. Residents were blamed for their poverty, rather than sympathized with. Ransby's essay made me think critically about the coverage of the event I witnessed:
For example, one of the interesting points that grabbed my attention was Dill's discussion of gender relations among African slaves. Slave men and women had a more egalitarian relationship than free white men and women. That is because slave men did not possess the power and authority of free men. So, power is inherently corrupting? At least, this is what Dill's description of gender relations in antebellum America suggest. I
She uses primary documents such as diaries, journals, and notes, combined with secondary sources such as biographies, historical articles, and historian's viewpoints of times and individuals in history. She combines a deep understanding of history with the ability to see beyond words to engage the feelings and inner thoughts of individuals in their written words. Normally, this reliance on "feelings" and intuition does not play largely in history, but
Dimensions of Social Inequality Race, Class, Sex, Marriage, Gender: Social Scholars' Dimensions of Social Equity and Inequality Race, Class, Sex, Marriage, Gender: Social Scholars' Dimensions of Social Equity and Inequality Race, Gender, Sex, Marriage, and Class Race, Gender, Sex, Marriage, and Class are themes that are socially and historically constructed by the society and operate on an individual and social level. Academics and social scholars emphasize these dimensions are interdependent, and define social boundaries.
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