Includes bibliographical references and index.

PREFACE
A new awareness of our diversity as people is the acknowledged reality of the United States in the 1990s. Students in college now will live and work in a society that ismulticultural and global, and college must prepare them for this world. Experienc-ing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States, Third Edition, provides an initialstep toward that end, offering students the opportunity to explore the complexity ofAmerican society and its historic, social, and economic makeup. The book focuseson the United States becaue students need to have a better understanding of theirown society before they can begin to understand and effectively interact with othercultures. In addition, the book demonstrates that no single "norm" represents theAmerican experience; instead, many points of view and wide varieties of experienceexist,and always have existed,in this country.Experiencing Race,Class, and Genderin the United States, Third Edition, introduces the basic issues of American multi-culturalism and diversity and examines the many difficult and highly politicized ques-tions posed by such complexity.
To wrestle with such questions,students first need to develop an enhanced senseof their own identities andlife situations and a positive understanding of the experi-ences and values of the many different groups that make up contemporary Americansociety. In order to experience differences among groups with understanding and appreciation, and not with fear and rancor, students need to be encouraged to foster empathy for the perspectives of those who seem different from themselves and to acknowledge the many similarities that are often overlooked.