REREADING
AMERICA
Cultural Contexts for Critical
Thinking and Writing
TENTH EDITION
EDITED BY
Gary Colombo
Emeritus—Los Angeles City College
Robert Cullen
Emeritus—San Jose State University
Bonnie Lisle
University of California, Los Angeles
ISBN 978-1-4576-9921-4 (Student Edition)
ISBN 978-1-4576-9939-9 (Instructor’s Edition)
CONTENTS
PREFACE FOR INSTRUCTORS v
INTRODUCTION: Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths 1
1
HARMONY AT HOME 15
The Myth of the Model Family
LOOKING FOR WORK, GARY SOTO 19
“For weeks I had drunk Kool-Aid and watched morning reruns
of Father Knows Best, whose family was so uncomplicated in its
routine that I very much wanted to imitate it. The first step was to
get my brother and sister to wear shoes at dinner.”
WHAT WE REALLY MISS ABOUT THE 1950s, STEPHANIE COONTZ 25
“What most people really feel nostalgic about . . . is the belief
that the 1950s provided a more family-friendly economic and
social environment, an easier climate in which to keep kids on
the straight and narrow, and above all, a greater feeling of hope
for a family’s long-term future, especially for its young.”
AUNT IDA PIECES A QUILT, MELVIN DIXON 41
“Francine say she gonna send this quilt to Washington like folks
doing from all ’cross the country, so many good people gone.
Babies, mothers, fathers, and boys like our Junie. . . .”
THE COLOR OF FAMILY TIES: RACE, CLASS, GENDER, AND
EXTENDED FAMILY INVOLVEMENT, NAOMI GERSTEL
AND NATALIA SARKISIAN 44
“Marriage actually diminishes ties to kin.”
xiii
xiv
CONTENTS
VISUAL PORTFOLIO
READING IMAGES OF AMERICAN FAMILIES 54
FROM TO THE END OF JUNE: THE INTIMATE LIFE OF
AMERICAN FOSTER CARE, CRIS BEAM 61
“Can the older kids, tired and traumatized by a decade or more in
foster care, really jump into adoption with someone they’ve never
met? And can parents promise to adopt a stranger without a trial
run?”
FROM MARRIAGE MARKETS: HOW INEQUALITY IS REMAKING THE
AMERICAN FAMILY, JUNE CARBONE AND NAOMI CAHN 77
“It is important to see marriage and other intimate relationships
as the product of markets. That is, relationships do occur as a
result of an exchange, just like the purchase of the latest iPhone.”
WHY ARE ALL THE CARTOON MOTHERS DEAD?, SARAH BOXER 86
“Why, when so many real families have mothers and no
fathers, do so many children’s movies present fathers as the
only parents?”
2
LEARNING POWER 99
The Myth of Education and Empowerment
THE ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD EDUCATION, DIANE RAVITCH 105
“We cheat children when we do not give them the chance to
learn more than basic skills. We cheat them when we evaluate
them by standardized tests. We undervalue them when we turn
them into data points.”
AGAINST SCHOOL, JOHN TAYLOR GATTO 114
“School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into
addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children
into children.”
“I JUST WANNA BE AVERAGE,” MIKE ROSE 123
“I was placed in the vocational track, a euphemism for the bottom
level. Neither I nor my parents realized what this meant.”
FROM SOCIAL CLASS AND THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM
OF WORK, JEAN ANYON 136
“Public schools in complex industrial societies like our own
make available different types of educational experience and
curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes.”
xv
CONTENTS
VISUAL PORTFOLIO
READING IMAGES OF EDUCATION AND EMPOWERMENT 154
LEARNING TO READ, MALCOLM X 161
“My homemade education gave me, with every additional book
that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness,
and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.”
STILL SEPARATE, STILL UNEQUAL, JONATHAN KOZOL 170
“‘It is not fair that other kids have a garden and new things.
But we don’t have that. . . . I wish that this school was the most
beautiful school in the whole [wide] world.’”
A PROSTITUTE, A SERVANT, AND A CUSTOMER-SERVICE
REPRESENTATIVE: A LATINA IN ACADEMIA, CARMEN R. LUGO-LUGO 188
“. . . I wish my students would not dismiss me because I am not
white and male.”
DON’T SEND YOUR KIDS TO THE IVY LEAGUE, WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ 200
“Our system of elite education manufactures young people who
are smart and talented and driven, yes, but also anxious, timid,
and lost, with little curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose. . . .”
3
THE WILD WIRED WEST 213
Myths of Progress on the Tech Frontier
OUR FUTURE SELVES, ERIC SCHMIDT AND JARED COHEN 219
“Soon everyone on Earth will be connected. With five billion
more people set to join the virtual world, the boom in digital
connectivity will bring gains in productivity, health, education,
quality of life and myriad other avenues in the physical world. . . .”
GROWING UP TETHERED, SHERRY TURKLE 236
“Early in my study, a college senior warned me not to be fooled
by ‘anyone you interview who tells you that his Facebook page
is “the real me.” It’s like being in a play. You make a character.’”
CYBERSEXISM, LAURIE PENNY 253
“Sexist trolls, stalkers, mouth-breathing bedroom misogynists: all
of them attack women out of hatred, in part, for the presence of
women and girls in public space. . . .”
LOVE ME TINDER, EMILY WITT 270
“. . . maybe Tinder will be the app for the never-ending present,
for the idea of one’s life not as culminating in a happy ending but
a long series of encounters, sexual or otherwise.”
xvi
CONTENTS
VISUAL PORTFOLIO
READING IMAGES OF WIRED CULTURE 283
THE LONELINESS OF THE INTERCONNECTED, CHARLES SEIFE 289
“Ironically, all this interconnection is isolating us. We are all
becoming solipsists, trapped in worlds of our own creation.”
INEQUALITY: CAN SOCIAL MEDIA RESOLVE SOCIAL
DIVISIONS?, DANAH BOYD 303
“The Internet will not inherently make the world more equal,
nor will it automatically usher today’s youth into a tolerant world.
Instead, it lays bare existing and entrenched social divisions.”
GEORGE ORWELL . . . MEET MARK ZUCKERBERG, LORI ANDREWS 322
“Everything you post on a social network or other Web site is
being digested, analyzed, and monetized. In essence, a second
self — a virtual interpretation of you — is being created. . . .”
PRECOGNITIVE POLICE, HENRICK KAROLISZYN 336
“What if there was an alternative to prevent these types of
shootings without eradicating guns? What if predictive
policing . . . were to intercept killers before they struck?”
4
MONEY AND SUCCESS 345
The Myth of Individual Opportunity
SAM WALTON / JAY Z, GEORGE PACKER 350
“‘I could just feel that stink and shame of being broke lifting
off me, and it felt beautiful. The sad shit is that you never really
shake it all the way off, no matter how much money you get.’”
— Jay Z
SERVING IN FLORIDA, BARBARA EHRENREICH 363
“I had gone into this venture in the spirit of science, to test a
mathematical proposition, but somewhere along the line, in the
tunnel vision imposed by long shifts and relentless concentration,
it became a test of myself, and clearly I have failed.”
CLASS IN AMERICA — 2012, GREGORY MANTSIOS 377
“From cradle to grave, class position has a significant impact on
our well-being.”
FROM BEYOND OUTRAGE, ROBERT B. REICH 399
“Those at the top get giant rewards no matter how badly they
screw up while the rest of us get screwed no matter how hard
we work.”
xvii
CONTENTS
VISUAL PORTFOLIO
READING IMAGES OF INDIVIDUAL OPPORTUNITY 409
FROM A TANGLE OF PATHOLOGY TO A RACE-FAIR AMERICA,
ALAN AJA, DANIEL BUSTILLO, WILLIAM DARITY JR., AND
DARRICK HAMILTON 415
“What explains the marked and persistent racial gaps in
employment and wealth? Is discrimination genuinely of only
marginal importance in America today?”
FRAMING CLASS, VICARIOUS LIVING, AND CONSPICUOUS
CONSUMPTION, DIANA KENDALL 424
“The poor do not fare well on television entertainment shows,
where writers typically represent them with one-dimensional,
bedraggled characters standing on a street corner holding
cardboard signs that read ‘Need money for food.’”
SLAVERY IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, KEVIN BALES AND
RON SOODALTER 443
“We do know that slaves in America are found — or rather
not found — in nearly all fifty states, working as commercial
sex slaves, fruit pickers, construction workers, gardeners, and
domestics.”
5
TRUE WOMEN AND REAL MEN 463
Myths of Gender
GIRL, JAMAICA KINCAID 469
“Try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on
becoming.”
BECOMING MEMBERS OF SOCIETY: LEARNING THE SOCIAL
MEANINGS OF GENDER, AARON H. DEVOR 471
“It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic
power imbalances based on gender discrimination.”
QUANDARIES OF REPRESENTATION, MONA EL-GHOBASHY 481
“Real Muslim and Arab women are extraordinarily diverse. . . .
Like other human beings, they are fraught with ambiguity,
contradiction, and inconsistency.”
“TWO WAYS A WOMAN CAN GET HURT”: ADVERTISING
AND VIOLENCE, JEAN KILBOURNE 488
“Ads don’t directly cause violence, of course. But the violent
images contribute to the state of terror . . . a climate in which
there is widespread and increasing violence.”
xviii
CONTENTS
VISUAL PORTFOLIO
READING IMAGES OF GENDER 515
THE LONGEST WAR, REBECCA SOLNIT 522
“Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality,
but it does have a gender.”
FROM FLY-GIRLS TO BITCHES AND HOS, JOAN MORGAN 533
“The seemingly impenetrable wall of sexism in rap music is really
the complex mask African Americans often wear both to hide and
express the pain.”
“BROS BEFORE HOS”: THE GUY CODE, MICHAEL KIMMEL 540
“Masculinity is a constant test — always up for grabs, always
needing to be proved. And the testing starts early.”
SISTERHOOD IS COMPLICATED, RUTH PADAWER 550
“Where . . . should Wellesley draw a line, if a line should even
be drawn? At trans men? At transmasculine students? What about
students who are simply questioning their gender?”
6
CREATED EQUAL 567
The Myth of the Melting Pot
THE CASE FOR REPARATIONS, TA-NEHISI COATES 572
“An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens
is improved and humane. An America that looks away is
ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present
and the certain sins of the future.”
THEORIES AND CONSTRUCTS OF RACE, LINDA HOLTZMAN AND
LEON SHARPE 599
“While race itself is a fiction, the consequences of racism
are a historical and contemporary fact of American life.”
GENTRIFICATION, SHERMAN ALEXIE 615
“I waved to them but they didn’t wave back. I pretended they
hadn’t noticed me and waved again. They stared at me. They
knew what I had done.”
LOOT OR FIND: FACT OR FRAME?, CHERYL I. HARRIS AND
DEVON W. CARBADO 620
“Frames are not static. Epic events like Katrina push up against
and can temporarily displace them. All those people. All that
suffering. This can’t be America.”
xix
CONTENTS
VISUAL PORTFOLIO
READING IMAGES OF THE MELTING POT 637
LAND OF THE GIANTS, ALEX TIZON 645
“Americans did seem to me at times like a different species, one
that had evolved over generations into supreme behemoths.”
FROM REZ LIFE: AN INDIAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH RESERVATION
LIFE, DAVID TREUER 651
“To claim that Indian cultures can continue without Indian
languages only hastens our end . . . because if the culture dies,
we will have lost the chance not only to live on our own terms
(something for which our ancestors fought long and hard) but also
to live in our own terms.”
HOW IMMIGRANTS BECOME “OTHER,” MARCELO M. SUÁREZ-OROZCO
AND CAROLA SUÁREZ-OROZCO 666
“Unauthorized immigrants live in a parallel universe. Their lives
are shaped by forces and habits that are unimaginable to many
American citizens.”
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES 683
