In the next section, Class and inequality, "The Growing Gulf Between the Rich and The Rest of Us" by Holly Sklar is what I relate to most. In this article the point is made that while the rich are getting richer the poor are getting poorer. The Forbes 400 wealth totals more than $1.1 trillion which is greater than the gross domestic product of Spain or Canada. While wealth is spreading at the top the "middle class continue to be a medical crisis or outsourced job away from bankruptcy" (Sklar 117). This is true, especially for my family. While I live in a single parent household and have since the age of eleven, my mother has always struggled to support our family on her own. While right now, we have medical insurance we go through periods in which we do not. When she switches jobs, we sometimes go up to six months without insurance while it catches up to her new job. My mother makes a decent living, or at least she did before this economic crisis and she still finds it difficult to support herself, my sister and I. My mother made a little over the median household income in 2004. My sister's sixteen month old child is on Medicaid, but when she applied for Food Stamps they told her my mother made too much money. The middle class is slowly slipping downward as the upper class is improving.

In the next article "Tired of Playing Monopoly?" by Donna Langston blaming the victim is again the reason why the poor are the poor. It is something they have done, not what was done for them. It is the creation of false hope, that by merit and intelligence we can change our position in society, that the poor are kept poor in a class based society. Upper class privilege is also justified if the belief that anyone can get ahead is widespread. Poverty is acceptable if everything is fair. Class is the culture you were raised in. It is a middle class notion to wait and have children until after their education is completed. A prime example of the falling middle class is my own family. I do not have children and I am about to graduate from college with my Bachelor's while my sister who was raised with the same middle class values all ready has her first child and is not in school. My family only has one car and it's almost on its last legs. We are definitely in the middle class bracket but due to the decline in the economy as well as the middle class we do not have some of the values or ideas that go along with it.

When considering going to college it never occurred to me to stay in town. Both my mother and my father went to college, my father stayed in town, my mother went to a state school three hours away. While I chose to go out of state, more than seven hours away, the first of my family to do so. Also within my family my grandmother worked in a factory, blue collar working class, while my mother is a college graduate professional in the mortgage business. My sister received WIC from the government when her child was born. It was often assumed that because she was a young, unwed mother with no job she didn't deserve the help she was getting. She stayed home with her child for the first nine months before going back to night school to get her high school diploma. After she graduated she got a minimum wage job working at a gas station. She suffered from the stigma placed on the welfare system, at least until her benefits were cut so short it wasn't even worth the hassle.

Within the next section, Gender and Sexism, the article "Toward a Theory of Disability and Gender" by Thomas J. Gerschick there is a theory about the relationship between gender and disability and the interconnection between the two. Next to women disabled people are the second largest minority group in the U.S. The type, severity, visibility, and whether it is mental or physical effects how that person is taught and subjected to gender expectations, "for people with disabilities, gendering is conditional" (Gerschick 187). To be sexually attractive in this country is to be physically able. I was born with a disability, and have had to live the label of being disabled my entire life. It seems to me, now looking back, that it was more acceptable that I was not a normal child, socially, due to my physical disability. I did not lead the normal life of a child. I had friends, but none of them close. I was more focused on school or in my own head than to make friends or even realize what was going on around me. I did not date anyone. I was not able to see myself as a sexual being, not knowing anyone else with a disability who was also sexually active. Also my disability prevented me from participating in the job market in high school. For the typical jobs for teenagers were in the food industry, jobs that others thought I was incapable of doing.

In the next section, Ethnicity and Nationality, the article "Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?" By Mark Waters ethnicity is discussed as being a social phenomenon, not biological. White Americans have the option of either claiming an ethnicity or choosing to just be White or American. White ethnicity only influences their lives if they choose to let it. White people claim different ethnicities when the situation calls for it. I have no clue as to my ethnicity except that on my mother's side it's French and Native American. I choose to not acknowledge any ethnicity and usually refer to myself as white or American. People from minority groups are not afforded the same choice I am, and their ethnicity does effect their lives whether they want it to or not. This symbolic ethnic leads to conclusion that all groups are equal and sense they are equal they are also interchangeable. A stranger has never asked me where I'm from expecting a different country. Whites are expected to answer the question "American" because of the assumption that all Americans are white. The incident of whites asks blacks about their hair has happened to me before. I wouldn't go up to a complete stranger and ask them about their hair, but I have asked my friends about it. They've told me that most people that ask walk up to them and touch their hair without asking. This question leads to the assumption of stereotypes of minority groups and resentment between those involved.

Works Cited

Anderson, L. Margaret, and Patricia Hill Collins.2007. Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology. 6th Ed. Thomson Wadesworth: Australia.