Monday, April 14, 2008

Where you start matters.

If you start to understand class based on your personal experiences, as most of us do, it will limit your understanding of class until you learn more about the class experiences of others. If you come to understand class in a journey to understand ethnicity, then you will have a view of class heavily influenced by ethnicity. While class and ethnicity are closely related, starting at ethnicity and coming to class will result in very different views of class than if you start at class. Which is more important, class or ethnicity? The answer to that depends on the context of the question. Which is more important in predicting if a large number of students go to college, where they will go, and if they will graduate is a different question than asking about the daily oppression experienced by ethnic and class minorities.

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