ePub The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology by Sun Bear; Wabun Wind in History

Description

Michèle Lamont takes us into the world inhabited by working-class men--the world as they understand it. Interviewing black and white working-class men who; because they are not college graduates; have limited access to high-paying jobs and other social benefits; she constructs a revealing portrait of how they see themselves and the rest of society.Morality is at the center of these workers' worlds. They find their identity and self-worth in their ability to discipline themselves and conduct responsible but caring lives. These moral standards function as an alternative to economic definitions of success; offering them a way to maintain dignity in an out-of-reach American dreamland. But these standards also enable them to draw class boundaries toward the poor and; to a lesser extent; the upper half. Workers also draw rigid racial boundaries; with white workers placing emphasis on the "disciplined self" and blacks on the "caring self." Whites thereby often construe blacks as morally inferior because they are lazy; while blacks depict whites as domineering; uncaring; and overly disciplined.This book also opens up a wider perspective by examining American workers in comparison with French workers; who take the poor as "part of us" and are far less critical of blacks than they are of upper-middle-class people and immigrants. By singling out different "moral offenders" in the two societies; workers reveal contrasting definitions of "cultural membership" that help us understand and challenge the forms of inequality found in both societies.