Beatrice Bain Research Group Presents

Lessons from the Great Depression: Shifting Contours of Race, Racism and White Privilege Among Working Class Women

Lois Helmbold, BBRG Scholar, Professor & Chair, Women's Studies Department, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Monica McDermott, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Sociology, Stanford University
Ula Y. Taylor, Asst. Professor, Dept. of African-American Studies, UCB

Panel discussion
Thursday, January 22, 2009
3:00 PM
Geballe Room, Stephens Hall

Based on interviews with and letters by Black and white working class women during the 1930s, this research analyzes commonalities and differences within class and gender, across race, age, and familial and marital situations in the urban north and Midwest.  Crisis unlocks contradictions.  The harsher experiences of Black women resulted from institutionalized racism, but contributed to white women’s assumption of whiteness, whether they were immigrants or American born.