ABSTRACT
There has been much important work done in the past two decades on issues of under-representation in the American context based on social difference (Barry 2001; Benhabib 1996, 2002; Christiano 1996; Disch 2002; Gutman 1992; James 2004; Kymlicka 1995; Williams 1998). The relevant social differences include race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, sexuality, and sometimes age. While this work has been particularly helpful in elucidating the ways in which women and racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities suffer disproportionately on measures of full citizenship, social class and culture receive relatively little attention in the American context. More often than not, social class and working class interests are swept in under the primary concerns of gender, race, and ethnicity. To a large degree, this weighting is understandable and justified based on clear and continued gender inequality as well as the legacy of slavery and centrality of race in America.
