7.6 Chapter Summary
Kimberly Puttman
Now, as you think about family, how have your ideas changed? In this chapter, we have seen that the government defines who gets to be a family. These laws, policies, and practices changed over time, both restricting who belongs in families, and expanding the definitions. We examined the inequalities families experience due to racism, citizenship, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. We’ve learned from classical and contemporary sociologists, creating intersectional models that help us understand how privilege and power from multiple social locations impact the family experience. Finally, we’ve learned from brave undocumented queer people coming out of the closet and out of the shadows so that all families can belong. Belonging is social justice.
Essential Ideas
Learning Objective 1: How can we consider belonging a social problem?
Although we often think that creating families and experiencing belonging is a personal choice, in reality, laws, policies, and practices impact who gets recognized as a family. For example, multigenerational families are rarely recognized with the same rights as nuclear families. These structural differences result from differences in values related to family. Because of this, some families experience privilege, and others experience oppression. Mixed-status families and queer families have less power than other families. However, queer dreamers are taking action to create the social justice of belonging for their families.
Learning Objective 2: How do changing definitions of ethnicity and citizenship impact who belongs, historically and currently?
Ethnicity is a social location where a group of people share a cultural background, such as language, location, and religion. Sometimes, an ethnic group experiences violence or prejudice related to their belonging. In addition, our definition of ethnicity is socially constructed. For example, we use Hispanic, Latino/a, and Latinx to describe a particular ethnic group. The amount of power an ethnic group has may change over time. In addition, people of different races and ethnicities may be granted citizenship or not. To be a citizen is powerful because you can participate in our political process and enjoy the benefits of government programs. However, obtaining citizenship can be challenging in the past due to the historical institution of slavery and in the present due to the immigrant industrial complex.
Learning Objective 3: What does it mean to be queer, particularly queer in the context of family?
Queer is a term that has been used to harm people who are LGBTQIA+. However, the word is being reclaimed by people who are deliberately challenging norms of gender identity and sexuality. Although queer families are generally as healthy and stable as straight families, and they are at least as likely to parent well, many families experience heteropatriarchy. This structural inequality limits resources and choices for their families, including