Chapter 6: Confessions of an Accidental Tourist: My Journey as a Gender Researcher

Growing up in a working-class community outside of Boston, I came to understand intergroup relations among people of different races and ethnicities at an early age—well before I received my PhD. Our city was clearly segregated residentially—a Black section, a Jewish section, and another section, where I lived, with largely first- and second-generation Americans of Italian and Irish descent. Race and ethnicity organized our social lives. In sports, teams were largely based on where people lived and symbolized competition between ethnic and racial groups. Moreover, there was a clear social pecking order. I understood it; I did not question it. My friend Tony once asked me, “Jack, why do the Irish keep picking on us Italians?” We identified as victims of discrimination. But then Tony added, “After all, we’re not Black.” We also were victimizers.