Racial Discrimination is a major theme in this collection of essays. Skin color differences have been used to explain the differences that exist physically and artistically, and justify the maltreatment or dehumanization of an individual from an inferior race. People of properties are considered to be superior in intelligence and traits. An example illustrated in the book concerns cases, People v. Hall, 1854, Dread Scott v. Sandford, 1857, and Bradwell v. Illinois, 1873, that led to a creation of class differences in the rulings of the cases between European- American males, Negroes, Chinese, and women. (Rothenberg, 2010) claims that race is more of a political categorization than biological or scientific categorization. Thus, racial differences are more correlated with the changes of a society’s politics in America.
Another example is the case in California, 1854, in which the state Supreme Court ruled in a case People v. Hall, which stated that the Chinese should be barred from testifying against Americans or the white, since the Indians and the Negroes had been barred with a Californian law. The state judges discriminated against he Chinese-Americans terming them as inferior and are unable to progress or have intellectual development beyond a certain level (Rothenberg, 2010). In addition, the Orientals and the Hispanics were considered to be suited to undertake brutal, crippling, farm labor which the Americans, the white were not suited to perform physically. Furthermore, in 1857, the ruling of the United States Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford, clarified that the Negroes were not considered as part of the citizens of the United States (Rothenberg, 2010)
Race is another theme illustrated in this collection of essays. Gender defines a particular set of socially constructed meanings that are associated with each sex. Women and men alike have been portrayed as polar opposites having differing abilities. Thus, the notion of differences is a construction that suggests the claims made that women are different naturally, and the profound difference reflect a political and social ideologies instead of the distinction provided by nature. For example, in 1873, the Supreme Court Ruled in Bradwell v. Illinois that women were not allowed to practice law and further degraded the women that they belong to the “domestic sphere” (Rothenberg, 2010). However, every society has different notions as to what constitutes a woman’s gender role verses a man’s role. In 1973, Roe v. Wade was considered a significant step in the recognition of the right’s of women. These followed the after effects of abortion rights that were accorded open discussions on the importance of the case to women’s movement. Man should not consider a woman as weaker sex since, in the biblical context man and woman should be one in flesh and should not allow competition to one another.