The fascinating thing for me in the last several readings has been our need to define ourselves and each other and to think about not only how these definitions are often troubled by real world experiences (even as we stick with them despite this) but also how the mediation of online spaces have called these even more to the forefront. As Jacob pointed out in his blog, and forgive me for paraphrasing here, there is no comfortable space to discuss race but we do it anyway, often to hurt feelings or anger. I would argue that this is largely because issues of race are so fundamental to this country's history, feelings will likely be strong on the subject well beyond the spans of our lives.
Gender is another fascinating topic for me to consider. As the parent of both a son and daughter, I like to imagine that my children will have access to the same opportunities when it comes to their educations and lives in general. Furthermore, I make a conscientious effort not to treat them differently due to their genders but I find myself acting one way around my daughter that I recognize as different than how I acted around my son at the same age. Is this what we talk about when we talk about unconsciously transmitting gender roles and the like?
