Approximately 5 typed double-spaced pages

How would you define economic or social "class" so as to classify contemporary U.S. society into meaningful groups? What criterion or criteria would you use to distinguish one "class" from another (income, education, occupation, ownership, power, etc.)? Using your chosen criteria, what does the overall class structure of the United States look like (what are the different classes composing U.S. society)?

You are required to address seriously either A) race or ethnicity or B) gender or sexuality in your paper. Consider whether it is meaningful to think of people of different racial/ethnic groups or different gender/sexual identities as belonging to the same "class" in society. Using your definition of class, explain in what ways the social roles or experiences or members of that class are similar (even across lines of race/ethnicity or gender/sexuality)? In what ways are they different?

In your view, is the concept of class as you have defined it useful for understanding U.S. society today?