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What we hear outside of the home is another part of our

identity involving secondary socialization. How other

people talk to us, how they react to our presence and how we

respond to their reactions also shape and form who we are

and how we perceive ourselves. Returning to the example of

work, employers had the perception that great stamina for

hard physical labor was a character trait of Kawaiisu men,

and the Kawaiisu men interviewed seemed to internalize that

perception and view that as part of their identity.

The educational experiences of Clara, Harold, and

Carmen demonstrate this as well. Teachers and non-Indian

students openly tagged them with labels emphasizing that

Clara, Harold, and Carmen were not one of them, but were

different and even inferior. Their experiences brought home

the reality that race and class, as well as gender, are

intersecting systems, experienced simultaneously and not

separately (Andersen & Collins, 1992: 50). When, as a

teenager, Harold began working and buying new and

fashionable clothing, he experienced a certain degree of

acceptance by his white counterparts. Perhaps it wasn't

really acceptance; there just happened to be one less thing

to tease him about. Race and class as intersecting systems

point to the fact that being poor and Indian was perceived

by non-Indians as going hand-in-hand. In their educational

experiences, race and social class formed the basis for

social exclusion by white counterparts. If, for instance.