Race And Class

"Ugly Betty" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" star America Ferrera, who's also been an ambassador for Save the Children, was at UMass-Boston yesterday to talk to students about how race and class have affected her career. The discussion marked the start of the Women's Leadership Initiative, which aims to provide UMass women with opportunities and to arm them with knowledge about gender politics. Ferrera recently starred in "Chicago" in London's West End.

THE LUCK OF THE IRISH The work of Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge is characterized by a sure grasp of the nuances of race and class, never more so than in this beautifully realized new drama about the transgenerational reverberations of a black family's decision to move into a predominantly white suburb. Through May 6. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company. At Wimberly Theatre, Boston Centerfor the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org THE MIRACLE WORKER Brittany Rolfs, a 20-year-old from Milton, delivers an extraordinarily assured performance as Annie Sullivan in William Gibson's drama...

Anthony Minghella has been too preoccupied with other periods to focus on matters currently at hand. He did the American Civil War in "Cold Mountain," World War II in "The English Patient," and the bohemian rhapsodies of 1950s Yanks abroad in "The Talented Mr. Ripley. " With "Breaking and Entering," a chicly done, exceedingly mild drama that opens today, Minghella makes his not-entirely-convincing debut in the 21st century. His movie is set in contemporary London and is about communication, compassion, and gentrification -- about the unbearable weight of being noble when...

In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Cameron MacDonald spent a lot of time combing the playgrounds of neighborhoods from Brookline to Weston to Sudbury. A sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin, MacDonald was looking for nannies, and the typically high-earning mothers for whom they worked. Not surprisingly, she found them in droves. But she also found them in almost every conceivable cultural combination - white CEOs with undocumented immigrants, black doctors with white au pairs from the Midwest, Latina professionals with nannies carefully selected from only certain...

Yvonne is a young reporter eager to make it big. But, she'd like you to know, she does not want to be thought of as a young black reporter eager to make it big. This makes her new job a mixed blessing. She has been hired by an urban newspaper in an unnamed city to report for the Outlook section, which is geared to writing positive stories about minorities. She'll put her time in at Outlook, where Pat, an Afrocentric editor, looks down on her assimilationist ways, while dreaming of Metro, where her white boyfriend is an editor.

THE LUCK OF THE IRISH The work of Medford playwright Kirsten Greenidge is characterized by a sure grasp of the nuances of race and class, never more so than in this beautifully realized new drama about the transgenerational reverberations of a black family's decision to move into a predominantly white suburb. Through May 6. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company. At Wimberly Theatre, Boston Centerfor the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org THE MIRACLE WORKER Brittany Rolfs, a 20-year-old from Milton, delivers an extraordinarily assured performance as Annie Sullivan in William...

SUSANNA WILLIAMS , 28, Northbridge, and HALLEY ALLEN, 46, Holden WENT TO: Ghana, an English-speaking country in West Africa and we noticed that the big gap in social studies was Africa and slavery," Williams said. "We wanted to look at life not only during the slave trade, but what modern Africa was like. " LEADING THE WAY: The women used Aba Tours, operated by Brookline resident Ellie Schimelman.

Mel King is not a man given to snap judgments, and he wasn't inclined to make one yesterday about the complicated legacy of Kevin White. So the former state representative and finalist in the 1983 race to succeed White as mayor expressed a bit of respectful ambivalence on the question of whether he had been a great mayor. "I think people's perception of him is based on tall buildings," he said. "To the extent that that's the hallmark of a world-class city, that's what we have.

Three summers ago, I went to visit a friend in West Texas. She took a group of us to a restaurant in a big, well-appointed country house. At some point during the meal, one of us saw something alarming. A ceramic statue of a squat black woman was propping open a door. It was the sort of figurine that sums up a particular strain of race in America. The owner was a tall white woman who looked 50 in a very young way. When I asked her about the statue, her face lit up. "Oh, mammy," she said.

**½ THE HELP Written and directed by: Tate Taylor, adapted from the novel by Kathryn Stockett Starring: Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, and Sissy Spacek At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 139 minutes Rated: PG-13 (thematic material, including scenes of an actor simulating use of segregated toilets) Three summers ago, I went to visit a friend in West Texas. She took a group of us to a restaurant in a big, well-appointed country house.

"Ugly Betty" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" star America Ferrera, who's also been an ambassador for Save the Children, was at UMass-Boston yesterday to talk to students about how race and class have affected her career. The discussion marked the start of the Women's Leadership Initiative, which aims to provide UMass women with opportunities and to arm them with knowledge about gender politics. Ferrera recently starred in "Chicago" in London's West End.

Mel King is not a man given to snap judgments, and he wasn't inclined to make one yesterday about the complicated legacy of Kevin White. So the former state representative and finalist in the 1983 race to succeed White as mayor expressed a bit of respectful ambivalence on the question of whether he had been a great mayor. "I think people's perception of him is based on tall buildings," he said. "To the extent that that's the hallmark of a world-class city, that's what we have.

Three summers ago, I went to visit a friend in West Texas. She took a group of us to a restaurant in a big, well-appointed country house. At some point during the meal, one of us saw something alarming. A ceramic statue of a squat black woman was propping open a door. It was the sort of figurine that sums up a particular strain of race in America. The owner was a tall white woman who looked 50 in a very young way. When I asked her about the statue, her face lit up. "Oh, mammy," she said.

**½ THE HELP Written and directed by: Tate Taylor, adapted from the novel by Kathryn Stockett Starring: Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, and Sissy Spacek At: Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs Running time: 139 minutes Rated: PG-13 (thematic material, including scenes of an actor simulating use of segregated toilets) Three summers ago, I went to visit a friend in West Texas. She took a group of us to a restaurant in a big, well-appointed country house.

Anthony Minghella has been too preoccupied with other periods to focus on matters currently at hand. He did the American Civil War in "Cold Mountain," World War II in "The English Patient," and the bohemian rhapsodies of 1950s Yanks abroad in "The Talented Mr. Ripley. " With "Breaking and Entering," a chicly done, exceedingly mild drama that opens today, Minghella makes his not-entirely-convincing debut in the 21st century. His movie is set in contemporary London and is about communication, compassion, and gentrification -- about the unbearable...

Yvonne is a young reporter eager to make it big. But, she'd like you to know, she does not want to be thought of as a young black reporter eager to make it big. This makes her new job a mixed blessing. She has been hired by an urban newspaper in an unnamed city to report for the Outlook section, which is geared to writing positive stories about minorities. She'll put her time in at Outlook, where Pat, an Afrocentric editor, looks down on her assimilationist ways, while dreaming of Metro, where her white boyfriend is an editor.

In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Cameron MacDonald spent a lot of time combing the playgrounds of neighborhoods from Brookline to Weston to Sudbury. A sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin, MacDonald was looking for nannies, and the typically high-earning mothers for whom they worked. Not surprisingly, she found them in droves. But she also found them in almost every conceivable cultural combination - white CEOs with undocumented immigrants, black doctors with white au pairs from the Midwest, Latina professionals with nannies carefully selected from only certain...

Early in Kirsten Greenidge's "The Luck of the Irish," during a get-together that initially appears social in nature but turns out to be a very particular sort of business transaction, two couples drink from a set of glasses that seem like, but aren't, Waterford crystal. This small matter of mistaken glassware leads a pair of women — one black, one white — to make assumptions about each other that help pave the way for longstanding antagonism. (There is also the matter of a house, and who is its true owner.)

SUSANNA WILLIAMS , 28, Northbridge, and HALLEY ALLEN, 46, Holden WENT TO: Ghana, an English-speaking country in West Africa and we noticed that the big gap in social studies was Africa and slavery," Williams said. "We wanted to look at life not only during the slave trade, but what modern Africa was like. " LEADING THE WAY: The women used Aba Tours, operated by Brookline resident Ellie Schimelman.