"A Challenge to Democracy"

The film, “A Challenge to Democracy” discussed the Americanism of the Japanese. During this time period, the Japanese were taken out of their “normal” lives they had made up in America. Here they were shipped to other areas of the country and in one case, a man whose hobby was machine work soon became his job. This sort of thing was done by Americans so they could win the war. They got the Japanese to specialize in areas where they worked best in order to increase their production levels or such things as food and supplies. This film was made with the intention of Americans to view it.
The film begins to talk about the evacuation of the Japanese and dislocated people in America. Areas were built called relocation centers. These places could house 7 to 18 thousand people and was guarded by the police. The living areas were 20x25 feet and there was little privacy within them. Everyone ate in a cafeteria where each person was allowed a maximum on 45 cents of food per day. This amount costs more than what it actually cost to produce the food. Some people were able to hold jobs and the pay ranged from $12 a month for beginners to $19 a month for skilled workers such as doctors. These centers also offered an American education as well as health protection. The teachers consisted of some Caucasian and others were evacuees. Within the health services, Japanese who worked there were supervised by Caucasian. Elections also took place in the centers for such things as rules and regulations of the area. People of 18 years and older were able to vote. It was stated that these health centers were not normal and probably never would be. The living and working conditions were not good. According to the film, the Americanism of the Japanese was most prevalent in the United States army. The film shows how the Americans were once again trying to civilize an outside group of people (Japanese) and fit into their culture to rid the savagery idea.
I was a little confused by this film. I would have liked to know a little more background information on what was happening at this time in America. What sparked the want to civilize the Japanese? Why were the centers created and were they found to be useful to the Americans?

Takaki- Chapter 10 Pacific Crossings

In chapter 10, Takaki discusses the time during the 1800s when many Japanese and some Chinese people migrated to the United States and the affect it played on the country. To many people overseas, the United States was this amazing new development and they could not wait to see it. They were filled with many hopes and dreams of this newly developed land. The Japanese heard stories that workers made more money and believed that “money grew on trees.” They then developed the idea that they would come to America to work and save up a lot of money and eventually return home. The migrants to America started as all men but eventually included women as well. This fascination with the New World also lead to a system referred to as “picture brides.” Throughout this process, the Japanese had more benefits than the Chinese. Japanese women were earning wages within the work force while Chinese women were restricted to farm and home. The Japanese saw men and women to be more equal allowing women to be educated and able to work. While the Japanese migrated to the U.S. in hopes of a better life, they remained the minority in the New World and received jobs of hard labor. Within these jobs they worked for low wages under the watch white men. Eventually, despite the stereotype that the Japanese were “passive victims of exploitation” the Japanese aggressively protested against the unfair labor conditions and developed “blood unions.” They were demanding “higher wages, an eight- hour day, an insurance fund for retired employees and paid maternity leaves.” However, this did not work because the U.S. simply hired Koreans, Hawaiians, Chinese, Portuguese and Filipinos as scabs. Eventually, the striking stopped when they realized they were hurting their Hawaiian economy. Workers were then separated by their nationality into camps with poor living conditions. Planters got immigrant laborers to speak English so they could give commands to their work force. As the children of immigrant workers grew up, the planters wanted them to have little to no opportunities. They feared the new generation would not be plantation laborers but instead intelligent citizens and this was because the schools were not preparing them to be laborers. While the Japanese were treated poorly in Hawaii, in California they were a racial minority. Many Japanese had plans to come to the New World and establish a living and make money and then return to Japan with earnings. However, many Japanese did not follow through with this plan and ended up staying in Hawaii.
Throughout the migration process, why didn’t the Japanese return to Japan in the end after they had gotten what they wanted out of the New World?
I thought this reading was interesting and I learned a lot. I was not aware the working conditions in Hawaii during this time. Also, I found it horrible when a Japanese person wanted to buy land in Los Angeles and he was not allowed because of his race.

EXTRA CREDIT- Race: The Power of the Illusion

The idea of race has been around for a long time. The first slaves in Virginia were brought over in 1619. At this time, religion played a larger role than race when it came down to the issue of who was to be considered a slave, and who was not. Those such as Indians, who were not Christian were seen as savages and called slaves. Eventually, the classification for slaves became based on race. Being a Christian was no longer important and white skin color became commonly use. At this time, slavery and blackness came together and everything about the relationship between blacks and slavery grew to be natural.
Thomas Jefferson personally owned 125 slaves at one point. He was the first person to develop race and he took part in writing the Declaration of Independence. Many began to question how he, an owner of 125 slaves, supported and signed a document that was stating things about equality in ways such as “all men are created equal.”
The next thing on Jefferson’s mind was the Indians. He believed that although the Indians were savages, they could still be civilized. Jefferson had very little contact with the Indians and decided that the easiest and cheapest way to avoid war and take their land was through civilization. His idea was to make Indians into “brown-white men.” Jefferson believed that what made black people inferior to white people was scientific.
The video goes on to discuss Jackson’s plan of action with the Indians. He believed that people of similar race should be in the same nations. In order to justify the removal of the Indians he blamed them for their lack of intelligence and their savagery and therefore they should disappear. In 1838, the U.S. army forced Cherokees out of the Georgia land by gunpoint. Then, in 1848, the U.S. went to war with Mexico for even more land because they believed the west belonged to white Americans. After the war, the U.S. received one-third of Mexico’s land.
The conclusion to the scientific observation between blacks and whites was that slaves were not able to exit in a white society because they were inferior. Some people even came to believe that slaves were of a different specie than whites and that no two distinctly marked races could reside together.
The conflicts of slavery lead the U.S. to war. Everything that people believed seems so outrageous. Poor white were told to be proud and thankful that they were at least white. This statement seemed funny to me because although these whites were poor the fact that they were white was an honor. What if the U.S. army went into black people’s homes today and held them at gunpoint in order to take over their house? The U.S. government would be able to get anything they wanted through this method they used many years ago.

EXTRA CREDIT- Rothenberg (The Ethics of Living Jim Crow)

After slavery was abolished, rights among blacks and whites were still not equal. Richard White discusses his experiences growing up as a black child during this time. He had to learn several lessons the hard way and he eventually learned in order to get things he wanted such as an education, he would have to steel or lie. He learned from his mistakes and developed a true understanding of what the world he was growing up in was really like.
In Richard’s first job interview for an optical company, he talks about how he made sure to be polite to the boss by answering with “yessirs” and “nosirs.” He talks about how he realized his place during the interview and that his boss was white and he black. White talks about how he “had visions of ‘working his way up’” within his new job. Eventually he realized that would not happen anytime soon and that a black boy such as himself should never dream such things because they were unrealistic at the time. In White’s first job, he worked with two white men. At first, he thought they were all friends until they wouldn’t help Richard learn anything in his job and he realized they thought of him only as a black man and nothing more. These two white men felt threatened by White’s willingness to learn and then began to terrorize him. Richard was forced to leave his job because he was intimidated by the white men and felt inferior as well.
Throughout “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow,” Richard goes through several jobs where he experiences discrimination throughout all of them. He got beaten or tormented for even looking at a white person the wrong way. Once White learned that if he wanted to develop an education, he would have to do it himself through lying or steeling. In order to get library books, White would write a note to the librarian stating that he was allowed to check out the books for a white man.
I could not imagine living in a society where such things took place. What if today’s society was still segregated like it used to be? When reading this, it made me feel horrible. I don’t know how I would be able to survive if I was treated the way Richard White was throughout his childhood and adolescence. I could not imagine living in fear all the time as they were forced to.

Ethnic Notions film

During the time of slavery, the idea of slavery was not seen as wrong or immoral. The Ethnic Notions film discussed slavery and how it was perceived at the time it was occurring. The film showed comics from the time period, most of which were of blacks. These images appealed especially to whites. Many of the caricatures shown in the film portrayed blacks as happy. The images shown did not portray what blacks actually looked like.
The character Mame was the standard female black slave of the time period. She was presented as docile, loyal, protective, happy and fat. She definitely was not seen as a sexual character. This was mainly because that would then attract the master of the household and would therefore create competition for the wife of the household. Mame was also portrayed differently with her families than how she is with her master’s household. With her families, she is the dominant figure or the controller over the man.
Was slavery ever seen as bad to those who are not black? Why were slaves portrayed as happy if slavery was not the least bit pleasant? To me, it seems that since slavery was portrayed as pleasant (as shown in the film), non-black people may never have realized what was actually occurring and the true effects of it. Perhaps non-blacks had dug themselves into too deep of a hole to get out of slavery so they changed the whole idea around to ignore what was really happening.
This film introduced me to an entirely new idea. I was not aware that blacks were perceived as “happy” during the time of slavery. One thing that stuck out to me while watching the film was the phrase, “No disgrace in being a black man, but it’s terribly inconvenient.” This phrase shows that blacks were never ashamed to be black but those around them (non-blacks) made their lives inconvenient in comparison to everyone else.

Takaki Chapter 3

In the beginning of chapter 3, Takaki starts off by discussing skin color. At the time, according to the English, the color black portrayed negative images and the color white had to do with purity. Early on, most slaves were white indentured servants. The black population was growing very slowly at the time. As the population grew, blacks were used more and more as slaves. There was a time when whites and black shared equal labor condition in Virginia and they were all free laborers and shared a kind of partnership. On occasion, whites and blacks would even run away together in order to escape the lives they had been given. As time went on, black servants were separated from white servants because it became more and more obvious that African slaves were more useful that English indentured servants. African laborers were able to be shipped over in large groups, cheaper because serving for life had become more profitable and were able to serve their masters as slaves for longer periods of time (life status). White slaves became pardoned of slavery because of the “giddy multitude.” Religion and race became to matter greatly and a law was passed stating that blacks and Indians were not able to buy Christians. This separated whites and blacks which lead to the separation of savagery and civilization.
One thing I would like to know is, did Jefferson genuinely believe slavery was wrong or was there some other incentive for him to pose the American Revolution? Was he really trying to defend the black slaves?
As I was reading Chapter 3, I found it interesting that during a time throughout slavery, whites and blacks were in a sense equal. This concept is something new I learned through reading Takaki’s chapter. I liked how that whole time period was discussed. It was very interesting to me that there were not a lot of black slaves to begin with and eventually they became easier to transport from England. Eventually, blacks out numbered whites in slavery.

Zinn-Chapter 2 (Drawing the Color Line)

Today’s world has come a long way from what it used to be many years ago. This may not be easy for some to see because things such as racism and segregation still exist within our society. However, racism has drastically improved since then.
In chapter 2 of Howard Zinn’s book, “A people’s History of the United States,” he states that “the color line” is, in fact still with us and that racism has been most important in the United States in our world history. Zinn discusses the “starving time” for the Virginias. They were not able to produce enough food for themselves and needed a form of labor. The Virginias realized they couldn’t use Indians like Columbus did. The solution to their problem was “black slaves.” This was because, at that time in history, any black person was considered to be a slave. “The whites were in their own European culture,” while the blacks had been taken from theirs. Because of this, blacks were helpless in their new area and could not escape. American slavery was seen as the cruelest form of slavery in history. The Virginias began shipping slaves by ship. These ships were packed full of slaves and the living conditions were horrible for anyone to bear. One of every three blacks died when being shipped overseas. Many of the causes of death were suffocation because they were kept below deck. Although these deaths were unfortunate, the slave traders did not mind because they were making profits off their deaths and therefore, this process continued.
From the beginning and all throughout their enslavement, blacks resisted. They did not give up “their dignity as human beings.” Slaves planned an attack on the whites however, this was discovered. They also tried to run away in groups or alone into the wilderness.
Throughout this chapter, I was most shocked by the living conditions for the slaves as they were transported on ships. The slaves were kept below the deck where many were suffocated to death. It was noted that one out of three died through this process, but he slave traders did not care that people were dying because they were making a profit. I found this whole idea to be unbelievable. This incident shows one reason that racism has improved from many years ago.

Johnson-Chapter 3

In chapter 3 of “Privilege, Power, and Difference,” Johnson discusses white racism and capitalism. Looking back at history, white racism has not been around for a very long time. The word and idea of race developed in the Americas and Europe as economic system’s and capitalism expanded. As white privilege was developed, capitalism had played a role.
The main goal of capitalism is to turn money into more money. Capitalists employ workers to produce goods. Often times they pay workers less than what they should for their work but they have a lot of power and therefore have the ability to do such things because the workers have no other choice. Capitalism produces an overall abundance of goods and services, but distributes that wealth unequally. Therefore, it produces conditions of scarcity for most of the population. Today, jobs are offering less pay and fewer opportunities for advancement. This will lead to the possibility of moving up in the class system to be rather unlikely. Capitalism provides an important social context for the trouble that surrounds privilege.
Racism began in America when whites got what they wanted from Native American tribes through genocide and by ignoring several treaties. Whites justified this by developing the “idea of whiteness to define a privileged social category that rose above everyone who was not included in it.” Therefore developing racism.
According to Johnson, one can feel privileged in a certain category and not feel privileged in another. With each category related to privilege, there is either a cost or benefit to it. For example, being a white male is very beneficial in today’s society. However, being a gay white male may lower one’s social status. Today, people do not look at each other and simply see them for who they are but instead see gender, race or even class. Racism will not go away without getting rid of sexism and classism because all of them are in a way connected.
I found this chapter to be interesting. I liked the comparisons Johnson made in reference to privileged categories. Although our country has come a long way in relation to racism I believe we still have a ways to go. Why do people judge one another based on appearances? Until judgments about others are stopped I do not believe racism will end peacefully.

Johnson- Chapter 5

Our country has come a long way from the way things used to be several years ago. However, many people today do not see this because things such as racism and segregation still occur today. Within every society, there are those who are more superior to others and are known as the dominant group. Dominant group usually consists of “white heterosexual nondisabled males” who have a great deal of power and control.
Privilege and oppression are problems within today’s society. Due to the large amount of power the dominate group has, many would think that privilege and oppression would not have a long future. However, dominant groups do not see privilege and oppression as unacceptable. Privilege and oppression do not receive much attention by the dominant groups and if so, it’s not for a long period of time. This is because dominate groups do not see privilege and oppression as problems.
There are several reasons as to why dominate groups do not see privilege and oppression as problems. Often times, dominant groups are oblivious to these issues. They do not go out of their way to address the issues because they fear of making it worse. Another reason is because they fear being blamed if they acknowledge that it exists. Dominant groups maintain privilege through their status and therefore they are insolated from previous consequences through privilege. Dominate groups also believe that individuals get what they deserve and therefore see privilege and oppression as personal problems because of something that they did. However, each of these reasons does not apply to everyone in same way.
Looking at the broad scheme of things, a society is similar to a family. Parents are the dominant group and the children are the minority groups. Johnson points out that he takes care of his kids not because he feels obligated to but because it is human to do so. “Cannot be part of a family with paying attention to what goes on in it.” The same goes for society as well.
One thing I cannot help but wonder is how society would function if everyone was of equal status. It is awful that there are homeless people living on the streets or that some people cannot afford to go to college. However, if this wasn’t the case, there would be no motivation to succeed and climb to the top where many of us dream to be today. Everything in one’s possession would be simply handed to them in a sense and this would not be a stable society.