Blog 5

To start off I must say that this week’s readings were the most challenging for me to grasp. Racism and discrimination have never been broken down into two separate definitions to where I could understand them. I have always seemed to lump both definitions into one. This week’s readings have given me a more in-depth understanding of each.
First, I grew up in a small city that was mostly white. I can easily remember when I was a young kid that it was very rare to see or interact with people who looked different or had different color of skin. It just was not the norm of society to have friends that were of a different race or to date a boy that looked “different.” Thankfully my family taught me that judging or treating people differently because of their skin color was not appropriate and that we are all human and should be treated equally.
As a tall Caucasian woman, I can see some advantages and disadvantages in society. One advantage is that living in a predominantly white community I was never denied a job or discriminated against because of the color of my skin. I can walk down the street and not fear that people are staring at me because of my skin color. Another privilege of being a middle class white female is that I know I can afford and rent housing in a decent community and not be discriminated against or questioned about my financial status because of the color of my skin.
There are some disadvantages of being female in society. The obvious disadvantage is that females are still not getting paid as much as males in the workforce. There has been a definite increase in females in higher positions in companies but, males still seem to have the advantage. Another disadvantage of being a female in society is that women are still seen as a sexual figure. I still think that sometimes women are still judged on their appearance whether it be attractive or not.
Looking back at the family history paper I did, which was on my father in laws family, one advantage his family had was not so much race but that his father was a veteran of WWII. When he came back from the war he was given the opportunity to use funding from the GI Bill to help with housing. His family had the opportunity to move out of communities that were run down and that had high crime rates. Being a middle class white family it was easy for them to move to the suburbs in a predominantly white community and feel safe. It was easy for my father in law to get jobs and be accepted into college because he didn’t have to worry about being discriminated against because of his skin color. All of these privileges seemed to be inherited by his children who have been given the opportunity to graduate from college and lead successful careers. Is it because of white privilege? Maybe...

Blog 4

In this post I will be discussing the arguments of violent and non violent responses during the Civil Rights Movement.
Looking at the non violent approaches that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement, I think that an important turning point was during the Montgomery bus boycott that Martin Luther King Jr. was involved in. This seemed to be the beginning of the non violent protests. King was taking a stance for the black community. He was tired of waiting for justice to be served to the black community. Kings belief for the non-violent actions was guided by the principles of the Christian faith. The non violent protests such as the boycotts, sit-ins and marches were an effective way of being in the front of the white community to hopefully awaken their morals. These tactics were a powerful way to hopefully show the white community that the way blacks were being treated was immoral and wrong. Even though non violent protesters did not believe in violence as a way to bring about desegregation, they were often in the heart of violence during these protests. The protesters believed that they had to accept violence without retaliating violence. During the non-violent protests, a majority of the protestors ended up in jail and brutally beaten. I think that this was a way to show the white community that they were not going to give up just because they were jailed. The non violent protestors were hopeful that by being jailed and not retaliating that this would change the minds of the white community to look at possible desegregation.
From the 1880- 1950 lynching’s, sexual violence and abuse towards blacks was a way to maintain white supremacy and social control. It is no wonder violence became an apparent way for blacks to fight for justice. The blacks were tired of the whites having control. Activist like Malcolm X and Carmichael became influential leaders of violent protests. They believed it was time to arm black Americans and form “Black Power.” Carmichael stated “The nation is racist from top to bottom, and does not function by morality, love and non violence, but by power.” These leaders took the opposite approach of Martin Luther King Jr., and encouraged blacks to fight for their justice. They felt that if whites could kill blacks for no apparent reason then they could retaliate in the same regard. It was time for the blacks to defend themselves. In Malcolm X speech “The Ballot or the Bullet”, he made it clear that the black community was not getting anywhere with the non violent protests and it was time to fight for their freedom. He didn’t want the black community to go around shooting white men, but to demonstrate to them that the black man can be powerful too. It was time for a change and they were tired of waiting.
Both violent and non-violent protests seemed to be an effective and powerful way for the black community to fight for freedom and desegregation. I would have to say that if I was in the position that the blacks were in during this time, I could have easily been on either the violent or non violent side of the protests, as long as I could have seen change.

Ethnic Communities

As I read about the different ethnic communities, the two that stood out the most when looking at race and labor, was the Jewish and Mexican immigrants.
I want to first look at how the Jews handled the challenges and threats to their culture. The Jews saw America as a land of opportunity, freedom and a better life. The Jews were seen as “other” people in Russia and the government was encouraging acts of violence against them. One of the main struggles the Jews had while living in Russia was that they were only aloud to live in the Pale of Settlement. This settlement was an area where only Jews could live together. They were not allowed outside of the settlement. Within the Pale Jews lived in towns and villages that were invaded by pogroms, massacres of Jews and the destruction of their shops and synagogues. The Jews seemed to realize that Russia was not home and that they needed to find a place to call home. That place would be America.
The Jews mostly migrated to the Lower East Side where German Jews had already started communities of their own. The Jews quickly noticed that the Lower East Side was encompassed with people of their own culture, but had an American atmosphere that was fast paced and money driven. One positive for the Jews was that most Jews were literate and were skilled workers. This seemed to give the Jews a little head start as they moved to America. Jews man workforce was in the garment factory, working long hours and harsh conditions. This lead to the labor strikes. These strikes seemed to prove that the Jewish immigrants were here to stay and give a sense of belonging. This seemed to start the process of assimilation. They tried to wear clothing that made them look American. The Jews had to learn English so that they could fit in with the Yankees. Another way they assimilated into America was by changing their names to be more Americanized. Jews were also expected to be white color workers and support their children. One last struggle that the Jews faced was men trying to get accepted into colleges. Most colleges did not want their campuses engulfed by Jews. The schools put a quota on how many Jews they could accept into the college. The Jews tried to continue to better themselves even through their continuous struggles.
The Mexicans also saw America as the land of opportunity for labor and wages. The Mexicans were pushed out of their country by large landholders who were uprooting rural families and robbing the Mexicans of their crops and farms. During this time the Mexican revolution was taking place. This gave the Mexicans another reason to venture to America where it would be less violent. Mexicans found work in construction labor and agriculture in America because the whites wouldn’t hire them in skilled jobs because of their race. The whites wanted to protect their jobs. Mexican men and women who worked in garment factories and farms were exposed to harsh living conditions and wage cuts. This caused the Mexicans to support labor strikes and fight for their right to have higher wages which they ended up winning.
Mexicans tried to fit into American society but the whites would not allow this to happen easily. Mexican parents sent their children to school to obtain education but the whites made sure that the schools were segregated. The educators at these schools focused on teaching the Mexicans to be obedient workers. They did not want the Mexicans to become too educated because then they would have no one to farm.
Mexicans were considered cheap labor and would never be capable of becoming fully American. One way they overcame this struggle was to transform their barrio “Mexican neighborhoods” into a society known as the Mexican Americans. In this neighborhood the Mexicans flew both the American flag and the Mexican flag. In this community the Mexicans helped each other find jobs and everyone looked out for one another. The Mexicans found a way to incorporate Mexico into America and live in a country where there were more labor opportunities and security.
A both Mexican and Jewish immigrant faced many challenges and struggles to maintain their traditions and culture in America. What I found most interesting about both of these groups was that even through their race and labor struggles in America they found unique communities to live and bond with people of their own ethnicity. I feel that it is because of these communities, that the Mexicans and the Irish were able to truly call America their homeland.