pacific coast

Chelsea Bates
Ethnic Studies
Melissa Altman

Pacific Crossing
With tears in my eyes I turn back to my homeland, Taking one last look. This was a quote taken from Takaki Chapter eleven that was put in here by Tears in the Canefields. This quote struck me as both painful, but yet a good point to put into this document. Takaki talks of the Japanese hardships while coming to America through out this chapter. There was a lot of material in this paper dealing with what the Japanese expected and the little they ended up with. It started off as a place to rebuild their lives, to step up in the world, and make a name for themselves. However, at the time the Japanese government was ran by a strong central government that had a screening for any of those who wanted to transfer. The only reason that Japanese women were more prominent in America was due to the fact that the Japanese government was seeking to avoid the problems of prostitution, gambling, and the drunkenness that reportedly plagued the predominantly male Chinese community in the United States, the Japanese government promoted female emigration (248). But, as they started to realize that Japanese men were good for their labor force, they started to ask for men with families to come work for them in Honolulu. Of course, this was not enough because later in the chapter it went on to explain that the farmers began to start importing Korean and Phillipinos for extra labor. That is when the racial pride competition started to come along. Farmers would approach their workers with comments such as we are Phillipinos we are better then that, or we are Koreans lets show them what we are made of. The field work these men partook in was extremely brutal and demeaning. The lunas which were the over seers came to the point where the workers no longer had a name. The workers were away bango and then a random number. In the America’s a highly educated Japanese man could be a farmer or a picker in the fields. The typical job for Japanese man in the nineteen twenties was in agriculture, railroad construction, and the canneries. In summary in our text books we learn of enslavement, and French and Indian war, what I never realized was just how prominent the Japanese History in our society was. Or how brutally they were treated on the plantations.
While reading through this document I have gained a lot more respect for the history of the Pacific Coast people. I mean the quote at the beginning of the paper really hit me right off the bat. I thought leaving for college was bad, but these people left their families for America with the intentions of never seeing their family or homeland ever again. They left with high hopes of their dreams coming true and finally being able to make a name for themselves. However the way they were treated once arrived was horrific and I believe it is really over looked though out our high school and elementary text. I wish I would have been able to learn about this a lot sooner in life and understand where they were coming from in their hardships. I believe this is really related to the enslavement of the African Americans. The similarities being the fact of competition once again with class. For example, the black plantation owners told the white indentured servants that they were better then those of color. While in this situation they were just flat out seeking hatred and competition amongst the different races just to get more work out of their already over-worked souls. I am beginning to believe the new motto for this class is going to be the famous why cant we all just get along as stated in the book of Power and Privilege. What drove the white plantation owners to desire superiority, and power to the extent of hurting men, and women? Or why didn’t the groups join together and rebel? I believe history would have been so much different if groups of the lower class stood up and took a stand. Just think how much different would our world and our social classes be today?

pacific coast

Chelsea Bates
Ethnic Studies
Melissa Altman

Pacific Crossing
With tears in my eyes I turn back to my homeland, Taking one last look. This was a quote taken from Takaki Chapter eleven that was put in here by Tears in the Canefields. This quote struck me as both painful, but yet a good point to put into this document. Takaki talks of the Japanese hardships while coming to America through out this chapter. There was a lot of material in this paper dealing with what the Japanese expected and the little they ended up with. It started off as a place to rebuild their lives, to step up in the world, and make a name for themselves. However, at the time the Japanese government was ran by a strong central government that had a screening for any of those who wanted to transfer. The only reason that Japanese women were more prominent in America was due to the fact that the Japanese government was seeking to avoid the problems of prostitution, gambling, and the drunkenness that reportedly plagued the predominantly male Chinese community in the United States, the Japanese government promoted female emigration (248). But, as they started to realize that Japanese men were good for their labor force, they started to ask for men with families to come work for them in Honolulu. Of course, this was not enough because later in the chapter it went on to explain that the farmers began to start importing Korean and Phillipinos for extra labor. That is when the racial pride competition started to come along. Farmers would approach their workers with comments such as we are Phillipinos we are better then that, or we are Koreans lets show them what we are made of. The field work these men partook in was extremely brutal and demeaning. The lunas which were the over seers came to the point where the workers no longer had a name. The workers were away bango and then a random number. In the America’s a highly educated Japanese man could be a farmer or a picker in the fields. The typical job for Japanese man in the nineteen twenties was in agriculture, railroad construction, and the canneries. In summary in our text books we learn of enslavement, and French and Indian war, what I never realized was just how prominent the Japanese History in our society was. Or how brutally they were treated on the plantations.
While reading through this document I have gained a lot more respect for the history of the Pacific Coast people. I mean the quote at the beginning of the paper really hit me right off the bat. I thought leaving for college was bad, but these people left their families for America with the intentions of never seeing their family or homeland ever again. They left with high hopes of their dreams coming true and finally being able to make a name for themselves. However the way they were treated once arrived was horrific and I believe it is really over looked though out our high school and elementary text. I wish I would have been able to learn about this a lot sooner in life and understand where they were coming from in their hardships. I believe this is really related to the enslavement of the African Americans. The similarities being the fact of competition once again with class. For example, the black plantation owners told the white indentured servants that they were better then those of color. While in this situation they were just flat out seeking hatred and competition amongst the different races just to get more work out of their already over-worked souls. I am beginning to believe the new motto for this class is going to be the famous why cant we all just get along as stated in the book of Power and Privilege. What drove the white plantation owners to desire superiority, and power to the extent of hurting men, and women? Or why didn’t the groups join together and rebel? I believe history would have been so much different if groups of the lower class stood up and took a stand. Just think how much different would our world and our social classes be today?

Jim Crow!!

For this reading we were given a chapter from the book Race, Class and Gender in the United States. This portrayed the life of a Jim Crow thriving throughout society. It starts off explaining his childhood, and how he came to be. The man explains fighting with the white boys who live on the other side of the tracks. He gives details of his Moms punishments and reasoning behind how she raised the boy. His mother beat him black and blue for trying to mess with the white boys and stand up for himself. She made a comment of “How come yuh didn’t hide?” Or “How come yuh awways fightin?” Later in the story he explains his first of many jobs that he held. The first job he worked for an optical company in Jackson, Mississippi. He worked for a mere sum of five dollars a week, and was treated horribly for the short time he was there .He was promised an education on how things worked through the time he spent there. But, after a good amount of time he was there he was getting neglected and not learning anything. When confronting the situation he got set up and was beating for not properly saying Mr. Pease (his boss). Another job he then worked was in a clothing store. What he experienced here I could never even imagine it happening today. This man was working and heard shrills of screams and then saw a bleeding woman walking meekly around the corner. As she stumbled into the street, she got arrested for allegedly being drunk in public. Later he learned that she was tortured for not paying her bills on time and they justified saying they should have done something worse. The next lesson he learned was while delivering a package in the white neighborhood he got harassed by some cops, and beaten by boys after offering him a ride. The next job he survived to see was working as a helper to bell hops and waiting on hotel rooms. While working at the hotel jobs, he experienced many more discriminating acts such as, humiliating the waitresses, humiliating them, and getting threats almost everyday.
While reading this paper I gave up on highlighting the important points. This entire paper is a perfect example of basically how society should not be. Just like this mans mom commented, “How come yuhs always fightin?” I really don’t think the mother really knew how much of an impact these words could be. Why do we fight? Why is it they felt pressured to have to fight the boys across the railroad tracks? I love his next answer to this question. It was that he didn’t have any trees or hedges to hid behind. If you really think about this response many will come to realize that a lot of people even in today’s society are hiding behind trees or their hedges just to fit in. Many feel the pressure to hide and discriminate under the bush, secretly battling for the name of superiority. I believe it is sad how we have to hide to hurt people. I just people would just come out with their problems and get over it. Who needs a trench really? We are supposed to be a free revolutionized continent where bells will toll, and freedom rings through our ears. But yet, we are still even today hiding in trenches while trying to keep an upper hand. This section alone opened my eyes up to the many that hide today. This was just one of the many sections in this chapter by Richard Wright that really touched me. To sum it up, Why do we fight? I believe it is simply keep the upper hand because what people are taught to want in our society is more. So we need to stop hiding in the trenches and demanding more, and maybe even this will be a small step toward a better environment.

why if we had both black and white slaves does society not know much about the white ones today?

ethnic notions

Walking down a street such as one in Bowling Green, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you see someone? For many people they categorized or judge by the outward appearance. While watching a movie I saw characters of out past being articulated and broken down to show me what I never saw before. They made cartoons of color have ridiculously large lips, and monkey aspects. This was “funny” and drew in the white class to laugh and joke about the features of their slaves of that time. Many people poked fun at how they danced because back then crossing your feet while you danced was illegal and considered demonic. They made them appear to want to be in slavery, and happy to serve their superiors. For example, the famous nanny in which appeared in many of the shows. She was always as dark as can be, bigger in size, and humble towards her master. She was strong, and ugly so it would appear to be no threat against the masters wife. By the time slavery was banned they still poked fun and said that the free slaves were out of hand. They made children appear to be sub-human and always dirty. The children were often called brutes and often appeared as baby monkeys. Even the famous bugs bunny who all children were told to grow on and love was very racist. When the black people were recognized it was usually as entertainment which made them appear to be only good for a laugh, never serious.
Really looking at it now, there are still images of our past still with us. For instance, the lady on the famous aunt jemima syrup bottle is still used as the famous logo. She appears to be like they made her in the past, dark, chubby, and a huge grin on her face. Also, the famous Rambou cop who is usually either the detective, or side kick and normally emphasized brutality or violence. I have even begun to notice the branches off of the stereotype in which were most often used in our past. In conclusion after watching this movie I pay more attention to the movies I watch today and try to recognize what has been branched off of our past. Even today as I have said walking to class or to a store we judge and exaggerate features in our mind to make ourselves feel better. Why must we do this? I don’t know if its nature or nurture but no matter how the situation is looked at it is wrong and I wish someone would do something to go against stereotypes of today.

The Giddy Multitude

The hidden origins of slavery
The giddy Multitude is about the British view on the Africans and how they treated them. If you had a different skin color back then, you were considered “deeply stained with dirt” or “dark” and “deadly”. Many Africans had been transported as slaves and soon there were too many Africans that it almost became impossible to ever get rid of them again. However, at that moment no one cared because they wanted people to work for them; slaves.
Furthermore, even though people had blacks as slaves, there was also the lower white class who they considered as slaves. Both did the same work and were treated the same way until the blanks and whites started rebelling together, for example, they both ran away. I think the planters could have expected this because both were treated so bad that they probably didn’t see the difference anymore between black and white. Unfortunately people still saw black people as being worse as the white slaves. They punished the blacks more and harder than the whites; they were being “degraded into a condition of servitude for life and even the status of property” (57). I think that this made it seem like the whites were more important than blacks, which created white slaves vs. black slaves. It also talks about Jefferson’s point of view about slavery. It is clear that he was not very fond of the blacks. He owned around “267 slaves” (69). They treated the blacks like animals; they sold them and bought them like they had no soul. The slaves didn’t have any rights and they weren’t “smart” enough to come up with poems or math problems. Also, when he thought “blacks and whites could never coexist in America because of “the real distinctions” which “nature” had made between the two races”(71), he decided all the slaves had to die to get rid of them.
Of course, as long as the majority of the people agree with each other it is very easy to make decisions about the slaves. But was it really necessary to tell them who they could and could not communicate with? The only people they were allowed to associate with were each other, they weren’t allowed to speak or associate with whites. Even white slaves were a threat to the black slaves because they bonded together and ran away. To stop this, they would punish the black slaves worse than whites. Blacks did not have any rights, why couldn’t they been seen as “normal” people? Because their skin color was different, it meant they must have been different people. Reading this chapter was quite interesting because I did not know how many white slaves there were involved and how they were compared to the black slaves. Both were treated horrible but in the end the black slaves were punished so much more. It seems so unfair how they were seen. They were “animals” or “products” and people killed them and got rid of them like it was no big deal, which at that moment, wasn’t.

giddy multitudes!!

Through out chapter three, The Giddy Multitudes, Zinn describes
the British points of view as they discovered Ethiopians and
Africans. For instance The English Caliban seemed to say they
were beastly, with out a god, law, or religion, and that their
color made them the “devils incarnate.” Later in 1608 Edward
Topsell even wrote a book on the associations between apes and
Africans. It also goes on to explain that in the early days
that the Virginia Colony was mostly white indentured servants.
Just like the Africans, many of the white indentured servants
came with involuntarily. Many were kidnapped as were the
Africans from their beds in their own homes. That’s when the
higher society began to notice the similarities and the
problems that could possibly arise. The white indentured
servants began to run away with the African slaves, and many
complaints were taken to the Virginia legislature. They feared
the black and white indentured slaves would bind together and
rebel. I also learned that Jefferson viewed that slavery should be abolished. But, the way he saw it was that once slavery is abolished that the ex-slaves should then be expatriated. He stated that blacks and whites could not coexist in nature because of the “real distinctions”
Through out this article the fact of did the Indians waste their land came up. However, who is to say what is a waste and what is not. Is it a waste not to have tractors to till the land and produce an over abundance of food. Or is it just respect for the land in which they live? I think that the Indians were leading a perfectly good life, and that maybe the new settlers should have taken some notes on appreciating their environment. Also, the setters had reasoning to say the “new” discovery of Africans were beasts and were burning with Gods fury is ridiculous. I was just shocked as I read this entire article on the accounts of what prestigious people such as Jefferson were saying in our history. Like Jefferson said, Like Giddy Multitude, and that is they have constantly threatened social order. Or instead of worrying about what they were doing to these people Jefferson was worried that whites would continue to face the danger of servile insurrection. In conclusion, why did it take so long for someone to stand up to societies ways and stand for what they believe in? Or why did the new settlers almost automatically think of slavery, and being dominant when they first discovered our new amazing continent?

Drawing the Color Line

“There is not a country in the world history in which racism has been more important, for so long a time, as the United States” (pg. 23). Zinn writes this to open up his chapter on Drawing the Color Line. I thought this was very interesting because our country is supposed to be free, thriving, and full of opportunity for everyone. He explains in this chapter the white settlers acted as a pressure for the enslavement of blacks. Because they needed the help to thrive, and they certainly could not enslave the Indians because the Indians knew more about the land then the white settlers. They could just “disappear” into the lands whenever they wanted. “By 1619, a million black slaves were already brought from Africa to South America and the Caribbean, to the Portuguese’s and Spanish colonies, to work as slaves (pg. 24).” To me, it is outstanding in how fast the white settlers brought in slaves from Africa or what not with out hesitation. It was stated through out the text that this unfair racial treatment that we today refer to as racism was the “natural” result of the antipathy of the white against black.
When reading Chapter two a lot of the content that Zinn had written were the facts that I never really thought about. For instance, towards the end he wrote how the fear in the white settlers was not of rebellion of the black slaves, but of the cooperation of the white servants and the black slaves to over through the wealthier white settlers. Also the fact that their system of control was not only physical but also, psychological still stuns me when I hear stories. Bumps and bruises heal over time, but the amount of emotional pain that was brought unto the black slaves was very cruel. The slaves were disciplined in a way to make them think they were inferior and to know their place. It stuns me that the reason that the white settlers put Africans to slavery was merely out of fear and greed. How did human kind become so greedy that they needed to inflict emotional and physical harm due to the color of their skin? They were in so much fear of rebellion and unity that they made a law that all white men were superior to black, in 1705. This shows signs of desperation and fear of being over taken. So why did it take so long for someone to stand up? Or why didn’t anyone unite and rebel in numbers rather then as individuals? Was it natural or is our term racism made by the childish actions of our past? Natural or not it was wrong, and there is no excuse for what the white settlers did not only in their time, but also how it has affected ours. Racism is still around, but where exactly did it start?

chapter 8!!

In chapter eight on getting of the hook: denial and resistance, Johnson describes the many ways in which people try to get off the “hook” in different circumstances. He explains this simply as people who are in the dominant groups look at topics dealing with racism and try to convince them that it is not a problem. Denial is everywhere he goes on to explain, and that the easiest way to get off the “hook” is to just simply hide the issue, not talk about it, and them maybe magically it will go away. Johnson uses several phrases in which one may try to talk themselves out of seeing the discrimination. One such phrase that caught my eye was “ The American dream is alive and well and available to everyone.” This caught my eye because I too have convinced myself with out even realizing that the American dream is available to everyone. But, when actually looking at our society it is very difficult to obtain, and in most cases almost impossible. In the end Johnson explains that being off the hook is like a piece of wood floating with the current. While being on the hook, is having a forward motion and a rudder to steer by (124). He explains, that people in the dominant group need to embrace this hook and not be guilty but to see it as an obstacle or challenge to overcome.
Through out this chapter I have read several good points in detail. For instance, he says that some methods to get off the hook can be blaming the victim or giving it another name. I have seen this on several occasions, but never really realized it until I just heard about it in this book. I just can’t believe how many things that are true and I never realized until someone points them out to me. Basically this was one of my favorite chapters throughout this whole book because everything clicked and kind of blended for me. I probably would have never even realized how many times us, as a society can discriminate with out even knowing until I read this chapter. Simple things like anyone can have the American dream or sexism is no longer a problem anymore are completely false. These problems still do exist and people need to stop getting off the hook and face up to reality and put their foot down. Running away or hiding isn’t the answer its about time that people faced the facts and stopped discrimination.