ETHNIC AND MINORITY CULTURES IN AMERICA Lecture Basic terms and concepts

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS Oscar Handlin: The Uprooted Immigration: an individual act, immigrant: man at the crossroads Resourcefulness, persistence Kraut, Alan M. The Huddled Masses: the newcomers would sink their roots through cracked pavement and begin the final stage of the odyssey of the transformation from aliens to Americans Psychological and physical uprooting

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS Thomas Sowell: Ethnic Americans 45 million immigrants, immigration, a great drama in history Representation of peoples of the world More people of Irish ancestry than in Ireland, more Jews than in Israel St. Patrick’s Parade, Chow mein, Afro hairstyle all originated from American soil First President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera was born in Brooklyn, Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel was born in Milwaukee

DEFINITION OF CRUCIAL TERMS White Anglo-Saxon Protestant—the historical majority Ethnicity: a geography or culture-defined concept (Americans, Hungarians, French, etc) Race: biologically defined, based upon skin color, bone structure, hair texture Prejudice: preformulated judgment about an ethnic group or individual—theoretical level

DEFINITION OF CRUCIAL TERMS Definition of culture: Fernando Coroníl: The production of Self and the Other Self: subject, power of expression, agency, dominant Other: object, muted, dominated, lack of agency, objectified A continuous shift between Self and Other

DEFINITION OF CRUCIAL TERMS Discrimination: practical level, distinction based on prejudice Stereotype: a distorted image, a simplification or distortion of human features for manipulative purposes A lense through which we conceive the Other Good stereotypes: guarantee cultural continuity: help in the interpretation of certain cultural products-good knowledge Bad stereotypes: promote bad knowledge

MERTON’S SCALE OF DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE Prejudiced and discriminatory: bigot, open racist Non-prejudiced and discriminatory: institutional discrimination: non-intentional, school has high admission fees Prejudiced and non-discriminatory: most people, person does not allow his prejudices influence his actions Non-prejudiced and non-discriminatory: full integrationist

CULTURAL PROJECTION Constant shifting of Self and Other via cultural projection Defined by Richard Merelman as: the conscious or unconscious effort by a social group and its allies to place new images of itself before other social groups and the general public Via cultural production a given minority group struggles against stereotyping

TYPES OF CULTURAL PROJECTION Hegemonical : the dominant group describes the dominated one Counterhegemonical: the dominated describes itself to the dominant Syncretization: the combination of both elements in the description of a given minority culture Polarization: rejection of the presented image on both sides

THEORIES OF IMMIGRATION Basic question: what happens to ethnic groups, how do they interact, function in the industrial, technological society? Major force behind immigration process: industrialization What did the industrial world offer: free enterprise, appreciation of individual effort, competition, private property

MEANS OF IMMIGRATION From mid 19th century on: change from wind-driven ships to steam-powered ships (brought immigrants from southern and Eastern Europe) Previously immigration was only possible from areas which maintained strong commercial relations with the U.S. Trip took longer, only wealthier groups could afford it, steam ships enabled less well-to-do to immigrate

PUSH FACTORS Circumstances, conditions that drive the individual away from his or her home country: Poverty (Irish, potato famine) Repression of individual, political rights (post 1956 Hungarian immigration to North America) Religious persecution (Pilgrims, Jews) Lack of opportunities—most immigration is economically motivated

PULL FACTORS Economic prosperity Political freedom Religious tolerance Personal advancement

FACTORS SHAPING THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE R. Burchell and Eric Homberger: The Immigrant Experience cultural distance to be travelled existence of common histories, traditions economic similarities between old and new homes date of arrival (1840s, 1850s American society was hostile to immigrants) internal strife, lack of stability

ASSIMILATION-ACCULTURATION Robert Park: Immigrants come in contact with new society, enter assimilation cycle Progress from contact to accommodation or fusion—least resistance Progress from contact to conflict and competition– more resistance Amalgamation: conformity to a dominant group

MODIFIED ASSIMILATION Milton Gordon: Assimilation in American Life, 1964 Assimilation is a combination of several subprocesses Cultural assimilation: incoming group accepts dress, language of host sciety Structural assimilation: the extent of which immigrants enter the social institutions of the host country (politics, schools, and the degree of their acceptance) Marital assimilation: large scale intermarriage with host society

MODIFIED ASSIMILATION Attitudinal assimilation: absence of prejudice from host society, lack of nativism Behavior receptional assimilation: absence of discrimination Civic assimilation: absence of value and power conflict

MANN’S THEORIES ON ACCULTURATION Total identifiers: immigrants staying with the original community Partial identifiers: in between two cultures Disaffiliates: liminality, rejected by old community, not fully accepted by the new Hybrids: fully integrated

NATIVISM John Higham: opposition to aliens, their institutions, ideas, a rejection of an internal minority based on its foreign connections Three main currents: -anti-Catholicism s -fear of foreign radicals (post World War One Red Scare) -racial nativism (based on Anglo-Saxon superiority)

EXAMPLES OF NATIVISM Indian resistance to settlers William Bradford-mixed multitude Benjamin Franklin -”Why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our Settlements?” -”we have so fair an opportunity of increasing the lovely white” (Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind) Know-Nothings (American Party)

NATIVIST VOICES ”men of the sturdy stocks of the north of Europe made up the main force of immigrants, but now ‘multitudes of men of the lowest class from the south of Italy and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland who had neither skill nor energy nor an initiative of quick intelligence were coming.” (Woodrow Wilson 1901) ”wide open and unguarded stand our gates, and through them presses a wild, a motley throng, who bring with them unknown gods and rites.” (Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1892)

LECTURE TWO: THE FORMATION OF THE MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

MODIFIED PLURALISM The merging or intermingling of cultures was not fully realized Multicultural pluralism: Distinct groups live side by side in relatively harmonious co-existence Horace Kallen: Culture and Democracy in the U.S. (1924)

FORMATION OF MULTICULTURAL AMERICA Four waves of immigration : Colonial Period: WASP, slaves : Old Immigration, still WASP dominated : New Immigration: Non-Wasp, Southern, South Eastern Europe 1945:-present: Major source: Latin America, South East Asia

SPANISH COLONIZATION 1492: Columbus’ landfall : Cortez conquers the Aztecs in present day Mexico Main goals of the colonization process : finding gold, spreading Christianity Other explorers: Hernan de Soto, Francisco de Coronado

SPANISH COLONIZATION Army and clergy works together for colonization Nueva Espana not as successful as English colonization Why? Tansplanting feudal institutions into the New World: encomienda, Spanish commander gave land to veteran soldiers, Indians owed forced labor to land owner— similar to European serfdom

FRENCH COLONIZATION 1524: Giovanni da Verrazano 1534: Jacques Cartier establishes Montreal New France: Territory of Canada, Midwest, (from Great Lakes to Gulf of Mexico) Early 17th century: Samuel de Champlain expands Southward, clash with Iroquois

FRENCH COLONIZATION Main goal:. Fur trade and religious conversions Jesuits participate in both, converting the Hurons Jesuit Relations: Collection of Official Reports submitted to Provincials Lack of religious tolerance, settlements are Catholic 1643: Captivity of Father Isaac Jogues, captured, tortured by Mohawk, freed by the help of Dutch

ENGLISH COLONIZATION 1584: Roanoke Cause of settlement: religious persecution, population explosion 1497: John Cabot: New Foundland Puritans: followers of Calvin

PURITAN HERITAGE Sense of nationhood Mission concept Chosenness Common law

FORMATION OF COLONIES 1607: Jamestown 1620: Plymouth 1630: Massachussetts 1681: Pennsylvania Most successful colonization, business venture Contiguous settlement Friendly terrain

VIEWS ON IMMIGRANTS Anglo Conformity: Immigrants should conform in anyway possible to host society 1850: Know Nothings 1890’s American Protection Association 1915: Revival of the Ku Klux Klan Melting pot:Crevecoeur, Emerson, Turner Cultural pluralism

DESCRIPTIONS OF AMERICA A nation of nations Society of Immigrants A nation of people with a fresh memory of old traditions, who dare to explore new frontiers

METAPHORS APPLICABLE TO AMERICAN CULTURE Melting pot: loss of original culture Salad bowl: ethnic enclaves live side by side Symphony: : polivocality Rainbow: : Many colors Kaleidoscope: constant change

BASIC PRINCIPLES AND THEORIES OF AMERICAN CULTURE AND IMMIGRATION

REVIEW QUESTIONS What is the difference between race and ethnicity? What are the different levels of assimilation? What is the difference between the melting pot and the salad bowl? How does the stage of New Immigration differ from the previous one?

REVIEW QUESTIONS Identify push factors and potential pull factors in the text below: In a bloody feud between the Chang family and the Oo Shak village we lost our two steady workmen. Eighteen villagers were hired by Oo Shak to fight against the huge Chang family, and in the battle two men lost their lives protecting our pine forests. Our village, Wong Jook Long, had a few resident Changs. After the bloodshed, we were called for our men’s lives, and the greedy, impoverished villagers grabbed fields, forest, food and everything, including newborn pigs, for payment. We were left with nothing, and in disillusion we went to Hong Kong to sell ourselves as contract laborers. Source “Leaves from the Life History of a Chinese Immigrant,” Social Process in Hawaii, 2 (1936),

MAJOR MILESTONES IN IMMIGRATION HISTORY 1795 Naturalization Act restricts citizenship to "free white persons" who reside in the United States for five years and renounce their allegiance to their former country The Alien and Sedition Acts permit the President to deport any foreigner deemed to be dangerous The importation of slaves into the United States is prohibited

MAJOR MILESTONES IN IMMIGRATION HISTORY 1840s Irish Potato Famine; crop failures in Germany; the onset of industrialization; and failed European revolutions begin a period of mass immigration Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluding the Mexican War, extends citizenship to approximately 80,000 Mexican residents of the Southwest California Gold Rush spurs immigration from China. 1850s Know Nothing political party unsuccessfully seeks to increase restrictions on naturalization

MAJOR MILESTONES IN IMMIGRATION HISTORY 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act restricts Chinese immigration. Immigration Act levies a tax of 50 cents per immigrant and makes several categories of immigrants ineligible to enter the United States, including "lunatics" and people likely to become public charges Ellis Island opens; serves as processing center for 12 million immigrants over the next 30 years The Johnson-Reed Act limits annual European immigration to 2 percent of the percentage of the given nationality in the United States as shown in the census of 1890.

MAJOR MILESTONES IN IMMIGRATION HISTORY 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act repeals the national origins quota system and gives priority to family reunification The Immigration Reform and Control Act gives amnesty to approximately three million undocumented residents and provides punishments for employers who hire undocumented workers The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act strengthens border enforcement and makes it more difficult to gain asylum. The law establishes income requirements for sponsors of legal immigrants.

EXAMPLES OF DISCRIMINATION Only a very few Chinese could find houses in American districts, for most house owners do not want Chinese tenants. They are forced to live in close quarters. The buildings are…dark and gloomy, with no bath rooms and no privacy. Source Esther Wong, “ The History and Problem of Angel Island,” Survey of Race Relations, Stanford University, Hoover Institution Archives, What type of discrimination is described here?

EXAMPLES OF DISCRIMINATION San Francisco did not establish a segregated school for Chinese pupils until Mary Tape protests the refusal of San Francisco to admit her daughter Mamie to a school nearer her home. To the Board of Education—Dear Sirs: I see that you are going to make all sorts of excuses to keep my child out off the Public schools. Dear sirs, Will you please to tell me! Is it a disgrace to be Born a Chinese? Didn’t God make us all!!! What right have you to bar my children out of the schools because she is a Chinese Descend…. Do you call that a Christian act to compel my little children to go so far to a school that is made in purpose for them. My children don’t dress like the other Chinese…. Her playmates is all Caucasians ever since she could toddle around. If she is good enough to play with them! Then is she not good enough to be in the same room and studie with them?… It seems no matter how a Chinese may live and dress so long as you know they Chinese. Then they are hated as one. There is not any right or justice for them. Source Alta, April 16, 1885

RESPONSE TO PREJUDICE I used to go to Marysville [California] every Saturday…. One day a drunk ghora (white man) came out of a bar and motioned to me saying, “Come here, slave!” I said was no slave man. He told me that his race ruled India and America, too. All we were slaves. He came close to me and I hit him and got away fast. Source Bruce La Brack, “The Sikhs of Northern California (Ph.D. diss., Syracuse University, 1980), 130.

WHICH CATEGORY DOES THE FOLLOWING REPRESENT? Julian Ilar, a Filipino student at the University of Chicago, describes the prejudice that he and others faced. Try as we will we cannot become Americans. We may go to the farthest extreme in our effort to identify ourselves with the ways of the Americans, straightening our noses, dressing like the American in the latest fashion, pasting our faces with bleaching cream, and our hair with stacomb---but nevertheless we are not able to shake off that tenacious psychology. Always we remain sensitive, always we retain at least a subconscious fear that we are being slighted because we are Filipinos. Always there lurks over us a suspicion that perhaps after all, we do not “belong.” Source Julian Ilar “Who Is the Filipino?,” Filipino Nation, November 1930, 13.

DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN CULTURE Separation Self-doubt Reaffirmation A three phase evolutionary process

THE MACROCULTURAL CONTEXT

REVIEW QUESTIONS What is the definition of culture according to Coroníl? Define cultural projection What types of cultural projection are there? Identify the following milestones in immigration history:

PRIMARY CORE OF AMERICAN CULTURE American culture consists of a primary and secondary core (Virágos) Primary core: tangible, and intangible elements Tangible elements: manifestations of an unmistakably American culture—sacred documents, artistic output, iconography Intangible elements: four layers Icon: culture specific image

PRIMARY CORE Philosophical Americanism: acceptance of the American ideology, reverence of the sacred documents Affective Americanism: Emotional identification with the American past Volitional Americanism: a national commitment to pluralistic multiculturalism Mythological Americanism: Ideological explanations for America’s domestic and global role—American exceptionalism, chosen nation

EVOLUTION OF THE PRIMARY CORE Separation: 1776, Declaration of Independence Self-doubt: Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1776 „These are the times that try men’s souls” Rising Glory school at the end of the 18th century George Templeton Strong: We are so young a people, that we feel the want of nationality 1854

EVOLUTION OF THE PRIMARY CORE Reaffirmation: 1837, Emerson’s The American Scholar: It’s time we stop listening to the courtly muses of Europe 1855: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself Existence of a patriotic iconography:Liberty Bell, flag Sacred documents: Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, Constitution Hagiographies: George Washington, Patrick Henry canonization Father, I cannot tell a lie

OTHER COMPONENTS OF THE PRIMARY CORE-AFRICAN- AMERICANS 1845: Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American slave Slave narrative: cultural and physical independence Slave writes himself into being, a quest for being Authentic description of the slave’s life Slavery is immoral both for the owner and the slave

OTHER COMPONENTS OF THE PRIMARY CORE-AFRICAN- AMERICANS W. E. B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk (1903) //an American Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body// Langston Hughes: The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) //We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual-dark skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If not, it does not matter//

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL ICONOGRAPHY Alexander Crummel, The Destined Superiority of the Negro—a chosen race Nat Turner, leader of a slave rebellion in 1831 compared to George Washington Black Manifest Destiny: //Africa for the African race and black men to rule them//

HISPANIC, LATINO ELEMENTS 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1859: Proclamation of Mexican-Americans of South Texas (1859) Juan N. Cortina 1929: League of United Latin American Citizens Aztlán, ancient land of the Mexica, demanding the return of the Southwest Cultural figures: pinto: prisoner, pachuco: young rebel, migrant worker

EVOLUTIONARY PHASES African-Americans Separation: slave narrative Self-doubt: DuBois on the souls of blacks Reaffirmation: Harlem Renaissance 1925 Latino Separation: partial Self-doubt: 1920 Reaffirmation: 1965,United Farmworkers Strike led by Césár Chavez

TECHNIQUES OF IDENTITY BUILDING Therapeutic self-justification-destruction of stereotypes, search for identity, assigning art a political function—culture is a gun Essentialism—glorification of Otherness, Black is Beautiful Conation, conativity: belief in the power of the written word to will social changes into being--Declaration of Independence

TECHNIQUES OF IDENTITY BUILDING Versus patterns: black artist v. white artist, White Manifest Destiny—Black Manifest Destiny Myth-making: self justifying intellectual constructs fusing falsehood and validity Functions of myths: explanatory, projecting, legitimizing

WASHINGTON AND THE CHERRY TREE I cannot tell a lie Explanatory: Washington close to everyday people Legitimizing: honesty is a model to follow Projective: promoting national unity

AFRICAN-AMERICANS

REVIEW QUESTIONS Describe the elements of the primary core What evolutionary stages can you identifiy in American culture? What did DuBois say about the soul of blacks? What are the main cultural figures of Mexican-American literature? What types of identity building techniques can we mention?

MILESTONES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY 1619:On Aug. 20, a Dutch ship with 20 African slaves aboard arrives in the English colony of Jamestown, Va The first black legal protest in America,11 blacks successfully petition the government of New Amsterdam for their freedom 1676: Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion 1739 the Stono Rebellion (one of the earliest slave insurrections) leads to the deaths of at least 20 whites and more than 40 blacks west of Charleston, S.C.

MILESTONES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY 1773 Phyllis Wheatley, the first notable black poet in America Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral 1790: President Washington appoints Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and surveyor to the District of Columbia Commission 1787: Constitutional Convention, 3/5 compromise, ban on slave trade after 1808

THE SLAVERY DEBATE The Negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The Negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a day....Besides they have their Sabbaths and holidays. The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the Negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin when its labor end. He has no liberty, and not a single right. George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All or Slaves Without Masters, 1857 What type of pro-slavery arguments can we discern?

THE SLAVERY DEBATE The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning, and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times labor till the middle of the night. They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver.... Solomon Northup How does this view differ from the previous one?

MILESTONES IN AFRICAN- AMERICAN HISTORY 1820: Missouri Compromise 1831: Nat Turner Rebellion 1850: The Fugitive Slave Act-all escaped slaves had to be returned to the South regardless where captured 1863: Emancipation Proclamation 1865: Thirteenth Amendment

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF BLACKS Distorted images, manipulation of human features Good stereotypes (ST1 by Virágos) Ensure cultural continuity, culture specific automatisms helping to read and interpret cultural products: regular characters and story turns in soap operas Bad stereotypes (ST2) bad knowledge, rupturing the organic unity of personal features by emphasizing biological, physical attributes ST2 reaffirms Ralph Ellison’s observation that the purpose of stereotyping of blacks was not so much to crush the African American as to console the white man

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF BLACKS Collective term: SAMBO Childlike, irresponsible, affectionate, and happy Helpless, ridiculous clown, innocent, naive entertainer Lack of violence, or physical threat

SAMBO

SAMBO

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF BLACK males The wretched freedman-Gone With the Wind The natural slave The brute negro-black man as a threat The tragic mulatto-product of miscegenation, passing Jim Crow: umbrella image of all blacks after the Civil War Cotton Jim: negligence, carelessness Jim Dandy: foppish, interest in white women

JIM CROW

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES BLACK females Mammy-surrogate mother to white children (to Scarlett in Gone with the Wind) asexual, deeply religious, maternal Aunt Jemima, everyone’s favorite aunt, nurturing, protective, de-sexualized character Marilyn Yarbrough with Crystal Bennett, Cassandra and the "Sistahs": the Peculiar Treatment of African American Women in the Myth of Women as Liars Journal of Gender, Race and Justice , (Spring 2000)

MAMMY IMAGES

ADDITIONAL STEREOTYPES OF BLACK FEMALES Jezebel-black temptress Originally wife of King Ahab Main elements: seduction, lust, lack of trust, unreliability, dishonesty Excuse and pretext for abuse of black women Gives rise to tragic mulatto, offspring of miscegenation

BLACK FEMALE STEREOTYPES Matriarch: undermining the black male’s manhood, Granny in Richard Wright’s Native Son, emasculating black men Sapphire: Stubborn, hateful, contemptuous of black men Promotes subjugation of black women

BLACK FEMALES IN SOCIETY Fight against triple jeopardy, or the triple-bind of oppression: gender, race, and class based subordination. Discriminated for being a woman Discriminated for being black Discriminated for being poor

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1619, 1676, 1808, 1820, 1831 Name the most important stereotypical images of black males Name the most important stereotypical images of black females Explain the concept of the triple bind of opression

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE AFTER THE CIVIL WAR 1865: Thirteenth Amendment—abolishment of involuntary servitude 1868: Fourteenth Amendment—right of citizenship for blacks 1868: Right to vote for black men Black Codes limiting former slaves’ freedom The formation of the Ku Klux Klan Poll tax, literacy or understanding tests Grandfather clause

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AFTER THE CIVIL WAR A legally justified separation of the races Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 „Separate but equal” Jim Crow laws Psychological, social, economic crisis Paul Lawrence Dunbar: „caged bird” syndrome I know why the caged bird sings […] It is not a carol of joy or glee/But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AFTER THE CIVIL WAR Booker T. Washington Accommodationist, slave mother, white father Up from Slavery Black should not antagonize whites, “cast down your bucket where you are[…]cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service and in the professions”

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE AFTER THE CIVIL WAR W. E. B. Dubois Free parents Insistence on professional education Talented Tenth

MINSTRELSY Black face theatre Emerges in 1830s, after worsening of the slavery crisis, reaction to the Nat Turner rebellion (1831) Described blacks as unreliable, bragging, licentious, promiscuous, superstitious people

MINSTREL FIGURES Coalblack Rose—Mammy Cotton Jim—natural slave Dandy Jim Expression of a power relationship---the wearer of the mask implies his domination over the object of his ridicule Crossing the color line, masking own identity

MINSTRELSY A logonomic system, a coded discourse of dominance Reverse minstrelsy: Douglas Turner Ward: Day of Absence (1966) Black actors wear white mask Sexual references Covert homoeroticism

A CURRENT CONTROVERSY French Vogue does blackface Not a traditional blackface, no intent to ridicule or to objectify No exxaggerated features

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL Jim Crow segregation Disenfrachisement 1883: Civil Rights Cases—protection afforded by the Fourteenth Amendment does not extend to individual action—individuals can discriminate, states cannot 1896: Homer Plessy, an octoroon (one eighth black ancestry) challenges segregated transportation Supreme Court develops the doctrine

SEGREGATION Equality de jure 1900: Richmond Times: It is necessary that segregation be applied in every relation of Southern life. God Almighty drew the color line and it cannot be obliterated Lynchings, per year

CHALLENGES TO SEGREGATION Attacking segregation laws at the court system. Congress was dominated by Southerners, best option: Supreme Court First successful challenges: ending segregation in professional schools (law schools, other post- graduate education) 1954: Brown v. Board of Education—elimination in public schools, with all deliberate speed, 9:0 in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place---citing psychological, sociological evidence Segregation damages children psychologically and socially

THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 1955: Rosa Parks—my feets is tired Montgomery Bus Boycott Rise of Martin Luther King Baptist minister, provides the movement with an ideology Non-violent resistance—based on the Gospel, Thoreau, Ghandhi INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE

THEORY OF NON-VIOLENCE Segregation is an unjust law One should fight against unjust laws Fight with the power of love against the power of hate Segregation converts the I-thou relationship to an I-it relationship (Martin Buber) Segregation objectifies blacks

THE MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT I HAVE A DREAM-the emotional climax of the Civil Rights Movement Inspired by the Declaration of Independence Dream of a colorblind society The speech is made in the style of a sermon Civil Rights Act of 1964 segregation is outlawed in all public facilites Voting Rights Act of 1965—the right to vote cannot be denied, or restricted

SEMINAR 6 CHICANO CULTURE

REVIEW QUESTIONS Define segregation and give examples What was the role of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois in the development of the black community after the Civil War? In what sector of the American political system were the first challenges made against segregation and why? What is the theoretical basis of non- violent resistance?

THE CHICANO CULTURAL CONTEXT Virgin of Guadalupe (fusion of Virgin Mary and Tonantzin) Aztlán, imaginary homeland of Mexican people The migrant Armando Rendon: Chicano culture has two traditions: continuous revolt and the Native American element

VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE, TONANTZIN

PHASES IN CHICANO HISTORY Spanish colonization, military and church goes hand in hand Spanish explorers Hernan de Soto East to West from Florida Francisco Coronado North from Mexico towards California 1769 Spain controls California 1781 establishment of Los Angeles

PHASES IN CHICANO HISTORY Mexican era Mexico gains independence 1836 Texas becomes independent Mexican-American War

PHASES IN CHICANO HISTORY Anglo-American Conquest Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Southwest is annexed to U.S. Clash of cultures in the Southwest 1859: Juan Nepomuceno Cortina’s rebellion

PHASES IN CHICANO HISTORY : Mexican Revolution Central figure: immigrant working in agriculture, mining, railroad 1929: Manifesto of the League of Latin American Citizens, promotes assimilation

PHASES IN CHICANO HISTORY Ethnic self-awareness Bronze Power Movement 1943 Zoot Suit Riot The term Chicano appears Bracero program, Government sponsored seasonal agricultural labor importation scheme 1965: Delano grape picker strike led by Césár Chávez

ZOOT SUITERS

BANDIDO, LA MALINCHE

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES Stereotypical images Greaser, promoter Jeremiah Clemens, Villa Cather, George Emery male Elements: ignorance, cowardice, dirt, indolence, laziness Pancho: jovial sidekick parallel to comic negro Latin lover: suave, romantic Bandido: cowardly, violent, attacks from behind with a knife

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES Female Tricultural person in a triple-bind oppression (European, Native American, Mexican heritage) economic, racial, gender-based oppression dominant image La Malinche (traitor)----Virgen de Guadalupe (pure, angelic female)

AZTLÁN Aztlán Imaginary homeland of ancient Mexicans (Nahuas, Toltecs, Aztecs, Chicimecas) 820: Travel South to Tenochtitlán The land of Seven Caves

CHICANO AESTHETIC Foundation: Black Nationalism Third World nations Mexican-American awareness of racism Zoot Suit Riot Delano Grape Strike

MAIN ELEMENTS OF CHICANO AESTHETIC Brotherhood: hermandad Cultural empowerment Sympathy with the oppressed

MAIN TEXTS OF CHICANO AESTHETIC 1969 Alberto Alurista El Plán Espirituál de Aztlán 1971 Armando Rendon Chicano Manifesto 1972 Rudolfo Anaya Bless Me Ultima

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF CHICANO AESTHETIC -the incorporation of the barrio (Chicano area and culture) into American culture -the re-examination of Mexico’s role in American society and culture -to promote the historical awareness of Chicano people -cultural liberation through the elimination of stereotypical images

NATIVE AMERICANS

THE BEGINNINGS The history of Native Americans begins approximately 28,000 years ago. Siberian mammoth hunters cross the land bridge formed at the place of the Bering Strait, and populate the Western Hemisphere

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL AREAS Southwest: the home of the Pueblo, Anasazi, main product maize or Indian corn, primarily agricultural orientation California: according to Louis Leakey Indians were present there 40,000 years ago. Haida: the wealthiest Native American tribe, settled at the Pacific Northwest, source of living: porpoise, salmon fishing, they live in long wooden houses with gables

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL AREAS Plains Indians: Comanche, Apache, Sioux or Dakota, warlike Indians, Northeast: Iroquois, Miami, Southeast: Five Civilized Tribes: Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Creeks, Cherokees Mezo-American Indians Aztecs, Toltecs, Maya

MAIN FEATURES OF NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE -closeness to nature -orality -importance of words and silence description of concrete experience

WHO CAN BE CONSIDERED INDIAN? -keeps tribal relationship -lives on Indian land -retains tribal culture

DIFFERENCES FROM MAINSTREAM SOCIETY -different social and economic structure: private v. communal landownership -relation to government, separate legal status: domestic, dependent nation -a self-image, which is alien to WASP society -different spirituality, viewing existence as a progress from darkness to light

DIFFERENCES FROM MAINSTREAM SOCIETY -sharing the natural rhythm with nature, a harmony with nature, while Old Testament: man should have dominion over nature, as nature is a source of sin -Indians reject the values of the achievement- oriented white society -a sense of defeat, a parallel with the American South. Indians lost many wars, territory, institutions, while the South lost one war, but kept territory and institutions

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES The Noble Savage Appears in the following works: Cadwallader Colden: History of the Five Indian Nations (1727) The Indians of New York are described as ”poor and barbarous people, under the darkest ignorance, yet a bright and noble genius shines thro these black clouds”

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES Captivity Narratives written during the 17th and 18th centuries Mary Rowlandson’s “Narrative:” referring to Indians as “merciless heathens, hellhounds, ravenous beasts,” yet during her captivity she discovers the beauty of living close to nature, develops an appreciation of Indian diet

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES Benjamin Franklin “Remarks on the politeness of the savages of North America” (1783) We call them savages because they are different -lack of punishment, repression in Indian societies -a differing view of education, emphasizing practicality, survival in the wilderness -Indians are polite in conversation

COMPONENTS OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE IMAGE Courage v. revenge Honor v. cruelty Innocent v. infidel, learning vices, such as alcohol, violence

THE INDIAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY Indian as a painted foot soldier At first good relations 1608: Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan saves John Smith 1621: First Thanksgiving 1622: Jamestown massacre Good Friday massacre, 347 people die in the attack Attack led by Opechancanaugh, the brother of Powhatan Followed by the Powhatan War, a brutal revenge

THE INDIAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY Main cause of the worsening settler-Indian relationship: Anglo encroachment on Indian lands, aggressive spreading of Christianity among Indians, undermining Indian culture 1637: Pequot War in Connecticut, massacre at Mystic River : King Philip’s War Sets New England aflame

THE INDIAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY 1676: Nathaniel Bacon’s Rebellion, A young planter organizes an army to punish the Doeg Indians in Virginia for attacking his lands, after the governor of the colony orders him to disarm he refuses to do so, turns against the governor, the rebellion is put down, but Bacon helps to establish the negative stereotype of Indians: “Indians are all alike”

THE INDIAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY For and Against Colonists : French and Indian War, Cherokee, Ottawa against the British : War of Independence, some tribes help the British 1776: Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence refers to Indians as “merciless savages

THE INDIAN IN AMERICAN HISTORY 1794: General “Mad” Anthony Wayne Battle of Fallen Timbers Treaty of Greenville Ohio Indian territory rights are bought by government 1830: Indian Removal Act 1838 Trail of Tears

NATIVE AMERICANS II The Indian Wars of the Plains The Native Americans will be forced into second-class citizenship, and will experience a cultural, psychological, economic, and social crisis.

MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE INDIAN WARS 1864: Sand Creek Massacre: 450 peaceful Indians, men, women, and children are killed by American troops. The Indians arrived at the invitation of U.S. officials at Sand Creek for possible peace negotiations between the several warring tribes

MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE INDIAN WARS 1867: Congress issues the Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes, and the Indian Peace Commission is established 1867: Medicine Creek Lodge Conference, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, Cheyenne would settle in Western Oklahoma, Sioux at the Dakota Territory

MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE INDIAN WARS 1876: The battle of Little Big Horn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand. 1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee The final decline of Indian culture

THE VANISHING AMERICAN 1881: Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor 1887: Dawes Severalty Act individual landownership and agriculture among the Indians -promoting tribal self-government instead of chiefdom,-introducing Christianity

ASPECTS OF INDIAN LIFE Warfare: Indian was not a professional soldier, the clash between Anglo and Indians was the fight between the amateur and the professional Whites’ advantages: superior weapons, developed military strategy and knowledge, high standard communication and fortification systems What did settlers learn from the Indians: guerilla tactics, camouflag e

ASPECTS OF INDIAN LIFE Spiritual life: 1. a belief in an ever-present essence-animatism: -at Algonquin: Manitou -at Sioux: Wakan -at Irouquois: Orenda 2. the belief in the personification of that spirit- animism

ASPECTS OF INDIAN LIFE Religious or spiritual life served practical purposes: warfare, hunting Center of Native American spiritual life: medicine man/shaman, a member of the tribe which is allowed to communicate with the supernatural Worship: Could be performed either in community or alone A special site of spiritual life: medicine lodge or sweat lodge

ASPECTS OF INDIAN LIFE A special ritual: Sundance A four day psychodrama: capture, torture, captivity, deliverance Potlatch: performed at marriage, or at funeral Warfare carried on by property and wealth

THE INDIAN TODAY 1924: The Indian Citizenship Act provides the right to vote Indian Reorganization Act, tribal leaders are elected, reservation councils are formed 1972: The beginning of the Red Power Movement, the formation of the American Indian Movement, or AIM,

THE INDIAN TODAY 1990: unemployment level is the highest among American minorities at 39% The beginning of an Indian Renaissance: Indian lands are returned, Gambling is allowed at the reservations New buffalo economy, buffalo meat is a highly sought item in American restaurants Indian art work, handicrafts are popular souvenir items,Native American owned businesses emerge, primarily in the oil industry in the Southwest.

ASIAN AMERICANS Main sources of immigration: China, Japan, First arrivals: during Old Immigration Fuchs’s characterization: sojourner pluralism

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE Main pulling force, the discovery of gold in California in 1849 First arrivals from Toishan, a depressed agricultural province 150 miles northwest from Hong Kong A colony of bachelors, very few women immigrate

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE primarily California Chinese worked on Central Pacific Railroad, refused to join unions, Most familiar type of employment: entrepreneurs, laundry operators Chinese immigrants also found employment in agriculture, worked as cooks, vegetable peddlers

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE Chinese immigrants helped each other in different forms: HUIGUAN: a local association formed by immigrants, the leader is the hui, or a prosperous merchant, the HUIGUAN had the following functions: social, charitable functions, dispute mediation, general protection, credit association 1895: Native Sons of the Golden State, in 1905: it was renamed Chinese-American Citizens’ Alliance, 1924: The Chinese Digest

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE Reception of Chinese immigrants Between the number of Chinese immigrants increases from 40,000 to 100,000 Response: increasing anti-Chinese sentiment as Chinese work for low wages, Moreover, there is an overall depression after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE Basis of anti-Chinese feeling: -cultural and racial differences -perceived low morals: prostitution, opium trade -perceived low health standards -perceived corruption

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE Contemporary opinions: ”They can never assimilate with us, that they are a perpetual, unchanging, and unchangeable alien element, that can never become homogeneous, that their civilization is degrading and demoralizing to our people, they degrade and dishonor labor, that they can never become citizens” Dennis Kearney, leader of the Workingman’s Party.

THE CHINESE EXPERIENCE 1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act: Chinese are the first racial group officially barred from the United States. However, the imposition of the Act was preceded by a 90 day moratorium 1885: Anti-Chinese riots in Tacoma, Washington 1886: Anti-Chinese riots in Arizona 1895: Rock Springs massacre 28 Chinese laborers are killed, 15 injured, 100s are chased out of town

THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and until the expiration of ten years next after the passage of this act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same is hereby, suspended; and during such suspension it shall not be lawful for any Chinese laborer to come, or, having so come after the expiration of said ninety days, to remain within the United States. SEC. 15. That the words "Chinese laborers", whenever used in this act, shall be construed to mean both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining.

THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE Arrival through Hawaii, settlement in California Immigrant association: Tanomoshi, a credit association, and a mutual aid society Business opportunities: California: rooming houses, restaurants, laundry, gardening Hawaii: fishing, rice planting, coffee farming Causes of anti Japanese sentiment in America -Japanese immigrants are considered too successful -aggressive Japanese policies pose a threat to U.S. interests in the Far East,-the threat of Yellow Peril

THE JAPANESE EXPERIENCE 1905: Asiatic Exclusion League 1906: San Francisco Board of Education segregates Asian students, among them 93 Japanese 1907: Gentlemen’s Agreement: between Theodore Roosevelt and the Japanese prime minister about the suspension of segregation in California, in return for Japan’s limitation on immigration to U.S : Following attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, American authorities set up internment camps inland (Arizona, Utah) where Japanese-Americans (all of them are American citizens) were relocated.

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHINESE At first the Chinese represented the totality of Eastern culture for the West 16-17th century: wise scholar king, the Gentleman of Cathay—image created by Jesuit missionaries 19th century: opium wars—coward, inhuman, dirty, incompetent victim British have a flourishing tea trade with the Chinese, British pay with silver, when they ran out of silver, they started to pay for the tea with opium Heathen Chinee, land of degraded and sinister heathens

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHINESE Chinese (Asian male) image in America Overall, comprehensive image: ”coolie,” slave laborer working for low wages 1850’s: John Chinaman “most patient of animals” 20th century: beginning of century Yellow Peril, image created by Jack London

JOHN CHINAMAN

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHINESE Popular culture: Fu Man Chu: descendant of Heathen Chinee, sinister, threatening, and violent Emperor Ming, Charlie Chan: ridiculous, pompous, ”a good Chinaman trying to be a second rate westerner” Pearl Buck, The Good Earth description of Wang Lung the Chinese peasant: conical hat, black pajamas, main features: superstitious, ignorant 1979: American newspaper described Deng Xiao Ping, ”he is a compelling and exotic little man in his charcoal Mao suit with white socks and an enigmatic smile ”

IMAGES OF ASIAN WOMEN Suzy Wong: passive, charmingly innocent, sexually accommodating, similar to Geisha image _g Ahmah: equivalent of the Mammy

POSITIVE IMAGES Basis: Enlightenment’s admiration of the East- Wisdom of the East syndrome Today: Zen Buddhism, Hare Krishna, Book of Lao Ze, Shiatsu, acupuncture, Ji Ching, Kung Fu, Bruce Li movies

CONTEMPORARY NEGATIVE IMAGES Model minority: emphasis on education, hard work, an example to follow for other immigrants or minorities, but this image hides sexism, oppression of women Rambo films: incompetent victim, underlying thought: how could we have lost the war (to them?) 1988: M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang Rene Gallimard a French diplomat obsessed with the myth of Madame Butterfly falls in love with Song, a Chinese spy masquerading as a Japanese woman Clash of stereotypes: East: feminine, West: masculine

M. BUTTERFLY -there is a vision of the Orient that I have. Of slender women in chong sams and kimonos who die for the love of unworthy foreign devils. Who are born and raised to be the perfect women The West thinks of itself as masculine—big guns, big industry, big money—so the East is feminine, weak, delicate, poor I am a man who loved a woman created by a man trailer