Somerville Scientific Racism

Thesis: Homosexuality and race have related questions according to Ellis and how they are related to each other in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are an important part of this article. It goes into detail about how there are relations between homosexuality and race. There are different scientists and their points that are brought in to help the argument be stronger.

The article talks about the gender and how George Chauncey noted a gradual change in records on sexual history. An interesting point made in the article was that the time sexuality came around about homosexuality there was also the difference of ‘black’ and ‘white’ coming about in America. Sexology came about because of the differences people noticed in others. Ellis wrote a book about sexuality that raised interest in the United States because it caused controversy. The book was banned in England because of its content. Freud’s views on sexuality later became known to the population as he disproved homosexuals as a different group. The author of the article then went into discussion about race. He defined race as groups based on different color, class, religion, or geography. Polygeny and monogeny were two words described for different race groups. Another interesting point in the article was about how African Americans and white women were considered equal to white male children. Racial differences were mainly linked to gender. Darwinism believed that people evolved through a process of natural selection.

After reading this article it was interesting to see how homosexuality and race are related. Race should not define a person and neither should homosexuality. People should be known because of who they are as a person and not because of what they look like. It may be harder to accept someone who is homosexual because they don’t have the same views as you, but you shouldn’t judge them before you get the know them. They could be a really good friend in the long run and it would be wrong to judge them before you get to know them. Race may not allow a person to get a job and that kind of discrimination should not be allowed. As said above, people should be looked at because of who they are and not because of what they look like on the outside.

1) Is there really any way to tell how race came about?

2) Are there other scientists who believe that race and homosexuality are not related?

Movie screen: A challenge to Democracy

Thesis: Relocation camps are a good place to live and it provides you with everything you need inside of it. The main point of this show was to show how relocation camps weren’t all that bad and in fact the residents had a lot of opportunities to do things.

This show starts out talking about why the Japanese people were relocated and the basic capacities to a relocation center. Most of the centers were located in dessert areas, but a few were in wooded areas. But no matter where the center was the fields were turned into farm land and the food that was grown from those lands were used solely for the centers and not put out on the real market. They produced a lot of food because half of the evacuatees were farmers. It then talked about how people got paid: twelve dollars a month for a beginner, sixteen dollars a month for a mediate person, and nineteen dollars a month for an expert. They had schools and churches inside the centers. The schools curriculum met the states requirements. There was also even a little political system and in the free time people would play softball, baseball, or football. In the video this all looked like a pretty descent place to live but from what Takaki said in chapter ten that is not how it was. I mean from a certain extent the relocation center was ok, but not how it was shown to the public. You never saw an angry person or unhealthy people. Everyone there was happy and healthy and it looked like they didn’t want to leave the center. I just think that you can draw many speculations from this show.

1. If the relocation centers were designed to become “American” than why was there no restriction on religion?

2. The men that went into the army, were they put into their own regiment? Because the men that they showed were all Japanese.

I thought this show was kind of interesting especially after reading Takaki. It allowed you to compare and contrast what Takaki says and what you saw in the show. My belief is that the centers were not all they were cracked up to be and in fact they were much worse. Now I could be totally wrong, but I just felt that our government tried to make it appeal to the eye.

Takaki Chapter 10

Thesis: America is the land of opportunity and America has a lot to offer its residents. This article is about immigration and people wanting to come to America because of all it has to offer. They felt it was a way to escape their old lives and try and start fresh.

It first starts off talking about how by the nineteen twenty’s majority of the immigrants were women. The women who came over were considered “picture” brides. This meant that marriages were arranged. Also majority of the women that came over from Asia were Japanese rather than Chinese. Immigrants were used as cheap labor because they were willing to work at low prices. Both men and women worked. They had little to no rights, and considered not full humans. Because they were treated so poorly they went on strike and rebellions. Plantation owners preferred married men over single men because they were dependable and built nicer homes for the families of the married men. Plantations became like small neighborhoods where ethnic groups would set up temples and traditional events. Plantation owners were kind of upset because the kids were learning and they wanted another generation of workers. On the mainland Japanese immigrants began to create their own farms. Women played a role in helping with the farm stuff, but also mainly did house work. Japanese hoped that their hard work would help them to be accepted into the new country. The children of the immigrants that were born into America would have a better life than what they had but that was not how it went.

1. Why would the immigrants keep coming over to America if they new what hard times awaited them?

2. Did the plantation owners try to prevent these ethnic neighborhoods or did they just let them be?

I found this article to be interesting because the immigrants worked so hard to try to fit into the new world even when they kept on getting put down. I guess if they had not gone through the hard times then today’s people may not even be hear or they might not have the success or opportunities that are presented today.

McBride "I hate A&F"

Thesis: The success of A&F depends on the teenagers mainly white’s psychological sense of belonging. The main point of this article was about how a certain clothing company goes about the way they advertise and what race their clothing is intended for. It is mainly aimed towards the leisure or upper middle class and young people.

McBride first starts out with talking about his first experiences with seeing the logo Abercrombie & Fitch and how everywhere he went he would see some version of it. Mainly focused on how he mainly saw white gay men wearing the product with the occasional colored man wearing it. He then discusses the beginning of the company. It first started as Abercrombie & Co. and it purpose was in outdoor attire. He then meets up with Ezra Fitch who was used the brand all the time and asked Mr. Abercrombie if he could be a partner. So they did unite and it became Abercrombie & Fitch. They got in an argument because Abercrombie wanted to stay in outdoor attire and Fitch wanted to expand the business. So Abercrombie left the company and Fitch went about expanding. The people he was intending to reach was the white upper middle class. He then goes into explaining how certain requirements and the way you look is crucial to what your class is and the way you should appear to others. It then goes into how A&F were sued for discriminating hiring people of color. After the hearings they changed their policies and began to hire people of color. So basically people who did not meet the requirements were not welcomed in the store.

1. Couldn’t you also argue other clothing brands such a FUBU that is intended towards the colored community?

2. He talks a lot about gay men and wearing A&F clothing. Is he suggesting that the majority of men that wear this clothing line are gay?

I found this article to be somewhat interesting but also boring at times. He gives a long overview of how the company was started. But it then picked up when he started to talk about how A&F discriminated against people of color. It was a fairly easy read and I kind of already new about the not hiring of colored people.

This video from what we watched was mainly about black’s rights and what kinds of things they did to achieve them and how people mainly white, acted on the laws which were stated one way but carried out another.

Brown vs. Board of Education- was where it was stated that segregated schools were considered unconstitutional.

Emmet Till- fourteen year old boy who was from Chicago to visit his uncle in Alabama. He said bye to a white girl in a store and in the middle of the night two men came and dragged Emmet out of bed. They then put him in the car and took him by the river and beat him so badly that when he was found in the river the police could not identify him except for the ring on his finger.

J.W. Milan and Roy Bryant- The two men who were accused of killing Emmet Till but were found not guilty after a five day trial.

Segregation was a big thing and everything that you could imagine was segregated, from restaurants to drinking fountains. Many things or actions were taken by the black community to make a movement towards their rights. Such examples are sit-ins, little rock school incident, and Rosa Park’s bus incident. Such actions needed to be taken because if they just sat back and let the things happen nothing would change. It definitely took a bunch of courage because the protesters would face jail time or even getting beaten up by the whites or white gangs. An example of a white “gang” would be the KKK and they would even go to the extent of hanging black people.

1. During the riots or protests would the police ever kill a black person and not get in trouble for it?

2. Why is Martin Luther king Jr. looked at as probably the most influential person in the civil rights movement?

I found this movie to be very interesting from what I’ve seen so far. It allows you to see how and what black people had to go through and the severity of certain situations. It makes you appreciate the rights that we do have and that we should not take them for granted.

Thesis: Slavery importation was abolished in 1808 but just because there was a law about it there was, still many people who imported illegal slaves. In this chapter Zinn talks about how slave’s families were split up, slave revolts were actually not that common in the U.S., and how blacks would escape to freedom.

Harriet Tubman- Was the most famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad.

Underground Railroad- A series of checkpoints that runaway blacks would stop at and it would help them to reach freedom.

Fugitive Slave Act- made it easy for slave owners to recapture ex-slaves or simply to pick up blacks they claimed had run away.

This chapter begins talking about how when slavery was first abolished the plantation owners didn’t realize that they would need more slaves, so even though slavery was illegal they would import slaves anyway. It then goes into how people usually think that there were a lot of slave revolts, when in fact there were hardly any and probably the biggest one which took place in New Orleans where a group of four hundred slaves went from plantation to plantation but were quickly stopped by the U.S. army. Following that point it goes into talking about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. This system and Harriet alone helped lead thousands of slaves to freedom. It then goes into this thought that slavery hurt the black family but in fact it has been shown in the Federal Writers Project showed that it was just the opposite. The slaves felt like they belonged to their own community where the all adults looked after the children as if they are all related. Then the Fugitive Slave Act comes into play in 1850. It made it easy for slave owners to recapture ex-slaves or claim blacks that they believed to be a runaway. All of this was fuel to the fire which eventually led to the Civil War. One of the bloodiest wars ever to happen and most American deaths even with other wars combined.

1. When the Fugitive Slave Act went into affect did a lot of slave owners just claim any black people as runway slaves, and if they were free slaves would the free slaves be able to fight it?
2. Why would the country abolish slavery when they would know that it would make a big dent in the economy’ profit, I mean isn’t that what were about?

I found this article to be kind of boring. I found it hard to stay focused, not because it was a tuff read but it just wasn’t that exciting. I did pull some information away from it but it was not an enjoyable read.

Pre-writing #2

I have changed my idea from using the capitalism idea and have decided to go with the argument that deals with the video The Power of An Illusion Part I and II. My argument will be how we as Americans have created this thing called race and how we believe that there is a biological reason for it, how we as a country believe that all men are created equal but do not carry out that fraise.

1. I will be using the video The Power of An Illusion Part I and II
2. First I will discuss how we have created the idea of race and how we believe it is biological. Then I will add support by using data or information from the movie.
3. Then I will talk about how we as Americans do not really act upon the phrase “all men are created equal” and also use supporting detail from the movie.