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.