Author Archives: Lucy Gao

Act Up

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The Act Up movement was known to target “Sacred space” in order to deliver their message to the society. They targeted the Catholic Church, White House, and Citi Hall and these were places that no one else have ever tried to target before. These places are considered “sacred” because these were important political and religious institutions. Thus, the Act Up movement use these sacred places to send out the message regarding the fact that these institutions are responsible for the deaths of so many lives and these are the institutions that need to start taking action. Furthermore, these sacred spaces are places that have the most power over the society and in order to start making changes, the Act Up group believe that they have to start from these most powerful institutions first.

The Act Up movement actions was often very powerful because in many cases, the Act up members will do controversial activities in order to be arrested. However, this lawlessness got more attention from the people of the community and also get more social media coverages. Due to the amount of social media coverage they were able to get and how powerful they were as a group they were able to eventually affect the society on a political, social and institutional level. In addition, the Act Up movement is extremely powerful because they take action in forcing institutions to take actions. For instance, the members marched and protest the profiteering of pharmaceutical companies at Wall Street pharmacies. Furthermore, the Act Up movement was extremely powerful because they act from the inside of these institutions. They try to get people inside these powerful institutions to help with the movement.

Overall, due to how successful and powerful the Act Up movement was, activism around other issues today can learn from how to be as effective as the Act up Movement. For instance, the Act Up movement was very immense and also effective due to the fact that it was antiracist and also included everyone that wants to participate in the movement. It didn’t favor a particular group of another which is very important in terms of uniting people for a movement. The more people the more powerful a movement is thus from the Act Up movement it can be seen that by not discriminating against any group of people, it really helps with increasing the power of the movement. Furthermore, from the Act up movement, it can be seen that in order to see results for a particular issue, activists must take action on the institution level or else not much will change.

The Effects of The Great Depression and WWII

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The Great Depression and World War II, have affected the society in many ways. The Great Depression affects almost all the New Yorkers and people were at soup kitchens. Homeless and unemployed lived in shacked called Hoovervilles. In the chapter, “A Time of Trial” New Yorkers During the Great Depression and World War II”, Frederick Binder and David Reimers stated that “85,000 people waited for free meals at eighty-one locations in front of churches and other charitable institutions.” Municipal Lodging House provided 400,000 lodging and one million meals for New Yorkers. And in order to help out during these desperate times, churches and religious agencies such as the Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jewish were all trying to expand their aids however many charities still found themselves unable to meet all request for aids. Furthermore, unemployment was a major issue“About one-fourth of New Yorkers were unemployed by 1933”(pg.178). Thus, unskilled laborers such as the Poles, Italians, Irish, Germans, and Jews suffered to find places to live.

The Great Depression affected the lives of different ethnic and racial groups in various ways and to different degrees. Blacks suffered more than whites. “ Median black income in Harlem fell 44 percent..and in the bottom years of the depression more than 40 percent of blacks were out of work, nearly twice the proportion of whites,”(179). Many departments refused to hired black people. They became so desperate to the point black new yorkers opened slaved markets “ where  black women will be carrying signs advertising themselves as available for housework.” Chinese population was also affected by the depression. 30 percent were unemployed. “ The Federal Emergency Relief Administration reported only 1.2 percent of the Chinese population was on relief compared to 23.9 percent of blacks and 9.2 of whites,”(Pg. 180).  Furthermore, “Jewish women, in addition to anti-semitism, encountered sexual bias when they attempted to become doctors or lawyers, (pg. 188).” With the upcoming war and depression going on, Nazism in Germany also affected America.  An American Nazi group called The Bund will attack Jewish people and help rally with Nazi banners and music. However as the war got closer, the government “persecuted Bund leaders” and the organization was dissolved.

Many social and lifestyle also changed due to the depression. For instance, New Yorkers try to keep their kids in school for a better job because the white collar had it easier than the blue collar. “ The number of students attending high school increased by 45%,”(pg. 180).  Jewish men and women are more inclined to seek a higher education compared to other ethnic groups. People moved in with their parents and postponed their marriage and also have fewer kids during this time of hardship.

Furthermore, an important election also happened during this time. In the midst of all this chaos, La Guardia won as the mayor of New York. He got a lot of support from the Italians and Jewish because he helped them gain city position and also came up with a social program that attacked Nazism. La Guardia also has black supporters. The most important reason that he had so many supporters was that he was against political corruption and gambling and he was a “highly visible mayor”. He advocated for New York to have its own airport thus La Guardia airport was built. Furthermore, in order to help with unemployment, mayor La Guardia turned to Robert Moses to “ utilize Civil Works Administration funds to hire 68,000 men to rebuild city parks” (185). Furthermore,  Moses also built roads, parkways, as well as more facilities in a black neighborhood.

The Great Depression also lead to a new form of radicalism. Radicals formed the American Labor party and it consisted of members from Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, ILGWU and the International Longshoremen’s Union. They gained a lot of popularity however they are divided between communist and the anticommunist.  Thus, it was split and the Liberal Party was formed.

With the depression coming to an end and World War II starting, many ethnic groups came together to support the war because they all had their own reasons. For instance, the “Poles and Czechs wanted their nations liberated from Nazism… [and] the Jews had special reason to support a war against Nazi Germany,” (192). When the War started, New York benefited from the war because men had to enter the armed forces and workers were needed for war-related businesses. People were hired to make clothes for the army and build ships. All racial and ethnic group benefited from the war. Even black workers were hired for the city’s bus and subway systems and black women were hired as nurses. However, even so, they faced much discrimination. Blacks were not able to benefit from rent controls and better housings. Blacks were still at the bottom of the city’s social and economic life.

In the chapter, “Resistance or Loyalty: The Visual Politics of Mine Okubo,” it can also be seen that wartime effect immigrant. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the lives of Japanese immigrants changed due to the tension between the USA and Japan. President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066, thus many Japanese were forced into concentration camps. Mine Okubo who was sent to those camps  “produced more than two thousand sketchbook drawings, ( Lampert, pg.178).” of her time in the camp.”She reached a mass audience when Citizen 13660, her personal narrative about her camp experience, was published in 1946, shortly after the end of the war and her January 1944 release,”(179). The Citizen 13660 gave the Americans of what actually happened in the camps instead of the “clean” version that the government portrays. Furthermore, during this time of tension, Japanese immigrants and Americans were being tested of their loyalty to the USA. There were questionnaires that they have to answers related to if they were going to be loyal to America and those that answered yes would be released and those that answered no will have to stay in camps. However, some people didn’t answer not because that they aren’t loyal but for them, it was a way to resistance for the way they were treated. For instance, a Japanese named Frank Emi said: “under the present conditions and circumstances, I am unable to answer these questions” and a few others also resisted thus they were sentenced to four years at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. Thus, through Mine Okubo’s  Citizen 13660 and these cases that have happened, it can be seen that innocent Japanese Americans were treated unequally by the American government during times of war.

Overall, it can be seen that during these times of war, many immigrants or ethnic group are not often treated equally and many have to go through different types of hardships. From the Japanese being sent to concentration camps to Jewish people being attacked by the Bund, it really shows that conflicts and tensions rise in the homeland as well when there is a war and not everyone will get equal benefits and treatments during these times.

L.G

 

Race: An interchangeable perception

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In  Nancy Foner, “The Sting of Prejudice”, race  “is a social and cultural construction, and what is important is how physical characteristics or traits are interpreted within particular social contexts and are used to define categories of people as inferior or superior,”(Foner,pg.142).  When the Italians and Jews first immigrated to the United States, they had an ambiguous racial status because they were not considered as “white” but yet they weren’t “black”. Thus, they were referred to as an inferior “mongrel” race. They were not identified as whites due to their physiognomies and moral standards. The Jews were known as money lovers and Italians were known for their “volatility, instability, and unreliability”(Foner,pg.144).  They were racially discriminated and their “inferior ‘‘mongrel’’ races  were [considered to be] polluting the country’s Anglo-Saxon or Nordic stock.”(pg.143). In “A People’s Art History of the United States” Nicholas Lampert even wrote that Jacob Riis who was a social reformer “described Russian and Polish Jews as those who “carry their slums with them wherever they go, if allowed to do,” ( Lampert,pg.65). However, Riis also used the fact that these immigrants are considered “inferior” to the superior whites in order to appeal to his wealthier white audience to be involved in the tenement reforms. But, today Italians, Europeans, and incoming Europeans are generally considered white. This shows how the idea of race is an interchangeable perception.

However, the black-white cleavage continues to affect the lives of many incoming immigrants. For instance, many West Indian immigrants are usually racially discredited due to the fact that they have a darker skin tone thus many people considered them as “blacks” rather than their ethnicity. Furthermore, different colored Hispanic immigrants were treated differently based on the lightness of their skin. Foner talks about how “a recent study found that Dominicans who are perceived as white have much lower poverty levels than, and enjoy advantages in the labor market over, their darker-skinned compatriots,”(Foner,pg.158). Furthermore, lightness of the skin tone are not the only factors that affect the lives of new immigrants. Wealth, manners, education, and fluency in English can also improve the way light-toned immigrants are treated.  This can also be seen when “Riis consistently criticized immigrant communities for not assimilating fast enough into American”( Lampert, pg.65). Thus it can be seen that one’s ability to adapt to the American culture will affect the way they are treated as well.

On the other hand, “West Indians find that race remains a barrier whatever their class status [are, however] for white or light-skinned Hispanics, income, education, and occupation enhance and solidify the advantages they already enjoy,”(pg.154). Contrary to lighter toned Hispanics, darker tones Hispanics are usually just referred to as black and often confused as African Americans. Due to this, they are racially discriminated and attacked because “blacks” are inferior to “white”.

When the Asian immigrants arrived in America, they were a separate racial category which was known as ” ‘‘slanty- eyed’’ and… the ‘‘yellow race.’’(Foner pg.161). They were discriminated in many ways especially when the “Chinese Exclusion Act specifically defined Chinese as ‘‘aliens ineligible to citizenship’’”(Foner, pg.161). Furthermore, “Riis portrayed Chinese men as impossible to assimilate. To Riis, they were opium addicts and individuals who would “rather gamble than eat any day ” (Lampert, pg. 65). Thus, Chinatown became a place where most Chinese people love because they are afraid to be racially targeted. However today, as China, Japan, and Korea became major players in the economic and political world, there is a new perception of race. They are usually considered more white nowadays especially if they have higher education however in many cases, they still face some sort of discrimination although not as much compared to the Hispanics and blacks.

Overall it can be seen that race is considered an interchange perception and the “race” of an immigrant can affect their lives in the United States. People are considered whiter if they have positive aspects that don’t “pollute” what “white” Americans are known for. However, it can be seen that the black-white cleavage still remain an issue today that effects immigrants with darker skin tones. Dark- toned immigrants have to face racial discriminations that are against blacks. Furthermore, due to the fact that race is generally defined as white or black, new immigrants are not known for their nationality and according to Lampert, Riis “painted all people within an ethnic group with the same broad strokes.” However, hopefully, one day in the future, people are defined by their ethnicity and nationality rather than the color of their skin and how “American” they are.

L.G