The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that people act in their own self-interests. This belief that we all act in our own self-interests is well supported by the two readings, “Harlem: Dark Weather-Vane,” and “The Politics of Disorder: Re-examining Harlem's Riots of 1935 and 1943.” Both readings discuss the unequal treatment that Black Americans received during and before the Great Depression and how they reacted to it.