In _The White Scourge_, Neil Foley uses a wealth of archival materials and oral histories to illuminate the construction and reconstruction of whiteness and the connection of this whiteness to power.
Focusing largely on cotton culture in central Texas, Foley 's book deconstructs whiteness through a new and detailed analysis of race, class, and gender. The most intriguing aspect of this book is its comparison of the impact of whiteness on various ethno-racial classes and how each struggled in relation to the other to develop a meaningful existence. _The White Scourge_ shows the pathology of a racial system that continues to produce both material poverty and poverty of spirit. The users ' mentality develops in such a way that everyone -- even those who
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By insisting on their Spanish blood and the absence of any African blood, some Mexicans were able to claim whiteness and purchase land. Whiteness was thus inscribed in Texas law as the precondition for the rights of both citizenship and land ownership. This construction of whiteness separated white Texans from slaves and laborers of such "mongrel" groups as
African Americans and Mexicans. Chapter Two, " 'The Little Brown Man in Gringo Land," details the impact of the legalization of Mexican labor and the relaxing of the
Immigration Act of 1917 on farm labor and tenancy in central Texas. Large numbers of Mexicans in central Texas replaced African American and Anglo
American tenants and sharecroppers, exacerbating tensions among the remaining white tenants. There was a fear that the mixing of white tenants and Mexicans would produce genetically inferior "seed stocks." The discussion of immigration raises questions of who is American.
Immigration sustained whiteness, because it allowed farmers and businessmen to import cheap labor, thereby keeping existing laborers and tenants in poverty. Poor whites were unable to see their
In order to protect the white working class, racial laws were created and directly targeted towards Chinese immigrants to protect their whiteness. Chapter seven explains the new threat of the arrival of Japanese immigrants in California. During the beginning of the anti-Chinese sentiment and white working-class racism, Japanese immigrants were also under the romanticized belief of
An uncharacteristic take on rural black politics, Steven Hahn’s A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration transports readers into a world of faith, power, and family across the rural South. Diving into a period that spans nearly one hundred years, Hahn, an author, specialist, and professor, addresses the political culture of newly freed slaves as they maneuvered through challenges of freedom, Jim Crow laws, and religion. Hahn pens, “ [A Nation under Our Feet] is a book about extraordinary people who did extraordinary things under the most difficult…” (1). The author successfully presents such book in this sequential timeline and geographical mapping from Texas to Virginia. Through his synthesis of vast primary literature on slavery, Civil War South, and the Great Migration, Hahn supports his arguments and presents readers with a new look into the past.
Due to the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and National Origins Act of 1924, international immigration to America became limited to a precious few thousand people because of common fears of communism and increased prejudice from native-born Americans against foreigners. While Americans believed they could control the influx and migration of foreign-born people during this time, they possessed little to no control of internal migration within their country. Considered legal, natural-born citizens of the United States, African American retained full ability to migrate throughout the country as they pleased, provided they could find the finances for it. Though the most basic of principles for internal and international migration matched fluidly, each group’s ability to complete its migration varied immensely between places of
Each state and territory passed property laws that only affected people of color. In document 29, we see that there were a lot of problems with land, especially in California and Texas. Mexicans in the ceded territories lose their land but also
Their land was took by white Americans and others that were looking to settle.
Unfortunately, immigrants moving to America were not only living in the best conditions but they also because of racism were given less money for the same job or more work than the native coworkers there (Boustan). The view on immigration of the modern American people now has been very glossed over and inaccurate. There was a heavy shift in how many immigrants were coming to America in the 1900s-1920s. Mexicans were dominating the majority of Texas. The Mexicans often would compare themselves to the roadrunner and they had a saying, “To the roadrunner, as to the Mexican, the next field, the next season, always looks as if it might be better" (Brown).
Describe the “New Immigration”, and explain how it differed from the “Old Immigration” and why it aroused opposition from many Native-Born Americans. Antiforeignism was not a new concept in America in the 1880s. It had begun in the 1840s when the first large influx of immigrants emigrated to America, predominantly from Ireland and Germany. The American, or “Know Nothing”, political party was created specifically for the sake of excluding and barring the newcomers from equal opportunities, especially with the case of the Irish in the northeast. Fast forward forty years later and the Irish and the German have become common place amongst the native born Americans and the new wave of immigrants emerges.
Racial issues and injustices in the United States are examined in both of Oden’s anthologies, “California Politics” and “Rivers of Struggle and Resistance.” The introduction in “California Politics” mainly discusses current political issues and how they have influenced the underrepresented ethnic minorities in California. On the other hand, “Rivers of Struggle and Resistance” focuses on the history of discrimination and oppression that haunt the African American society for several decades. Although both anthologies explores and examine similar themes, the introduction in “Rivers of Struggle and Resistance” related more to Michael Goldfield’s “The Color of Politics” excerpt.
In the essay, “A Genealogy of Modern Racism”, the author Dr. Cornel West discusses racism in depth, while conveying why whites feel this sense of superiority. We learn through his discussion that whites have been forced to treat black harshly due to the knowledge that was given to them about the aesthetics of beauty and civility. This knowledge that was bestowed on the whites in the modern West, taught them that they were superior to all races tat did not emulate the norms of whites. According to Dr. West the very idea that blacks were even human beings is a concept that was a “relatively new discovery of the modern West”, and that equality of beauty, culture, and intellect in blacks remains problematic and controversial in intellectual circles
Victor recalls the reactions he and Sadie received in response to putting “Dirty Joe” on a rollercoaster. The mention of specifically white people laughing, gathering around, then staring wide-eyed at Victor and Sadie’s soon retracting smiles, prompted Victor to compare the observers to a “jury and judge for the twentieth-century fancydance of these court jesters who would pour Thunderbird wine into the Holy Grail” (Alexie 56). The contrasting language used to describe the dynamic between white people and indigenous people emphasizes the unequal distribution of power in which Native
In the short story “Blackness” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator’s consciousness develops through a process of realization that she does not have to choose between the culture imposed on her and her authentic heritage. First, the narrator explains the metaphor “blackness” for the colonization her country that fills her own being and eventually becomes one with it. Unaware of her own nature, in isolation she is “all purpose and industry… as if [she] were the single survivor of a species” (472). Describing the annihilation of her culture, the narrator shows how “blackness” replaced her own culture with the ideology of the colonizers.
In Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” white supremacy is portrayed as a pervasive and destructive force that shaped the lives of African Americans. Through vivid depictions of brutal violence and systematic oppression portrayed through various chapters, Whitehead reveals two distinct but similar ways white supremacy perpetuated slavery. White hegemony and White fear displayed how white supremacy was used to justify the violence and exploitation against African Americans. Whitehead demonstrates how white supremacy permeates every aspect of American society.
During the 1840s-1850s Americans saw a huge increase in the number of immigrants arriving in America, and this only lead to white American citizens fearing them during that period. There was fear for many reasons, the main reason being Americans feared that immigrants would steal their jobs. Namely these jobs were in New York city and other large coastal
Fahad Albrahim Response 1: Review/Summary: “Whiteness as property” is an article written by Cheryl Harris, in which she addresses the subject of racial identity and property in the United States. Throughout the article, professor Harris attempts to explain how the concept of whiteness was initiated to become a form of racial identity, which evolved into a property widely protected in American law (page 1713). Harris tackles a number of facts that describe the roots of whiteness as property in American history at the expense of minorities such as Black and American natives (page 1709). Additionally, Harris describes how whiteness as property evolved to become seen as a racial privilege in which the whites gained more benefits, whether
As a result of its invisibility, the predominant systems of white racism operate on an unconscious level (McIntosh, 1988). White people have come to adopt certain physical and mental ways of interacting in the world that lack conscious attention and reflection which ultimately perpetuate systems of white privilege (Sullivan, 2006). White