Dixienet website quiz 6

The website that I chose was the Dixienet website. The Dixienet website has many different items. Some items include T-Shirts that have Confederacy on the front of it also Rebel T-Shirts Confederate Battle Flag and a Rebel Flag. Their was one T-shirt that stuck me and that was the one that displaced a Confederate flag on top of the car from the Dukes of Hazzard which they called the General Lee. All these items that you can purchase on the website really talk about the South as its own nation having its own way of life. In the article by McPherson I tend to agree with him.
All of your favorite items are on their such as flowers, download music, buy jewelry, and books about the Confederacy. They shape the items to the southern way of life by displaying the elegance of the past with the advancements made in the future. Dixienet website wants to go with a classic but modern look about them. It is kind of similar to Abercrombie and Fitch in its presentation of its clothing. This website gives people a look back at for many individuals was a great time of economic and social prosperity. Many of the shirts on the websites displaced white male dominance rather than a female superiority. The shirts often are displaced as how the Confederacy were fighters against the evil system of the north. They often express fun and having a good time. The shirts never mention racism on them.
Are these shirts the right thing to have out their in the times we live in ? I believe these shirts could be seen as offensive to blacks in the south because it represents a racist period where they did not have rights and were not treated as equals. This shirts are not all that bad in the contexts of what has been on TV when you consider there have been shows glorifying the Confederate flag.
When looking through the website there was some interesting shirts and other items that displaced the Confederacy or the old south. It makes some people feel good in the south that their old way of life is not dead. It brings people back to the nastralgic era where the south used to be something. With these shirts they can express themselves in a way that they see is unacceptable in most of the country.

Abercrombie

Mcbrides basic argument for his article is that multiple corporations which Abercrombie and Fitch is is bad for countries because of its working conditions and the low wages. Abercrombie and Fitch does not represent other minority groups in its advertising. You never see an African American as a symbol for the company. You will have minorities doing the labor but not ever represented in the product. There has been lawsuits filed against Abercrombie and Fitch for its discriminatory practices. McBride sees this company as well to do and does not symbolize the whole population.

Wu article

In the article it talks about the type of discrimination minority groups faced and how whites never had to deal with the types of problems that minority groups had to deal with. I was afraid to come out of my element and be a member of society because society did not except me. Everyone feels comfortable with themselves when they are in their own groups.

Comic Book Strip

The comic strip I have chosen to write about is Captain Marvel and "Swat the Japs". The front cover shows a superhero being Captain Marvel crushing the Japanese soldiers as they are trying to run away from him. Captain Marvel represents everything that is good in our society. He is the defender of our freedoms and he is defeating everything that is evil in our world which would be Japan. The term Japs is used as a derogatory meaning toward Japanese people referring to them as flies or nats. They are pestering the American society as we know it during that time period of World War II. The comic strip shows how cowardice the enemy really is when they are running from the super hero not wanting to fight. The comic strips during that period made Americans feel good about themselves. Seeing one super hero destroy an entire Japanese army showed the true power of the ideals of freedom and showed that totalitarianism would not win out.
During World War II the Japanese people were seen rightly or wrongly as a savage race bent on destroying the American way of life. After the Event of Pearl Harbor the American people were outraged. They wanted retribution and payback for that awful attack. In doing so they treated Japanese citizens living in the United States horribly during that time period. The government put Japanese citizens into concentration camps because they thought they were spies and would give secrets to the Japanese government and bring about another attack on United States soil. This fear and paranoia brought about great injustices against Japanese citizens. Not all those people were spies. Many of them were good, ordinary citizens trying to live there everyday life. If anything they were probably angry about what the nation of Japan was trying to do to the United States. The American people discriminated against the Japanese race which is something that looking back on it the United States regrets but felt had to be necessary in order to protect national security.
Was the United States justified in using the term "Japs" during World War II? The United States was justified in using the term "Japs" because to the American people the Japanese race was a nat something of a nuisance that they had to destroy in order to live in a peaceful and free society. People around the time period still had extreme hatred for the Japanese for what they did at Pearl Harbor, killing many servicemen in a sneak attack. The Japanese people probably had derogatory names for the United States but you never here about that, its only the big bad United States.
These comic strips were there for the American people to feel good and have confidence in the nation as they were fighting the Japanese. Many of the comic strips were over the top in their depictions of the Japanese. The Japanese were a tough people to defeat. They would fight to the very bitter end never surrendering. It took two atomic bombs for the Japan to surrender and even then they did it reluctantly. They were a very disciplined group never deviating from the mission at hand. There were many abuses done to the Japanese civilians at home because of the aggression of the Japanese government. During a war you cannot take any chances in having spies or infiltrators come and plan an attack against you. Even though I think it was a wrong thing to do I can justify it based on national security interests. In a war many things happen that you don't anticipate and other things you wish you could take back. Of all the things that the United States did during World War II this comic strip about the word "Japs", is not that big of a deal comparng it with other events that went on during that time period.

How Jews Became White Folks

In this article by Karen Bodkin it talks about the assimilation of Europeans and the struggles they faced in trying to be apart of the society. The Jewish population did work extremely hard to get a better life for themselves after all they were not treated as well as Nordic or Anglo-Saxon race. There was much Anti-Semistism in the United States throughout its history but its not the only racism involved. African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexicans experienced forms of racism. But as soon as World War II ended the same people that were calling Jews an inferior race now were calling for the assimilation of Jews with particular policies to help them. This policy did help a huge segment of the population and it helped the author family but it also was a segregated policy because it did not cover or include African Americans. They were excluded from going to college, finding decent jobs, being able to own their own home. African Americans even though they participated in World War II and fought for their country were still treated like second class citizens. The author mentions how it was hard for his family but they were able to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and be productive members of society.
There were many publications in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that stated Jews and other Europeans that came to the United States were inferior because of the way they carried themselves. They treated other people outside their race with great disregard and people of different races had to watch their backs because the Euro-race might kill them.
The GI bill witch brought about great economic opportunity for a great segment of the population also was a form of discrimination because it did not include for the most part African Americans. You also had many homeowners who were discriminated against because the executives in charge did not like a certain segment of the population.
Was the GI Bill a good idea or a bad idea? I believe the bill was a good idea because of the great opportunity it brought to people after the war. People that normally would not have gone to college did and people that would not have gotten a particular job got the skills they needed in order to attain that job. People were owning homes at a record rate which led to greater prosperity for the United States but it also was a discriminatory bill that when administrated brought less prosperity for African American people.
This was a very interesting article to read. It brought you great incite into the struggles people who came to this country faced. One group of people found it hard at first to assimilate to the society but after the war found it easier because of their whiteness and another group of society was still being discriminated against even though they went through the same hardships as the Jewish population. When you have people that have a certain stereotype of a certain race that are in charge it makes it extremely difficult for a population to have universal prosperity.

Jim Crow Laws

The following reading entitled "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow", An Autobiographical sketch by Richard Wright talks about his experiences during the Jim Crow laws. He experienced great racism and in many instances had to take much of the abuse from his co-workers and other authority figures because he did not want to get fired from his jobs. He had to give in to the white man because the laws did not favor blacks. Richard could not educate himself because if he tried to he would be challenging the white man which was forbidden under the Jim Crow laws. He witnessed many injustices against people of his own race and had to keep quiet because that would jeopardize his status in the workforce.
The author first talks about how his mother was so disgusted with his behavior over him getting in fights with white boys, she severely beat him. She wanted him to realize that you don't do anything to jeopardize her status of making a living. He learned another lesson when it came to his first job. In that job he became very ambitious and wanted to do his job to the best of his abilities. The taking on of more responsibilities was what he wanted to accomplish. When he did this Morrie, and Pease guys he worked with became extremely angry and threatened to beat him up. Also they were upset with the fact that Richard did not call Pease, Mr. Pease and they were going to beat him if he did not admit he was wrong. He would because of this situation leave his job. At his next job he witnessed a women getting beaten up by her bosses because she didn't pay her bills. The two men gave Richard a cigarette to shut him up and turn a blind eye to the situation. When Richard bike was which hit him with a beer bottle. He was also integrated by police when he would come home from work late at night.
Was Richard right in turning a blind eye to the injustices that were around him? Richard at the time could not have done anything else but take the abuse. He had to survive in the world and needed those jobs to support himself. Richard did feel bad about the racism that went on but he was taught at very early age to turn a blind eye to the racism he experienced because you need to think of survival and think of ways to support yourself financially.
Richard showed incredible strength during this period of time in history. The amount of racism he experienced and saw around him was extraordinary. Their were times where I bet he wanted to fight back but could not because he was in fear of his life and knew the money he was making would only be granted to him through the white man. He learned through his many experiences not to challenge the white man because he was the authority figure. Richard Wright ought to be commended for sharing his stories because it gave me some great insights to what he went through.

Giddy Multitude

In Takaki Chapter three the main heading of it is The "Giddy Multitude". The Giddy Multitude were a discontented class of indentured servants, slaves, and landless freemen who led revolts against the ruling class. The revolts they led were very volatile. Also it delves into the competing social class structure during that time period.
The government in Virginia tried to create wedges between white and black indentured servants in order to suppress any rebellion they wanted to iniate. The government enacted laws that put restrictions on the freedoms of blacks. They did this to squash any rebellion or threat of one they saw. White indentured servants weren't treated any better but there sentences were much more light compared to black slaves who would get far more longer sentences than white slaves.
One of the most famous conflicts between indentured servants and the Virginia government was the Bacon's Rebellion. Nathaniel Bacon who was a landholder and a member of the Virginia council saw danger from the Indians and raised an army with the giddy multitude. That angered Governor William Berkeley who was more worried about the giddy multitude than the Indians. Berkeley charged Bacon with treason. Bacon then led his rebellion against Berkeley. It was extremely bloody and after some early successes the rebels were defeated. After this the Virginia government made some transitions. They increased the number of black indentured servants and decreased the white servants, that way there would be less tension and less up risings. Even though white elites saw white lower class as a bothersome problem. It was a very delicate balance the government in Virginia had to decide. On the one hand they needed the work of lower class whites, but on the other hand they did not want to give them too much power or more rights because then the government could see their authority slipping away. Even powerful leaders of that time period were conflicted about the issue of slavery. The governor of Virginia during the Revolution, Thomas Jefferson felt torn about the actions he was doing. He wanted to create more opportunity for white men to be farmers because this would lead to less conflict among the social classes. Jefferson benefited from slavery very much , but he wanted sometime in his lifetime to abolish slavery after he paid off his debts. This was often contradictory of what he would do though. He would treat his slaves extremely cruel, and would often be unmerciful if they disobeyed him. The conflict many individuals faced in this era was extraordinary.
Would people like Thomas Jefferson have abolished slavery or would they just keep using it as a tool to make more money? I believe Jefferson would have kept on allowing slavery and not abolished it like he said he would. That is very good political speak but its the test of a true man in order to see it through. You can go to one audience that is sympathetic to abolishment and say you are really against and say once my debts are paid off I will abolish it. Then in private you will say the exact opposite. Jefferson would not have found the courage to do so because he saw slavery as a very profitable business and one that kept him in power.
I was very disappointed when it came to the Virginia government who pitted lower class whites against black indentured servant in order to save the government. It just shows you how bad at governing the people of Virginia really were. If you are more worried about your own people like William Berkeley was rather than the Indians you have a serious problem about the way you are governing Virginia. Nobody in government wanted to see slavery abolished because like Jefferson they saw it as a tool to make money and have power and they were not going to give that up easily. The workers of that period were true heroes. They showed true sacrifice by risking their lives in order to provide a better way of life for future generations.