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.