GE 20B – Flashcards

This article summarizes the events of the Watts riot in Los Angeles and how it was "a symptom of sickness in the center of our [city]", the predictable result of the idleness and despair rampant in densely populated ghettos where the "conditions of life itself are often marginal." It talks about the size of LA, how blacks were discriminated against (best jobs, nicest house, finest shops weren't available to them, police would always stop and search them, etc. etc.) In "A Changing Mosaic", specifics of LA are described, which is probably not going to be on the final... The article is set 3 years after Watts, and follows a police officer named Souza. He had encounters that portrayed the community's dislike for officers. Tom Bradley, former UCLA star ran for mayor but lost. Four years later he won. MLK's Hospital was built. The article includes more specifics; LA has crack, cocaine, and gangs...

This article talks about how identity captures the heart of the problematic of understanding Chicanas. There are all types of Chicanas, differing from cultural and structural social location. We should analyze how race, class, or gender are socially constructed yet not essentialize any of the categories of oppression. In the reading Zavella summarizes the similarities between Chicanas based on race, class, and gender subordination. She also summarizes how Chicanas have constructed their lives and their sense of selves in opposition. Social reconstruction in terms of misogyny, homophobia, internal racism and class prejudices are also examined.

"The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us." This quote raises a troublesome issues because while it is easy for most of us to feel victimized, we rarely take the time to see how our thoughts/actions affect some one's subordination. The article stressed the need for a new thought process and plan of action. This article is similar to the previous one, in a sense that they both agree that we must obtain new theories of how race, class and gender have shaped all groups. In the article, the characteristics of masculine and feminine are listed. Interestingly, most people, when asked to form these lists, associate the adjectives with a certain race, more specifically "elite White men". We attach symbolic images to different race, class and gender groups.

Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" strives to justify the desperate need for nonviolent direct action, the absolute immorality of unjust laws together with what a just law is, as well as, the increasing probability of the "Negro" resorting to extreme disorder and bloodshed, in addition to his utter disappointment with the Church who had not lived up to their responsibilities as people of God. As King explains, "past promises have been broken by the politicians and merchants of Birmingham and now is the time to fulfill the natural right of all people to be treated equal". Violence is not what King wants, he simply wants unjust laws to change and the Supreme Courts 1954 ruling to be upheld. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that, an unjust law is no law at all". King does not feel that they have broken the law, his definitive answer to the clergymen is that a law that is not morally sound is not a law. Laws are made to protect the people not degrade and punish. As far as King is concerned, the African American will continue to do whatever is necessary, preferably non-violently, to obtain the legal and moral right that is theirs.

The ballot of the bullet is a speech that Malcolm X gave to people in Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio. This speech shows an opposing view toward progressive reform, where African Americans should demand their rights through whatever means necessary (meaning violence). Malcolm X was a human rights activist who wanted equality and went so far as to say that they should take up arms if the equality didn't happen. "Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you American, you wouldn't need any legislation, you wouldn't need any amendments to the Constitution, you wouldn't be faced with civil rights filibustering in Wash. D.C, right now.." "And usually, it's the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he is not your friend." "It is the gov't of America that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation of black people in this country." "A ballot is like a bullet.."

This article explains that in order to effectively deal with racism in our country, they must develop a full sense of community, go through the political modernization (which includes questioning old values and institutions of society, searching for new and different forms of political structure to solve political and economic problems, and broadening the base of political participation to include more people in the decision-making process. This article calls all black people in this country to unite, recognize their heritage, lead and run their own organizations, and, as mentioned, build a sense of community. "We must not apologize for the existence of this form of group power, for we have been oppressed as a group and not as individuals. We will not find our way out of that oppression until both we and America accept the need for Negro Americans, as well as for Jews, Italians, Poles, and white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, among others, to have and to wield group power."

This story is about Virginia Collins, a black nationalist who worked for integrated education in the period following the Supreme Court decision on school desegregation. She also did voter registration work. "Way back in '53 I used to think that there was hope, that maybe black and white people together could solve all the problems. But in the recent years I learned it is not true. I'm a separatist now." She explains that blacks need self defence to be prepared.

• Discusses merchants and specifically nonblacks in black neighborhoods. • Dismisses that conflicts arise a lot. • Relationships key for merchants to thrive, those experienced interact better with Blacks and know how to handle their behaviors. • Subordination a problem: for merchants in nonblack neighborhoods, they serve as the subordinate group as they must serve Blacks who are of lower racial hierarchy. • Also, discusses how different foreign groups specialize in certain areas of industry. The more assimilated one group is the more likely chance that group will be in areas that require more interaction. Significance: information on merchants in Black neighborhoods can be related to Watts riots, Do the Right Thing, and Latasha Harlins case. Also relates to social hierarchy, how one group is subordinate towards another. Intersectionality maybe, how race and class creates conflicts in certain areas.

Story of Latasha Harlin's incident with Soon Ja Du. Soon Ja Du murders Latasha Harlins. Karlin gave Du lesser sentence to right the wrongs made by Latasha. • Thesis: Explores where women of various class, racial/ethnic, and generational affiliations stand in relation to each other and in relation to the larger society- underscoring the conflicting and complementary nature incumbent in, and in spite of, female diversity in contemporary urban society. • Good article that focuses on intersectionality. Although gender is similar for all three women, the race and class of each woman played a role in how they interacted. • Karlin is a white elite woman. Latasha a low class, Black young girl. Soon Ja Du a middle class, Asian American. • Different backgrounds allow them to be stereotyped differently. Latasha seen as a "violent male" even. Soon Ja Du seen as a frail housewife. Karlin abuses her power. • Racial hierarchy of the women seen. Significance: focuses on intersectionality between peoples. Can discuss how race and class may spark racialization and stereotyping. Linked to Watts riots. Institutional racism in terms of lighter trials for those higher up on the racial hierarchy.

• Describes Japanese internment camp and how Japanese were at first racialized as the yellow peril during their days of internment and then steadily achieved model minority status. • Army the only non-discriminatory area in America at time of Japanese internment. • Japanese growth through community togetherness and strength. • Focuses on assimilation and integration for Japanese, high costs to become accepted in society as seen through discrimination, stereotype, and internment. • Faced institutional racism, racialization, assimilation problems. Significance: relates to experiences of other minorities such as West-Indians in Waters article. Focus on community togetherness and an ethnicities strong ties in order to integrate themselves as a whole. Also discusses the process of integration and assimilation, how experience goes from bad to good and how positive classifications are given to those who work hard in becoming assimilated.

• Chinese a minority that works hard to bring itself up from hardship and discrimination. Students work hard in education. • Strong familial-presence and tight-knit families. • A success story of an ethnic minority. Significance: Once again discusses the immigrant experience. Provides an exception to the usual route of immigrants in that they work hard to come out of the problems they face. Focus on family, which is different from other immigrants experience.

Described creation of "model minority" image of Asian Americans. Model minority status has its own cons, such as not being helpd up to the same standards as Americans. Whitening of Asians deals more with the beliefs of white America than the Asian situation. Discusses how when these Asian immigrants arrive, their SES and education levels are usually high and thus are more able to ascend the social ladder. Asians must prove thay they are truly loyal Americans. Significance: Describe disparities between Asians and other minority groups in terms of their SES and education levels when entering the US. Asians usually have higher SES and education levels while Chicanos and Hispanics have lower SES and education so it is harder for them to assimilate and integrate themselves to succeed. In terms of whiteness, it relies more with the beliefs of White America than Asians.

Decoding depends on readership Emphasis in how agents consume the cultural artifacts they read. Decoding usually occur in negotiated reading, audience take parts and impart their own experiences to their readings. Dominant discourse vs. subordinate discourse Significance: Occurs in many readings we have (Nat Turner, Douglass, media literacy). Decoding is how we take apart information and then encode it to other consumers. Decoding also depends on social location of the audience/reader.

Focuses on intersectionality and its relation to how police killings/beatings occur. Creates a mass bias against police officers. Killings kept under the table, significant killings make headlines to be a biased view. Divide and conquer strategy used to UNITE all the communities of LA under a common goal of fighting against the brutality and inequalities of police. Significance: institutional racism of police against minorities. Relates to police brutality in Do the Right thing, Watts riots, Stonewall Riots. Push for communities to work together in order for a common goal. Riots sparked by these police beatings.

Racialization of Arabs after 9/11 attacks. Mention intersectionality as Arab= ethnicity, Middle eastern= geography, and Muslim= religion. Many Arabs are immigrants with high SES and education upon immigrating into the US. Post 9/11 many of their civil rights were violated. Institutional racism seen through the government and through various policies made it hard for Arabs to travel into the US. Patriot Act and FBI interviewed many Arab-Americans. Decreased social location of Arabs, came out from invisibility. Racially classify Arabs through their characteristics of turbans and beards. Significance: Discusses the injustices done upon Arab-Americans when they are associated with terrorist attacks. Misunderstanding of the Koran and the religion of Islam. Can be related to the internment of Japanese Americans and how they faced institutional racism as well.

Discusses taxi industry post 9/11. Immigrants more prone to be taxi drivers, Arab-Americans one of them, and treated unfairly. Racialized by customers as they didn't want to pay. Faced oppression and stereotypes when told they were terrorists and to go back to their country. o Become a immigrant heavy industry when only minorities were willing to take this job as the business was slowing down. Dominant discourse of the day to treat immigrants unfairly. Some drivers fought this hegemonic discourse by stating that they did this for the finances and that their homelands were destroyed so they had nothing else. Drivers used interviews to raise awareness and to find justice. Significance: Compare jobs of taxi drivers to other immigrant areas, and how taxi drivers are an anomaly when they force the drivers to have huge interactions with the customers. Also can mix with janitors and maids in Los Angeles because the are a group of workers who work together to uplift themselves.

Though there is economic and career success among Muslim Americans, they do not feel satisfactory with their standard of living and some feel a sense of "otherness" within their communities. They also feel that their communities were getting worse. This is one of the effects of 9/11

UCLA student groups want to have a "Middle Eastern" label because they don't classify themselves as White, African, or Asian. They were usually classified as white, but many students felt that being classified as white would mean they were immediately overlooked because of the assumption that they were the typical white family that does well. However, if they let it happen the reported demographics of white would decrease by a big amount and look weird.

◦ Was introduced in 1965 by President Johnson as a method of redressing discrimination that had persisted in spite of civil rights law and constitutional guarantees. This was to ensure that blacks and other minorities enjoyed the same opportunities as others and create a "level playing field". ◦ In 1978 there was a Bakke case -- a white dude, Bakke, was rejected by a med school that reserved 16/100 applicants for minorities two years in a row and he was wayyy more qualified than them. So the Court was all like you can't have inflexible quota systems cus you unfairly discriminated a white applicant but they still said affirmative action was coolbeans. ◦ Conservatives are little bitches about it. They pretty much think that affirmative action oppresses them and they hate how minorities get a free ride, and that they were threatening the jobs of white people ◦ but liberals were saying that minorities deserve the chance because they've had a long history being on the continent, being enslaved, and being discriminated. They talk about Sandra Day O'Connor and U of Michigan a lot

◦ Bakke was applying for UC Davis med school and rejected in 1973 and 1974, case appears in 1978. UC Davis is referred to as "petitioner", if you ever need to know. ◦ SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT: Applicants could choose to also be "economically disadvantagd" or part of a "minority group" in application form. Even though disadvantaged whites applied, only minorities got in. Bakke had good scores, but applicants that got in had lower scores than he did. Individuals shouldn't suffer to let others achieve, preferential programs reaffirm the common inferior stereotype of minorities, and innocent persons shouldn't bear the burden because they weren't racially preferred. Preferring people just because of race is what the "Constitution forbids"... "Petitioner's special admissions program, focused solely on ethnic diversity, would hiner rather than further attainment of genuine diversity." Also mentions how Harvard makes race a plus just as much as living on a farm is a plus and that type of affirmative action is more acceptable as opposed to completely shutting out 16 seats for white people ◦ JUSTICE MARSHALL'S DISSENT: Agrees with the court that race should be considered in making admissions decisions, but DISAGREES on their ruling that it is unconstitutional. Talks about the history of African Americans in US, 350 years of slaves, lalalalalalalalla and talks about how the Constitution would support slavery (the oppression of blacks) and the Supreme Court Ruling on Bakke's is oppressing blacks again because affirmative action helps black but they deemed it unconstitutional! "While I applaud the judgement of the Court that a university may consider race in its admissions process, it is more than a little ironic that, after several hundred years of class-based discrimination against Negroes, the Court is unwilling to hold that a class-based remedy for that discrimination is permissible." (I think that page 649, under "IV" is an important part if yall wanna get all up on it) ◦ WHITES SAY I MUST BE ON EASY STREET A woman named Nell attended a good school and everything, and an old white dude assumed that she only got in because she was black AND a woman. White people assume blacks only got in because of affirmative action

Talks about how UCLA is moving towards a more holistic view and takes applicant achievement and experiences into consideration when considering applicants because there were only 96 black students--2% and they needed a way to raise it up. Still abides by prop 209 (aff. action) tho.

◦ US is largest english-speaking country, 5th largest Spanish speaking. ◦ Talks about the battle over language: a woman had to speak English to her daughter or else she couln't take care of her anymore, a guy was hired cus he was bilingual but couldn't speak spanish at work and got fired cus he did (the court said it was justified and not discriminatory) ◦ latinos/hispanics are seen as negative in hollywood now as opposed to how good they were in he 40s and 50s (they were our allies in the war, but now that they pose a threat to "america" i guess something's changed) latinos have achieved a lot and trying to get rid of their language is bobo--people who believe english will be taken over are dumbskis, a lot of people around the world pride themselves on knowing english. we should embrace bilingualism, not rid it.

Latinos see language as the key to success and that knowing it helps them get better jobs in a wider society

Domestic live-ins feel isolated, and ghosts with low pay; those who do not (housecleaners for example) tend to have better lives Central Americans are most of the domestic worker population because they live closer to those houses that need them and Mexican women just have more opportunities because they already know people (because Mexico's so close to SoCal) whereas Central Americans have nothing to start with. Blacks aren't hired as much because white people are stills cared of them. The employers believed that Latinas were more trustworthy and had really strong work ethic. Nora Hamilton and Norma Chinchilla, "The Struggle for Survival: Working in Los Angeles" Immigrant networks helped the salvadorans and guatemalans find jobs. Most paid little and often insecure. nonpayment, harrassment, isolation, unsafe working coniditions were apparent. Central Americans and other immirants helped redefine the urban scene in SoCal

◦ Keywords: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, racial attitudes, stereotypes, segregation, discrimination, inequality, Obama, Colin Powell ◦ "The racist virus in the American bloodstream still afflicts us: Negroes will encounter serious personal prejudice for at least another generation"-Moynihan ◦ Attitudes and beliefs about race have been internally complex and have continued to be moreso since the Moynihan report Americans expect to guide whie-black relations, and endorse broad goals of integration, equality, and equal treatment without regard to race. A colorblind identity is most important to Americans but race is still a a key factor in our lives, in terms of classification and commonalities, just not as much as in the 60s and past.

Introduction portion was super long, so here's what I got out of it. Rustin defined the black protest agenda to an extent and he helped introduce nonviolent direct action to the civil rights movement. He was openly gay. -Preamble to the March on Washington: pretty much listing things that African Americans want due to rising unemployment, recession, victimized, and don't have the skills and resources. Progam was a two day thing: first day they went to the Congress, second day they had a mass protest rally. -A Black Presidential Candidacy: talked about the drawbacks that would happen if there was a black president. Not a big list, just talks about like how black people would just vote for him cause he was black, not because he deserves it, and he might heighten racial tension.

Tells the story of perez, and how andrea and Sylvester met, fell in love, then challenged the California law barring interracial marriage. Their romance is put in context through a brief overview of American antimiscegnation statutes and a review of early judicial decisions in this area. The story then turns the case as it entered the judicial system, reviewing the innovative strategies adopted both by andrea and sylveter's attorney and by the state of CA in defining its policy of racial exclusion. The story closes with the aftermath of Perez, tracing its effect on the plaintiffs and chronicling the responses of state and legislatures and courts. The case came to be ignored and exlipsed by a much later decision in Loving. Perez provides an important narrative about intimacy and marriage as well as the right to enjoy both on ones own terms. Perez highlights the limitations of the black-white paradigm that is typically opens additional avenues for exploring such laws and examining the nature of associations among a range of groups.

-gay bars were the sources of important friendships and connections, as a means of creating a meaningful life despite society's open hostility to the lesbian sexual identity. -gay male "queen" developed "camp": theatrical, incongruous, funny behavior that lets people know a man is acting lake a woman. -"butch" lesbians: usurpation of society's male prerogatives (female love and serving as a protector for woman's space) -middle class bars: closeted white professionals working class bars: mostly black or white house parties in black neighborhoods = socializing socializing @ underground bar meant risking the pain of a handcuff cops raided to clear the city of "moral filt" common harassment technique: individual had to wear at least 3 pieces of clothing appropriate to their gender.

-xenophobia -Hatch's removal from city office symbolized the decline of overt nativism and a move toward ethnic democracy. -city council voted against Hatch and the Washington Statue, but as a compromise, decided to hold a celebration to the new citizens. the event sucked and only 1 chinese immigrant went -the rest of the long crap was about Hatch and elections.

the many views, statistics, and dates of affirmative action. I think this is where some of the students that were in the panel got the information

The future of the immigration policy depends on the capacity of the assimilation process to lead newcomers to an acceptance of the language, the institutions, and the political ideas that hold the nation together. The ethnic revolt against the melting pot has reached the point, in rhetoric at least, though not I think in reality, of a denial of the idea of a common culture are a single society. One powerful reason for the movement from exclusion to inclusion is that the American Creed facilitates the appeal from the actual to the ideal. Americans of whatever origin should take pride in the distinctive inheritance to which they have all contributed, as other nations take pride in their distinctive inheritances. American identity is always in the making. We just need to appreciate it.

It was pretty much trying to define what America is, but its hard because theres like different people.. and then it talks about hyphenated Americans and the whole Americanization idea. America has no singular national destiny- and to be an "American" is, finally, to know that and to be more or less content with it.