Black People and American Dominant Culture Essay

* A sign is anything that could be used to stand for something else. The two parts are a recognizable signifier (form that the sign takes) with a signified (the concept that it represents) 2. According to Howard Zinn, whose voices are the ones often neglected by/ left out of history? * The voices left out are done by those who are not popular, the common man. 3. Zinn discussed the language used in the Declaration of Independence, and that used in the United States Constitution to describe the rights to which everyone is entitled. How do they differ and what greater conflict does this discrepancy represent? * ‘Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says all of us have an equal right to â€Å"life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. †Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ * The America that we â€Å"know is a country that had slavery and still has racism, had a president who was seen as a hero who loved war and 4. Describe Ronald Takaki calls the â€Å"Master Narrative† of American history. What two assumptions does this version of American history rely upon, and what problems does this pose for the study of America’s history and contemporary understandings of who/what is American? * Master narrative: the â€Å"power and popular but inaccurate story† declaring that â€Å"our country was settled by European immigrants, and Americans are white. † * A filter through which we learn history * Leaves out all the other cultures that live in America 5. How does James Hoopes define oral history vs. oral tradition? Does American dominant culture have a strong oral tradition? Why/why not? * Oral history: documents collected by tape recorder. Used by social scientists in â€Å"participant observation† studies * Oral tradition: Usual name for verbal stories passed on from one generation to the next 6. What are the strengths/advantages of oral history as a methodology? What are the limitation/weaknesses of oral history? How can these limitations/weaknesses be supported? * Strengths: it can find the point of view of the people who originally had no voice before. It can be used to find more details that may otherwise prove what is traditionally taught as wrong or different. Can be used to make documentation stronger * Weaknesses: Memory is fallible, needs documentation to provide validity, people may lie, bias, only living people, reluctance 7. What group of people was the subject of study in Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold? Why do the authors argue it was important to study these women? Were they part of a political movement? In what way(s) did they contribute to social change in the U. S.? * Subject of study: Working class lesbians from the mid-1930’s to the early 1960’s in Buffalo, New York * The focus revealed the centrality of butch-fem roles. * Women’s openness about their lesbianism was crucial not only to the communities they helped form in their own time but to all lesbian communities which they have provided a model for that have emerged since. * They even go so far as to posit that these older lesbians and their lives constitute a prepolitical stage of the 1970’s gay rights movement. 8. What kinds of challenges did the women in Storming Caesars Palace face growing up in the South? What was the name of the organization that they created and ran together? What kinds of services were they able to make available to residents on the west side of Las Vegas? * The women faced racism, discrimination, lack of jobs, welfare, income, fathers leaving, marriages failing. Women saw marrying early as a way to get out of this but turned out to be wrong. The organization that they created was called Operation Life which created community programs that included a medical center, library, senior citizen housing and daycare. 9. What stereotypes are often associated with those who collect welfare? When welfare was created, who did it primarily benefit? Who was excluded from receiving benefits? * Stereotypes are often associated with poor people, have kids only for more welfare, lazy, can’t find work, too lazy to find work. Cheating the system, getting paid too much. â€Å"driving Cadillacs†, too many kids * Black women were denied birth control, doctors encouraged black women to have sex at a young age * When it was created it primarily benefited the white community (white widows and orphans) *social security and unemployment: excluded domestic work and agricultural) * Blacks were denied welfare (Domestic work and agricultural work) most black women ended up doing those jobs. 10. According to the film Crips and Bloods: Made in America, how have Black men typically been characterized in American dominant culture? How is this reflected by the proportion of Black men in America who end up jailed/imprisoned during their lifetimes? How did those we heard from in the film characterize the penitentiary system and law enforcement efforts to wage a â€Å"war on drugs/crime? † * Black men are typically characterized in American dominant culture as having a tendency to do crime and that the life they live is the life they chose and want. * 1 in 4 black men are incarcerated in their lifetimes in the area. However this isn’t the life that they chose for themselves. The life that the white people, law enforcement has placed upon them forced them into the life that they were trying to avoid. * They said that the â€Å"war on drugs/crime† ended up being a war on black people 11. According to the film, what factors contributed to these rise of urban street gangs in Los Angeles? What kinds of opportunities were not available to young people in these neighborhoods? Why do young people join gangs, and what do they get out of being in a gang? * Territorial boundaries, discrimination, gangs, police force forced them into this life. No father figures, police force incarcerating black fathers * They were not able to join organized groups and as a result joined a gang to feel accepted. They did that to get some sense of family and they looked after one another, and protection, fed one another 12. How were the actions of African American residents during the Watts Rebellion characterized by media and law enforcement? How did they describe themselves? * The media and law enforcement saw it as a â€Å"riot† that it was unorganized chaos * They perceived it as a â€Å"rebellion† that they knew fully well what they were doing and that it was organized and that white people didn’t think black people had the capable thought of organizing together. 13. How is violence characterized/interpreted differently depending on who commits acts of violence? When is violence deemed acceptable/unacceptable? * LAPD/National Guard: Supposed to keep the police. * Black community: Characterized differently. * Before civil war: Black men seen as foolish. * After civil war: Seen as dangerous, naturally brutes, slavery helped civilized them, seeing as a threat to the entire social fabric (white women in particular) * Allowed justification for lynching black men by whites * 14. How does Anderson define â€Å"nation? † What are the 4 defining characteristics of the nation? * Nation: â€Å"an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. † 1. Limited 2. Community 3. Sovereign 4. Imagined 15. Explain the concept of American exceptionalism. In what ways in an emphasis on American exceptionalism reflected in American culture? What founding myths promoted this idea? What two central weaknesses have criticisms of American exceptionalism focused on? * American Exceptionalism: The idea that America is unique, special, â€Å"City upon a Hill. † Essentialize American identity. Isolation from within. * Manifest Destiny: Encouraged expansion * Frontier Thesis: Rugged individualism, crucial experience, closing of the frontier, bring forth imperialism, spread freedom and democracy * City upon a Hill (society would be an exemplar of God’s will) * Weaknesses: Makes America close minded to other ways of culture or life. We believe that our way of doing things is the best and that we must spread our ideas onto other countries makes us seem imperialistic. 16. Describe how the stock minstrel show characters like the Sambo, Mammy, Coon, and Uncle were portrayed. What function did these portrayals play in Antebellum American culture? What did these images say about the institution of slavery? How did images of Black Americans (and Black men in particular) change following the Civil War? What did this reflect/justify? How was Emancipation portrayed in popular media? How were Black children, or â€Å"Pickaninnies,† often represented? What was the purpose/function of such stereotypes? * Sambo – Happy slave, docile, slave in their natural placed, used to seem to resolve the moral and political in the conflict of having slavery in a free country * Mammy – woman version of the Sambo, fat woman, docile does not have the qualities of the white woman (beauty), worked for the white man, never evoked sexual feeling, seen as the controller in their own family. Men are weak, women are strong. * Coon –ignorant black man, tries to act intelligent, dresses like a white man but acts like a fool, gambler after the civil war. * Uncle – existed before Civil War. Old slave, fond of the master’s family, loyal. After Civil War, misses slavery, goes back to visit master to reminisce * Pickaninnies – black children as animal like, always by a river, messy hair, having alligators pursuing children 17. How does the United States Constitution characterize the relationship between government and religion? How is the significance of religion, particularly Protestant Christianity reflected in American public life? * 1st Amendment talks about separation between church and state * However we always have the image of God. â€Å"In God we trust† â€Å"God bless America† â€Å"One nation under God† Presidents always reference Him 18. In what ways did the emergence of an American middle class in 19th century transform the American family? What is the Ideology of Separate Spheres? According to the Cult of Domesticity, what are the four virtuous attributes that the Victorian True Woman was expected to embody? * Body of ideas reflecting the social needs and apparitions of an individual, group, class or culture. * Women were expected to stay home and watch over the children and teach them religion while the men went out to work * Ideology of Separate Spheres: * Public: Work, education, business, economics, toughness, educated, confident, aggressive and competitive * Private: Childrearing, cleaning, cooking, seeing, submissive, kind, caring, loving, nurturing. * Cult of Domesticity: 1. Piety (religious devotion) 2. Purity (chaste/sexual purity/virginity) 3. Submissiveness (Obedient as little children) 4. Domesticity (â€Å"Home Sweet Home†, refuge for husband) 19. How does George Ritzer describe the â€Å"McDonaldisation† of society? Identify and describe the four key concepts of â€Å"McDonaldisation. † * Process of rationalization, taken to extreme levels * Culture possesses the characteristics of a fast food nation 1. Efficiency – The optimum method of completing a task. The rational determination of the best mode of production. Individuality is not allowed. 2. Calculability – Assessment of outcomes based on quantifiable rather than subjective criteria. Quantity over quality. 3. Predictability – the production process is organized to guarantee uniformity of product and standardized outcomes 4. Control – The substitution of more predictable non-human labor for human labor, either through automation or deskilling of the work force. Key Terms: 1. Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols 2. Oral History – tape – recorded historical information obtained in interviews concerning personal experiences and recollections. 3. Oral Tradition – Verbal stories passed on from one generation to the next 4. Nation (as defined by Benedict Anderson) – â€Å"an imagined political community [that is] imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign† 5. Myth – a traditional story, esp, one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, 6. Ideology- a systematic body of concepts of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture. 7. American Exceptionalism – Essentialize American identity. Isolation from within. America is superior society 8. City Upon a Hill – The society that would be an exemplar of God’s will 9. Manifest Destiny – America was superior and they offered the best. Indians were primitive in comparison. As a result America expanded westward to bring education, technology, and religion and drive the Indians out of their land and bring expansion. God’s plan to expand from coast to coast. Bring progress to a virgin land 10. Frontier Thesis – Frederick Jackson Turner: The wellsprings of American exceptionalism and vitality have always been the American frontier, the region between urbanized, civilized society and the untamed wilderness. The frontier created freedom, â€Å"breaking the bonds of custom, offering new experiences, and calling out new institutions and activities. † 11. Patriarchy – social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line. Control by men of a disproportionately large share of power 12. Imperialism – The policy practice of extending the power of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining indirect control by the political or economic life of other areas. 13. Globalization – process of increasing connectivity, services are transported though borders.