Reaction 10

What evidence does LBJ offer as proof of the widening economic gap between black and white Americans? How does he explain this gap? How are the sentiments he expressed represented in this cartoon?

LBJ realized when he became President that he had a large gap to bridge between black and white Americans. Beginning with his election in 1964, Lyndon Johnson knew there was alot to get done as far as making America economically stable, as well as equally fair. LBJ set forth many acts and policies to aid African Americans and other minorities in correcting this economic gap. LBJ explained this widening gap as instability in the African American family due to centuries of discrimination and economic oppression at the hands of white Americans. He also thought white people were the ones to blame for the years of discrimination and oppression.

The first act set in place signed by LBJ was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It prohibited the literacy test in voting, and was a response to activism and violence. His idea in this was to give African Americans the opportunity to get more involved in politics, and therefore, involved in economics. Johnson viewed the election as a mandate for his "War on Poverty," and set out to form "The Great Society." He was influenced by Michael Harrington's The Other America, which focuses on the invisible poor in America.  Johnson's idea of the Great Society included abundance and liberty to everyone, the chance for every child to get an education, the battle for full equality as well as against poverty, and to serve the needs of the people within the community.  This Great Society would have enduring peace between the races, and offer each the same opportunities. He also extended Medicare and Medicaid to the elderly and poor, which would be considered the  African Americans in this case.  In addition, LBJ tried to offer adequate shelter for everyone in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Food Stamp Act of 1964 also offered economic aid to those who were in need financially, especially the unemployed among African Americans. To offer the chance at cleaner and more comfortable conditions on behalf of all those in the inner-cities, usually minorities, Johnson added the Water Quality Act. Job Corps also gave young men the chance to learn skills to have a higher chance at being hired for jobs.  The last bit of Johnson's platform in the Great Society was based more on eduation, like the Elementary and Secondary Eduaction Act, as well as the Higher Education Act, which offered pell grants and student loans to those in need.

In the first frames of the illustration, the weights represent the oppression African Americans received from whites because of slavery brought upon them the few hundreds years before that.  The chains are symbolic of the complete oppression African Americans received before the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed after the Civil War. After the chains are removed, one may observe it is symbolic of Africans being freed from slavery. However, the black man is still suffering as the white man progresses, yet leaves the black man behind to progress by himself. The point being made here is that even thought the black man was freed from slavery, he still had no true rights as an American. In the fifth picture, the black man stands up to fight for his rights, symbolic of the Civil Rights movements that took place in the 1950s. Toward the end of the sketch, the white man apologizes to the black man for putting him through such hard times and difficulty, but however, the white man is still unwilling to offer any help to the black man. The ledge represents the complete American Dream, and prosperity. The reason the white man offers no help in the black man achieving the American Dream was because whites thought they had no reason to aid African Americans because they considered it reverse racism. This idea popped up from the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s through 1970s. White people thought helping African Americans could be considered reverse racism because the idea of Civl Rights was to offer each man the same chances and opportunities, and offering African Americans a hand up on the situation wouldn't make it fair for white people.

Reaction 9

According to C. Wright Mills, Americans during the 1950s were Cheerful Robots. Using his excerpt, what you've read in the text, and heard in class, why is that description fitting (don't just repeat or rephrase what's in the Mills article)?

The 1950's were a time of change and conformity. While the economy got back on its feet, returning Veterans from WWII were beginning to receive federal aid, allowing for increasingly prosperous lives among them and their families. Help from FHA and the G.I. Bill gave soldiers the opportunity to move into Suburban areas, buy new vehicles, extend their families and afford household appliances to assist the wives in their daily chores. 

In Levittowns, thousands upon thousands of homes were built, all the same model and looking exactly the same. Veterans could put as little as $1.00 for a down-payment one of these cookie cutter homes. Auto production tripled, as the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways built highways to make travel between Suburbia and work easier. The Baby Boom increased the average number of children per family from 2.4 to 3.2. This put an emphasis on importance on the Nuclear Family, pressuring women to stay home and play the role of mother and housewife as a career. Women began to marry at younger ages. Having more children younger, and not being allowed out of the house very often led women into depression, as many of their dreams of keeping war jobs were taken from them. They were heavily isolated, and consumed tranquilizers like Miltown and Valium at enormous rates. Worst of all, they took these drugs while also pregnant, always leaving them in a smiling submissive state. Yet nonetheless, these women were expected to fully accept their new lifestyles and were forced to conform to this robot way of life.

C. Wright Mills referred to these new and improved families as "Cheerful Robots" because that is essentially what they became. In the 1950s, when Veterans began expanding their sense of materialism, they also let their freedom of individuality cease. It was all about the nuclear family, the ideal family of the 1950s. And this new family was all about materialism and buying anything that made life easier and more pleasurable. And all this change was supposed to please American families, despite the fact that every family was the same in that they all had the same exact house, car and appliances. They were robots in the idea that they were all the same and had the same things. They were "cheerful" about it because they were so willing to conform to the lifestyles of the 1950s. Those who weren't cheerful were seen as abnormal and crazy. Mills fear was that men and women were becoming increasingly manipulated by contemporary social structures. He is afraid that these robots are happy about being robots- cheerful and willing robots. 

Reaction 8

Read the excerpt from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The U.S. did not immediately ratify the Declaration. What policies and practices within the U.S. conflicted with many of the principles of the Declaration? (10 pts)

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by a committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. The goals of the declarations were generally to provide  rights that could be enjoyed by all members of the human family. Some of these rights included freedom of speech, religious toleration, and protection against arbitrary government, along with social and economic entitlements such as the right to an adequate standard of living and access to housing, education, and medical care. So basically, it's main priority was to ensure that a nation's treatment of its own citizens should be subject to outside evaluation.

Although this Declaration of Human rights would seem acceptable in today's society, it caused so much debate and turmoil in the late 1940s that its first covenant wasn't ratified by Congress until 1992. To add to that, the second covenant has still not been passed!

The reasons as to why the Declaration of Rights could not be passed until 1992 was because the United States had to go under massive changes before it could adopt such a new way of life. Most of the principles within the Declaration contradicted policies and practices of the time period within the United States. Segregation played a large role in society after WWII.  It was a way of life, a lifestyle, for both white and black people, as well as other minority groups.  Even women had a difficult time after WWII, as they were expected to go back to being fragile housewives under the control of their superior husbands. The thought of assimilating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into their society would be nearly impossible to adjust to. Almost every article of the Declaration contradicted society in the late 1940s.

Article I, for example, states "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."  Now apply this rule to a white man and a colored man. Of course, the statement would apply to the white man, but ask the white man if the rule includes a colored man in its bank of all who deserve rights, and I can guarantee you the white man would deny this liberty to him. I am trying to support the idea that the white man in the time period after WWII still feels he is superior to, and therefore, far more deserving of life and liberties than any man other than his same skin color. At this time, the idea of "brotherhood" between all men (including minorities) was not acceptable.

Staying on the subject of minorities and how discrimination towards them explains the long awaited ratification of the Declaration, many other articles may be examined.  In fact, Articles 1-19 all directly affect how people of color are treated in society. Article 2 explains how "Everyone" is included in the Declaration, no matter their "race, colour, sex, language..." This Article is aimed toward the white supremacists who always try to find a way to exclude minorities from their rights in Declarations and other documents of the law. Article 4, I'd say, is especially for African Americans who were forced into servitude before. A major hypocritical move on behalf of the US government in regards to this Declaration were the Japanese internment camps of WWII. Had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights been in order then, the US would have been in violation of Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12! To remove an entire ethnic race of people into camps on suspicion of them having something to do with the bombing at Pearl Harbor and other terrorist activities is unlawful. Because of this circumstance, Articles 5-12 apply directly towards minorities because it is clear that they received the harshest punishments before, during and after WWII. In a criminal case, they were the first suspects, and tended to be convicted without proper evidence of their being guilty.  The Declaration would also have been beneficial to the Latin Americans of the late 1940s into the 1950s. Discrimination against Zoot-suiters and workers in the Bracero Program were treated unfairly and add more support in how hypocritical it would have been to ratify the Declaration in 1948.

Women, too were discriminated against in society in the late 1940s after the war. During the war, women took over many of the jobs that once belonged to the men that were at war. They gained a great deal of independence while their counterparts were away. However, as the war ended, so did the independence of the women along with their war-time jobs. Many went back to jobs that paid less then men's jobs, and had no unemployment insurance when they were laid off. For this reason, Articles 23-29 may directly apply to women.  Article 23 especially would have aided women in keeping some sense of accomplishment. However, this wouldn't follow through anytime soon because of male superiority over the woman and the need to save money for the companies that let the women workers go. 

My overall theory about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that it all comes down to how much a nation is willing to sacrifice in order to have a moral community. It would take a nation a great deal of time (decades), and money to renovate a reputation which was once completely hypocritical. This is why it took so long for the United States Congress to ratify the Declaration of Human Rights. They wanted to confirm that the country had gone through enough civil, political, economic, social and cultural change before it could confirm these rights in a Declaration.