Summary

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Summary

• A Different Mirror A Multicultural History of
  America

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ENGLISH

• English immigrants descendants possessed power
  to define American culture make public policy
• For instance, what the founding fathers like
  Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson did, mattered
  greatly to all of us--consequential

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INDIANS

• Encounters with the English (white man)shaped
  the course of race relations culture identity
• President Andrew Jackson told Congress Our
  conduct toward these people is deeply interesting
  to the national character.
• Frederick Jackson Turner echoedthe frontier is
  our transforming crucible
• White men wore Indian moccasins shout the war
  cry.
• Gradually as the English subdued the wildernessa
  new product--American

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• Luther standing Bear of the Sioux said that the
  white man does not understand the Indian also
  America
• Indians questioned what Jackson Turner
  trumpeted as progress.
• For the Indians, the frontier had a different
  significance, i.e., their history was how the
  West was lost.
• But story has also been one of resistance. As
  Vine Deloria declared, Custer died for your
  sins.

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AFRICAN AMERICANS

• Brought as indentured servants1619
• The transformation of Africans into slaves is the
  story of the hidden origins of slavery
• During the 19th century, the political storm over
  slavery almost destroyed the nation
• Since the Civil War emancipation, race has been
  largely defined in relation to African Americans,
  i.e., segregation, Civil Rights Movement,
  Affirmative Action, etc.

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• Their struggle has been a constant reminder of
  Americas moral vision as a country committed to
  the principle of liberty.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from a jail cell
  we will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham
  and all over the nation, because the goal of
  America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we
  may be, our destiny is tied up with Americas
  destiny.

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CHICANOS

• Mostly mestizo, i.e., people of Indian, African
  Spanish ancestries
• Have been in the U. S. for a long time
• 1848 Treaty(U.S. Mexican war) moved the border
  between the two countries
• Consequently, the people of Mexico became
  foreigners in their native land
• As historian Albert Camarillo pointed out, the
  Chicano past is an integral part of Americas
  westward expansionknown as manifest destiny

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• While the early Chicanos were a colonized people,
  but most of them today have immigrant roots
• Many began the trek to El Norte in the early 20th
  century
• The migration to El Norte (America)
  continuestoday, Los Angeles has more people of
  Mexican origin than any city in the world except
  Mexico city

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ASIAN AMERICANS

• Have been in America before many European
  immigrant groups
• But as strangers coming from a different
  shore, they have been stereotyped heathen,
  exotic unassimilable
• Seeking Gold Mountain, the Chinese arrived
  first
• The Chinese fled from the ravages of the Opium
  Wars

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• The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law
  that prohibited the entry of immigrants on the
  basis of nationality.
• The Chinese condemned restriction as racist
• This precedent later provided a basis for the
  restriction of European immigrant groups, e.g.,
  Italians, Poles, Russians, etc

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• And what happened to the Chinese influenced the
  reception of the Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos
  Asian Indians,
• Southeast Asian refugees Vietnamese the
  Hmong
• Today, Asian Americansmodel minority for blacks,
  Hispanics whites

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IRISH

• 19th century--Conquest of Ireland by the English
  occurred before the colonization of America
• Irish were the 1st group to be called savages
  by the English
• In this context, Irish past foreshadowed the
  Indian future
• Came to America in large numberspotato famine
  English tyranny
• A Catholic group seeking to settle in a
  Protestant society
• Worked on plantations, factories as maids

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• The pioneers of the American urban ghetto--
  little Dublins
• Later other groups from Italy Poland shared
  similar experiences
• Offer contrast with Asian immigrants like the
  Chinese- who came the same time-
• Irish--distinct advantagethe Naturalization Law
  of 1790reserved citizenship for whites only
• Able to assimilate fasterentered American
  mainstream society

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• These immigrants from Erin pursued an Irish
  ethnic strategy,
• i.e., promoted Irish solidarity-- to gain
  political power
• Dominated blue-collar occupations at the expense
  of blacks Chinese

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JEWS

• Fleeing pogroms, i.e., an organized massacre of
  helpless people religious persecution in Russia
• To them America represented the Promised Land
• This vision led Jews to struggle not only for
  themselves but also for other oppressed
  groupsblacks
• For example after the 1917 East St. Louis race
  riot, the Yiddish Forward of New York compared
  this anti-black violence to a 1903 pogrom in
  Russia
• Jack Greenberg (NAACP Legal Defense Fund) we
  saw ourselves triumphing against the forces of
  bigotry and ignorance

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• Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with blacks in
  the Civil Rights Movement
• Whites who went south 1964 Freedom Summer were
  Jewish
• Unlike blacks were not slaves
• Many were literate skilled
• Today, Jews are a highly successful ethnic
  group

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CONNECTEDNESS

• Like blacks, the Irish newcomers were stereotyped
  as savages
• Irish saw themselves as the slaves of British
  oppressors
• Frederick Douglas visit to Ireland in 1840--found
  the Irish ballads reminded him of the slave songs

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• The U.S. annexation of California, while
  incorporating Mexicoled to trade with Asia the
  migration of strangers from Pacific shores
• In 1870, Chinese immigrant laborers went to
  Massachusetts to break an Irish immigrant strike
• In response, the Irish recognized the need for
  interethnic working class solidarity
• And organized a Chinese lodge of the Knights of
  St. Crispin

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• After the Civil War, Mississippi planters
  recruited Chinese immigrantsrole models for
  blacks
• During the debate over immigration exclusion bill
  in 1882, a senator asked if Indians could be
  located on reservations, why not the Chinese?

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• In 1903, Mexican Japanese farm laborers went on
  strike together in California
• Union officers called them names like Yamaguchi
  Lizarras
• Mexican strikersstanding in solidarity with
  their Japanese brothers
• Because the two groupstoiled together in the
  fields now are fighting for a fair wage

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• In the 1909 uprising of 20 thousand strikers in
  New York
• the charismatic Clara Lemlich compared the abuse
  of Jewish female garment workers to the
  experience of blacks in the South
• During the 1920selite universities like Harvard
  worried about the increasing numbers of Jewish
  studentsstudiousness
• Similarly, Asian-American students are now the
  targetscalled nerds

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• Indians were already here, while blacks came
  involuntarily, and Mexicans conqueredwestward
  expansion
• The other groups came as immigrantsfor them
  America represented a new world could succeed
• Came because of push-pull factorsfor a better
  life in America

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• Anecdotes a young man in Japan begged his
  parents to come to Americamake an income equal
  to the governor of Japan
• An Irish immigrant girl in New York wrote to her
  father... any man or woman without a family are
  foolscome to this plentiful country where no man
  or woman hungered
• A Jewish immigrant recalled the cry to
  Americas! roared like wild-fire, America was
  in everybodys mouth.

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• Similarly, Mexican immigrants crossing the border
  in the early 20th century
• El Norte, i.e., United States became the stuff of
  overblown hopes, if only you could see how nice
  the U.S. is, that is why the Mexicans are crazy
  about it
• The signs of Americas ethnic diversity can be
  discerned across the continent
• Ellis Island, Angel Island, Chinatown, Harlem,
  South Boston, places with Spanish names like Los
  Angeles San Antonio

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• Or Indian names like Massachusetts Iowa
• The Bing Cherrydeveloped by Chinese immigrant
  named Ah Bing
• Indians cultivating corn, tomatoes tobacco
  before Columbus
• Term okay derived from Choctaw word oke

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• Yanke came from Indian eankke
• Jazz and blues African-American origins
• American cowboys acquired herding skills from
  Mexican vaqueros
• Songs like God Bless Americawritten by
  Russian-Jew, Irving Berlin
• Much of what is familiar in Americas cultural
  landscape actually has ethnic origins

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• Through their storiesthe people who lived
  Americas history can help us allincluding my
  taxi driver
• Americans originated from many shoresall are
  entitled to dignity
• By sharing their stories, they invite us to see
  ourselves in a different mirror

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• Will Americans of diverse races and ethnicities
  be able to connect themselves to a larger
  narrative?
• Whatever happens, we can be certain that much of
  our societys future will be influenced by which
  mirror we choose to see ourselves
• America does not belong to one race or one
  groupstories remind us

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