Summary A Different Mirror: A Multicultural History of America.

Summary

A Different Mirror: A Multicultural History of America

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

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 echoed—the frontier is our transforming crucible

• White men wore Indian moccasins & shout the war cry.

• Gradually as the English subdued the wilderness—a new product--American

• 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.”

AFRICAN AMERICANS

• Brought as indentured servants—1619• 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.

• Their struggle has been a constant reminder of America’s 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 America’s destiny.”

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 America’s westward expansion—known as “manifest destiny”

• 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) continues—today, Los Angeles has more people of Mexican origin than any city in the world except Mexico city

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

• 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

• And what happened to the Chinese influenced the reception of the Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos & Asian Indians,

• & Southeast Asian refugees: Vietnamese & the Hmong

• Today, Asian Americans—model minority for blacks, Hispanics & whites

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 numbers—potato famine & English tyranny

• A Catholic group seeking to settle in a Protestant society

• Worked on plantations, factories & as maids

• The pioneers of the American urban ghetto-- “little Dublin’s”

• Later other groups from Italy & Poland shared similar experiences

• Offer contrast with Asian immigrants like the Chinese- who came the same time-

• Irish--distinct advantage—the Naturalization Law of 1790—reserved citizenship for “whites” only

• Able to assimilate faster—entered American mainstream society

• 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

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 groups—blacks• 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

• 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

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

• The U.S. annexation of California, while incorporating Mexico—led 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

• After the Civil War, Mississippi planters recruited Chinese immigrants—role 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?

• In 1903, Mexican & Japanese farm laborers went on strike together in California

• Union officers called them names like Yamaguchi & Lizarras

• Mexican strikers—standing in solidarity with their “Japanese brothers”

• Because the two groups—toiled together in the fields & now are fighting for a fair wage

• 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 1920s—elite universities like Harvard worried about the increasing numbers of Jewish students—studiousness

• Similarly, Asian-American students are now the targets—called “nerds”

• Indians were already here, while blacks came involuntarily, and Mexicans conquered—westward expansion

• The other groups came as immigrants—for them America represented a new world –could succeed

• Came because of “push-pull” factors—for a better life in America

• Anecdotes: “a young man in Japan begged his parents… to come to America…make 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 fools…come 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 everybody’s mouth.”

• 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 America’s 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

• Or Indian names like Massachusetts & Iowa

• The Bing Cherry—developed by Chinese immigrant named Ah Bing

• Indians cultivating corn, tomatoes & tobacco –before Columbus

• Term “okay” –derived from Choctaw word “oke”

• “Yanke” came from Indian “eankke”• “Jazz and blues”– African-American origins• American cowboys acquired herding skills from

Mexican “vaqueros”• Songs like “God Bless America”—written by

Russian-Jew, Irving Berlin• Much of what is familiar in America’s cultural

landscape actually has ethnic origins

• Through their stories—the people who lived America’s history can help us all—including my taxi driver

• Americans originated from many shores—all are entitled to dignity

• By sharing their stories, they invite us to see ourselves in a different mirror

• 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 society’s future will be influenced by which “mirror” we choose to see ourselves

• America does not belong to one race or one group—stories remind us…