Chapter 3 - The Giddy Multitude

Chapter three is The Giddy Multitude the hidden origins of slavery. In Ronald Takaki’s book I learned some facts that I had never before heard of. According to the book the first Africans arrived in England around 1554, and they were called Negroes or Caliban. Then we move on to Virginia were some of the first American slaves had went to. In the details that are enclosed in the book we learn that quite a few English people were here in America as indentured servants. The white indentured servants were just those indentured servants, only to work to repay the debt they had made mostly on their voyage to America. People who owned land began to realize that they could make a bigger profit from a black slave, than English indentured servant. The slave trade began by sending African slaves to Virginia. The ones who were already there who were indentured servants status was often changed to work forever. The English and African people were very unhappy with their lives working for the service of others. Many of them hatched plans to escape, and many did but often were caught and severely punished for trying to escape. The white servants were punished less severely than the African slaves. Another problem was that many white people both male and female were having children with African Americans, those who were received punishment for so called violation of racial purity. Even though they were few incidents of this behavior Virginia originally was only made up of two percent of African Americans. The country of Barbados in the same time period, half the population were African slaves. The English at first did not want to operate America in the same fashion not wanting to have a biracial society, and second they were not trying to raise money to go back they instead wanted to permanently settle here in America. They eventually gave in and imported more slaves, even though they were risking the hierarchical society they had began forming. The book also informs us on the life of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was a slave owner; he also had a reputation for being a strict disciplinarian of his slaves. We also find evidence that he felt guilty for owning slaves, and wanted to develop a plan to send them back to their land for them to start over again. Basically in the overall summary of this chapter we learn that society with racism was brought to the America from England. W e also learned that white people suffered some but their punishment varied greatly from that of the African Americans.

Zinn- Chapter 2- Drawing The Color Line

In Chapter two of Zinn called drawing the Color Line we learn more about racism and how it became prevalent in America and lasts even until this very day. The question that is asked is whether it is possible for white and black people to live together without hatred? The only way to answer this question is to find out how racism started, and to see if it can be effectively ended. In this chapter it was found that people were not certain whether it was hatred, contempt, or pity, or even patronization which would place black people into an inferior position for three hundred and fifty years. When the English settlers arrived in Jamestown, Virginia the Indians taught them how to grow tobacco they began to sell this product back to England. The settlers need more money, but they did not know how they could possibly do all the work themselves. But they realized that they could not possibly have the Indians work for them simply because they were outnumbered. The thought of capturing the Indians would also not work for the fact that the Indians were too tough, resourceful, defiant, and at home in the wilderness while the English were not. The only possible answer the settlers could find was to have black slaves. By 1619 a million black slaves had already been brought over to South America and the Caribbean from South Africa to work for the Portuguese. Fifty years before Columbus the Portuguese took black people to Lisbon to be sold as slaves. The black people were torn from their cities, were they were discovered to be living in more civilized cities than Europeans at that time. Often slave traders use the excuse that slavery had already existed in Africa. However there were two major differences of slavery in Africa compared to that of the United States. One major difference was they were more like serfs or indentured servants; the second were the use of slaves for limitless profit and racial hatred. The slaves were put in horrible conditions on death marches, slave ships, only one third of the initial captured made it to America, an estimated fifty million of the population of Africa were lost to slavery and death. The slave trade was first done to escape starvation, and possible extinction, but quickly turned into a blind passion of greed. After learning of these events in more in depth detail I think it will take more than people will ever be willing to give to live without racism. African American people have been living in inferiority for so long that many white people, would most likely decline the right to give away their self-prescribed superior status to become equivalent to African Americans.

Race the Power of an Illusion ( Extra Credit)

In class on Monday we watched a movie entitled “Race: The Power of an illusion, Episode 1: The Difference between Us”. The movie we watched explained that for several hundred years we have been classifying people by race, through clear cut categories mostly just by looking at them. It was stated that race assumes that external differences are related to internal racial which gives some a biological competitive edge. The truth is that people are actually not very different outside their external differences, and in fact are genetic make-ups are not very different at all no matter what racial background you are from. Animals from the same background tend to be more distant than humans, with the examples of fruit flies who are ten times more different than each other. During the movie we learned that for two hundred years scientist looked for some type of biological factor that could determine what makes people the racial background that they become. Basically the scientist were searching for anything they could find that could justify putting all the ethnicities of African Americans, Chinese, and Indian all at the bottom of the hierarchy and to place Whites at the very top. In this time the people in the government discovered a racial group called the WIN tribe, which a group of people made up of White, Indian, Negro or African Americans located in West Virginia. The government saw this mixture of races and thought it was disgraceful, in turn after this was discovered some twenty-eight states passed laws to save racial purity. These ideas were later adopted by the leader of the Nazi regime Adolph Hitler. Later with the rise of African American athletes, people were wondering how these athletes could have gotten so good at sports. This also prompted the research of scientists to search for reasons why African American people can be so talented. The reason why people are to have acquired their skin tones was discussed in greater detail, it was stated that people need sunlight to have the necessary amount of vitamin D to produce the right melanin which produces the skin tone. It was also proved that the skin tone was lighter and darker in certain regions to help people be able to survive in their current environments. It was also determined that through MtDNA a set of DNA found in the mitochondria that can only be inherited from your mother, is where people inherit most of their genetic backgrounds that can help people identify from what region of the world their ancestors could came from. It was also determined that the most genetic variation was present in Africa.
In conclusion the racial gap that is supposed to be so wide is actually pretty narrow once you move past an individual’s external skin tone. In actuality people are all very close indeed, and a lot of them originated from most of the same general areas. We also learned that most of the separation that occurs within society is not by biological but rather by social differences created by people who are believe that difference races should determine statuses of the people.

Chapter 2- Privilege, Opression & Difference

I read chapter two of the Privilege Power and Difference. In chapter two the topic of privilege, oppression, and difference are discussed in great length and detail. After reading this chapter I learned the problem that surrounds the term of difference, is really a problem as much as the terms that relate to why people are different such as privilege and power. Difference however is not the problem, the illusion or misunderstood fact is the popular conception is that people are afraid of what they don’t know or understand. In chapter two the topic of the diversity wheel is brought up as an aspect to which we can compare and accurately describe one another to classify people into distinct groups. The different characteristics listed in the hub of the wheel include age, race, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, qualities, and sexual orientation. Around the outer ring others listed are religion, marital and parental status, and social class indicators of education, occupation, and income. It was brought to my attention while reading chapter two that if we change or slight shift are status in the wheel could change peoples lives tremendously. The book states the reason why there is trouble that comes with diversity is not the obvious differences of people from each other, rather the way the world tries to in ways include, exclude, reward, or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue others by their differences. Another detail that is brought to light is that in America is that we only accept two genders in our culture while most accept several, which means if you don’t fit one or the other you are automatically labeled an outsider. A quotation that says “No one was white before they came to America; it took generations, and a vast amount of coercion, before this became a white country.” (Baldwin 17) This quotation shows that by force and powerful domination against other people, that a group of people who classified themselves as white were able to rise to power and control other groups who they felt were less superior in doing so made the other groups inferior. In turn this type of treatment has lasted until the present day, not in every aspect but is clearly present in our culturally diverse society. In chapter two we also learn that privilege exist when one group has something of value that is denied to other groups because of groups the people belong to, not because of what they didn’t do. This explains the conclusion that privilege is highly associated to what race you are a member of. There are two types of privilege mentioned one types is “unearned entitlements”, which are things with some sort of value that all people should have. The second type is called “conferred dominance”; this step proceeds to go further than the other by giving a clear cut advantage in power to another group. The power of privilege increases the power of others and dominates the rule of others, and in turn it helps increase the level of what is called oppression on the lives of others. Oppression is named in chapter two as being the social conflict that results between privilege and oppressed categories. I believe that privilege can often be used in negative ways for the benefit of only certain people, and it should be reviewed as a term that should not be viewed with such a positive connotation for what it is usually used for is not positive in any way.

Chapter 2- A Different Mirror

Brian Bates
Professor Altman
Ethnic Studies

Chapter two in the book A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki entails many different accounts of how the English took over lands and controlled the lives of both the Irish and Indians through means of violence that left their populations in ruins near extinction from the earth. This chapter lists the main reason why the English thought they should take other people’s land; they felt it was a God-given right because the other cultures were so called “savages” therefore they deserved the other people’s property.
The first accounts we read in the chapter are that the Indians are intrigued by the English settlers coming into the land. The appearance of these strange pale complexion men with hair growing from their face were foretold by Indian prophets who predicted the arrival of the English man. The book also describes in detail of how they thought the Irish people were “savages” as well. The English reduced the Irish population by more than half of the original number they had found them with. They did the same with the Indians except for these type incidents occurred at three different locations. The Indians were farming their land and doing very well, but in order to claim most of their lands the explorers would write various details about the Indian people being cannibals and the females doing improper things like prostituting themselves because they liked too. After hearing these type of descriptions the English people that it was only naturally right that they should be able to claim the Indians land and be able to drive them from it change their way of faith and what religion they believed in. The accounts that foretold of the Indians as civilized people were usually disregarded or not told to people, so that the English could send more to claim more of the land that the “savages” did not need.
In the stories throughout chapter two we learn that English think they are highly superior to everyone else they encounter in new lands because their culture was different their own. The settlers who were settling the land when John Smith came to Virginia were almost wiped out by winter that they were not prepared for, they were saved by the Indians who gave them provisions and helped them survive. After this had occurred the English settlers captured a few Indians and took them back to England to show people of their new discoveries. The work of cultivating land was so hard for them they thought that people beneath them should work as slaves and pay them with their crops for the land they were using.
The events in chapter two showed in many ways how the English were wrong for almost all the actions they performed against the Indians. They intruded upon other peoples land the Indians and Irish wiped them out and took it as their own. They should not be celebrated for discoveries and civilizations in these lands merely for the fact that they were already present, but the English destroyed them and expanded their own.

The Meaning of Difference "Framework Essay"

Brian Bates
Professor Altman
Ethnic Studies

The main statement or thesis of the article that the author is trying to convey to the audience is that is that are four important questions about difference. The questions are how is it constructed, how is it experienced by individuals, how meaning is attributed to difference, and how differences can be bridged.
The author of this article believes that the main source of difference between Americans is the master statuses, which are people’s position in a social structure. The author believes that the master status affects every aspect of people’s lives including their personal identity. They also believe that racial categories are always present in every social process, and are thought to be the real difference that separates everyone. The author uses examples of not only race but also sexual orientation as another large aspect which largely differentiates people from one another. Throughout the article we learn of other ways people are separated through ways of naming, and then there are ways they are brought or lumped together by one generalization of an ethnic background. The use of dichotomizing is also a major focus point of the article, by dividing things two into parts like race, sexual orientation, class, and sex.
During the section of the article my group was assigned to pay extra attention to which was Creating Categories of People. I learned some new important facts of how the government creates and conducts a census of the general population. The census has always counted race since the first one in 1790 so different racial groups were always accounted for in some aspect. The census in 1970 was the first to allow the household to identify which racial/ethnic background in which the family should be identified as, but yet there was no still no identification of people who were from multi-racial backgrounds they could only choose one definitive section in which they could be accounted for. Also many groups like Hispanics, or people who lived in lower income environments were undercounted because they moved a lot and could not be contacted, or non-English speaking citizens. The data collected on race allowed the monitoring of many issues like the Voting Rights Act, equal opportunity employment programs, and racial disparities in health, birth, and death rates. The census also showed the under representation of minority groups in society in 2000 was the first census in which a person could identify themselves as person from more than one descent. Yet there is still an ongoing issue in which gay or lesbian people are highly undercounted, because they are not fully recognized as actual couples.
I personally think that the information in the text brings up valid issues and points that need to be addressed in order for our society to accurately account for all people. I think the country has finally started making steps of progression in the right direction, although they have a long way to go and still need to work on various problems that need to be corrected.

A little about myself

I am Brian Bates

• I'm a freshmen
• I'm 18
• Im from Solon ,Ohio a suburb located 30 minutes outside of Cleveland

I decided to take this class not only for my degree requirement, but I also wanted to expand my overall knowledge of other ethnic races besides my own.