So just for my reference in the
future, to motivate myself to write, think out of the box and so that I could
delete it from my computer, I decided to put my papers here in the blog. I
thought it would be a nice refresher, since it’s still in the topic of ‘current
issues’ (well technically, at that time). Excuse the grammatical error and
maybe the silly opinion of a 17-year-old. Also note that (yes, I am a scientist, very particular with references), at this time I based a lot on his notes and notes I took from the class, so no references can be found. Kids if you are actually taking Mr.
Bates class, please don’t plagiarize. Trust me, I have seen someone copy my
work word by word with the excuse of wanting to use it as a reference. Hah, no
shame. People with no integrity, life will get back on them. Sooner or later,
somehow or rather… But, such is life…
Magazine cover designed to
encourage women to help with the war effort during WWII, created by Norman
Rockwell.
This picture has definitely many
implied meaning hidden into it. It is the perfect example of a propaganda
picture, created by the government to manipulate the Americans’ into doing
something. From the above picture, we could observe many details explaining
what the propaganda was, and the period of time associating with it. Now
putting my Sherlock Holmes thinking cap, let us look through some of those
details.
Firstly, the
picture shows a woman who looked strong and muscular. Similar to ‘Rosie the
Riveter’ that was created by J. Howard Miller in 1942, it showed and displayed
‘girl power’. It gives out the message that we women are strong too, like men!
We are independent and able to do work that men do as well. Well, of course
these posters were created when all most men were already drafted to WWII
leaving the factories and labor left with none or very little men. Because of
this, government started to make all these posters of women looking strong and
capable of doing anything in order to persuade the women to work, since they
are really needed. But, as you can see, the picture portrayed is of course a
picture of a young white American lady. This
is because during this era, it is not that there are no women working. Like we
have learned earlier, about the workers in Triangle Shirtwaist Company, the
workers there are all women. But they were Irish Americans. So, women working
are definitely not something new, women had always been working especially
minority and lower-class women. However, the social class standard, where white
women have to stay at home (private sphere) while the men going to work (public
sphere) is still prevalent in the white middle class to upper class society. Not
just that, because of the great depression (right before WWII), women have been
kicked out of work because they are seen to have taken the jobs of men whom are
supposed to work.
Secondly, you could observe that the
women is bringing and carrying lots of stuffs altogether. You could see her
carrying milk, a wrench, a watering pot, mop and many other things. The things
that she brought displayed a work of a delivery milk man, a cleaner, a gardener
and the repairman. Not just that, as you continue to observe the women, she is
also wearing two hats on top of her head. One, looking like a nurse hat and the
other looking like a taxi driver’s hat (but I’m not quite sure about that, it
looks like those black hats that a driver in the past would usually wear). These
observations describe the propaganda campaign launched by the government to
sell the importance of war effort and to lure women into working. It shows
that, not only we are strong, but we are capable to work as anything. It shows
a picture how women are all able to be the character of ‘wonder woman’. The way
I look at this picture, is ‘no matter what job you get, you are capable of
working. If you are not employed in a particular job, or was kicked out you
have still other jobs waiting for you’. It’s somehow an irony, that despite how
women are needed in this period, companies were still putting this double
standard between women and men. There are companies that are still unwilling to
employ women, even in a desperate situation. So, looking at this, I believe
that the message this poster is saying that despite you not getting work, never
give up because there is so many other works that you can find, because women
can do anything!
Thirdly, you
could see that this woman is wearing the American flag ‘the star and stripes’.
This obviously shows that the woman is patriotic. So the message behind this is
telling that if you are working, you are also serving your country. Similar to
the fourth observation that is made which is you could see that the woman’s
face is frowning while she was looking ahead and her position of how she’s walking
looks like she was charging and going into war (looks like as though she was
going to beat up a person, with her sleeves folded up and all that). This
picture convinced the women during that era that it is their responsibility as
Americans to join the workforce and serve for the country. It’s like while the
men go to war and fight for the country, the women also had a call of duty to
maintain economic stability in the US by labor work. It is like being part of
the WWII for the government. According to the Encyclopedia of American Economic History, "Rosie the Riveter" inspired a social movement that increased the number of working American women to 20 million by 1944, a 57% increase from 1940 (Wikipedia). It is also stated that pictures like this (despite this picture not being Rosie the Riveter) is what keeps the women going despite the harsh conditions that they have to face through). It is stated that pictures like this that convinced them that they had a patriotic duty to enter the workforce and stay there.
Now comes to the tough part,
analyzing the picture as a big picture. This picture definitely describes the
“turning point” in American history. But before explaining on about how this
picture would describe a turning point in American history, we shall go back
further into time to describe a larger picture of this ‘turning point’. Women
and American History has contributed a large piece in American history
textbooks. The evolution of women’s role can be seen through this picture, as we
describe it in a big picture.
The starting of the evolution of
women would of course start with Jane Addam’s and her ‘Civic Maternalism’. She
was the start of the ‘rebellion’ of women having to be in the private sphere.
She crossed the borders and became a mother to her society. Hence being it both
public sphere and the private sphere. This is the starting point where women
slowly start to evolve, hence starting the movement towards women equality.
Women have now started to work outside of the private sphere, especially for
minorities and low-class women. Then comes women suffrage, of course the right
to vote does not have anything to do with the picture, but just an example of
showing the flow of how women equality and women rights started to evolve,
women suffrage must be in the picture. WWI provided a full push of women’s
right to vote. After President Woodrow Wilson claimed that America was a
democratic country, the women of America was on arms saying that how can
America be a democratic country when women was not allowed to vote? On the year
1919, the Congress passed the nineteenth amendment giving women the right to
vote.
Now, coming back to the magazine
cover above, how can this picture describe a turning point in American history?
This picture, that had brought women to come to work, has changed the
standpoint of women where women has to stay at home while men had to go out and
do work. Because even after World War II women kept working, they have started
to enjoy the job. While patriotism did influence women, ultimately it was the
economic incentives that convinced them to work. Once at work, they discovered
the nonmaterial benefits of working like learning new skills, contributing to
the public good, and proving themselves in jobs once thought of as only men’s
work.
So the real reason that attracted
women to work is because of the experience and the money gained. Therefore,
although the war ended, many women stayed working because they have already
experienced the working world which they enjoy! Well who would not like
receiving a paycheck? But, as usual of course they would return working in even
worse conditions now that men have returned to their jobs. Now, there are other
job opportunities for women, where they work in pink collared areas such as
being a nurse or a teacher (a job where women are entitled to). So, this
picture has explained how it has been a turning point for women where now even
middle-class white Americans and social class white Americans go to work, like
what you can see now in the modern world.
The second bit of putting this
picture in a bigger picture of American history would be me explaining about
how it will serve as an illustration of some larger theme or truth about
American culture, American people and American history. This picture was pure
propaganda of the government, in actually asking the women to fill up the empty
spots where men used to work. It was actually for the government’s benefit.
This technique of propaganda advertising is of course commonly used throughout
history. Mass media has always played a big role in advertising this propaganda
message from the government, in which most of the citizens in America would be
fooled. Like usually what they do when they want to convince the people of
America into accepting America to go to war, they would carry out this
propaganda messages of course to influence us.
For example, the false stories of
making the enemy look evil, and how dangerous the enemy could be (by
manipulating the story) and looked as though the enemy has attacked us. Or, by
saying we are out there to rescue some country from evil, because who would not
help them if we do not help them? The most recent example that I could think of
would be the propaganda of the Iraq War. While the government of America tells
us Americans that we are there to help the Iraqis from the evil regime of Saddam
Hussein, the true agenda is because Iraq is a huge source of oil, and being
able to conquer Iraq means being able to conquer oil. Coming back to an example
of the past, this is exactly like how the government puts up propaganda posters
showing cartoons portraying that Japan is evil, and how they rape women, etc.
so that the Americans would give permission for America go to war. Not only is
that, propaganda posters also used during ballots since McKinley’s days up till
now! Government propaganda posters are no longer a surprise and it’s rather
common, well it’s basically done all over the world in every country I believe!
And we as the people in the country are usually fooled by this, unfortunately.
This
women portrayed in the cover of this magazine definitely plays a big role in
World War II. It is not only important in World War II, but characters like
this are definitely a reason for a turning point for women, and in American
history! I definitely had learned a lot just by analyzing this one picture.
This is a Republican poster from when
William McKinley was running for reelection in 1900 with Theodore Roosevelt as
his vice-president.
Interpreting this picture was rather
mind boggling. I had a hard time understanding the poster to tell you the
truth. I finally came into understanding the poster, and hopefully what I
understand is correct. This poster is an election campaign poster used by the
republicans running for presidential elections year 1900. McKinley came back as
a candidate for reelection as president in the year 1900 along with Theodore
Roosevelt as vice president representing the republicans. As you can observe in the poster, it
showed McKinley’s and Theodore Roosevelt’s achievements as president and vice
president throughout 1896 to 1900 and how much America has improved for the
better. Well, anything that has to do with election posters definitely has a
propaganda hidden into it, of course all the good are portrayed and all the
flaws are hidden away. This was a strategic way to buy the people’s vote, well
the line ‘the administrations promises have been kept’ really made an impact to
the comparison made from the year 1896 (before McKinley’s presidency) to the
year 1900s. Even I was compelled by the poster!
We could see that the first point
made is the picture of ‘gone democratic’ made comparison with the picture of
‘gone republic’. Before McKinley, President Grover Cleveland was a democrat,
hence had represented the Democratic Party. In this photo, it shows that under
the Democratic Party the United States has been unindustrialized. As you can
see in the left photo, and compare it to the right photo, the one showing gone
republican shows a more developed country. Where the factory chimneys are
showing the production of smoke (representing that the factory is on the go)
and you could see the farmers mowing and train passing through as well as many
ships moving. While comparing to the gone democratic picture, it shows that the
factory was not working (there is a sign at the door of the building, which I
believe tells us that it is closed) and there is no smoke produced by the
chimneys. You could also see that the picture shows somewhat of a deserted
city, where ships are broken and rubbish can be seen everywhere. It just shows
to us that with the change of America being under the Republican Party, we are
being more industrialized and moving towards modernization. At least, this is
what is interpreted and wanted to be portrayed according to the Republicans.
This also somehow showed that if
people were to choose the democrats back than during the presidential election
of 1896 (whom the presidential candidate for the democrat was William Jennings
Bryan) things would only get worst. Is some kind of an irony I guess for me,
because what William Jennings Bryan had campaigned during 1896 that seems to me
was attractive, back then, would have looked like a terrible decision right now
that you have seen the republicans ‘achievements’. With William Jennings Bryan
of changing money into silver, imagine if that were to happen, wouldn’t
America’s economy be worst off? And wouldn’t what the scenario described for
gone democratic be true? Well, this point I guess was a big plus for William
McKinley now to use for his reelection.
The second picture being compared is
the picture ‘A run on the bank’ and ‘A run to the bank’. As you can see in the
picture ‘A run on the bank’ you could see the picture where the bank is closed
and people are crowding to get to the bank. A run on the bank also known as
bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits
because they believe that the bank is, or might become, insolvent. This picture
explains the period of time where the Populist had the concept of coinage of
silver on a ratio of 16:1 with gold, and people like poor workers that were in
debt and also the silver miners were convinced with this idea. The populist at
that time were against the Republicans, the ‘gold bugs’ and William McKinley
was one of the big people who were against this idea. Not to mention banks,
middle class people who saved, stock brokers, etc. In the movie the Wizard of
Oz these ‘gold bugs’ was portrayed by the wicked witch of the east, and how
Dorothy and her friends killed the witch was by ‘liquefying’ her. So in this
picture, it tells us that before McKinley became president, people are afraid
of the banks being liquefied, that is the reason why people are taking away all
their money from the banks. But during the republicans reign, the picture of ‘a
run to the bank’ shows how people are now going to the bank and feeling
confident of their money and trust to the bank. People feel more safe and
secured now.
The third picture shows the
comparison before (the Spanish rule in Cuba) and after (the American rule in
Cuba). In the picture it shows that
during the years where William McKinley was president (1986-1900) the Cubans
were set free from the reconcentration camps of the ‘Evil’ Spanish. You could
see how the Cubans suffered a lot on the left side of the picture (they were
very thin and skinny and were cuffed and lived in prison) while at the right
side of the picture you could see that the Cubans were happily living outside
the brick walls, doing work and going to the market. What’s funny was in the
beginning McKinley did not even want to be involved with the outside world.
Teddy Roosevelt whom was not even vice president was the one who was very
excited to ‘save’ the Cubans. Teddy had to convince McKinley into helping the
Cubans. This is also a satire, while they saved the Cubans, and said the
Spanish was evil, soon after that when they removed the Spanish from
Philippines, they did the exact same thing to the Pilipino when the Filipinos
rebelled against them. The amount of people who died from the Philippines
reconcentration camp is double the amount of the people who died in the Cuban
‘reconcentrados’.
Now, let us see how we can bring
this poster into a bigger picture of American History. Firstly, election posters
and campaigns were not usually used back then up to the year 1896. The election
candidates were only allowed to sit at home, since it was inappropriate to do
anything. This was the polite way to run for presidency. Back then, the
candidates were just able to do these dirty tricks (and were considered
acceptable). They used to write letters to the newspapers (using newspaper
attacks) and plant stories and gossips about the other candidate. Secondly,
they would say that they were going to visit their relatives back in the
countryside, which they will use a longer route, making stops by hotels and
make private speeches. Thirdly, is the famous Front Porch Campaign. It is not
wrong to them if people go to your house and you give a speech, because it is
still considered as staying at home. Only in the year 1896 did William Jennings
Bryan evolve the system of a presidential campaign, into the modern way of a
presidential campaign which we are using in this modern era.
After this turning point,
presidential elections have been more interesting with posters seen everywhere,
flyers being handed out, and even commercials advertising the candidate seen on
TV or heard on the radio. You can see this technique used in any kind of
government elections nowadays since the turning point of the presidential
campaign. The most recent example was the 2008 presidential campaign, where
Barack Obama ran as the candidate of the 44th President of the
United States. For his campaign, he had the famous ‘HOPE’ and ‘CHANGE’ poster
where you could see his face being portrayed
on the poster with the word ‘HOPE’ or ‘CHANGE’ written at the bottom.
The poster is giving that statement,
when you elect Obama there is hope for a peaceful world, and a new change that
the Americans want. At that time, this theme was the most compelling for the
citizens of the United States. The usage of posters is not only restricted to
presidential elections, but has been used in many other government elections
such as the most recent Californian Governor election, year 2010.
Secondly, the quote “The American
Flag has not been planted on foreign soil to acquire more territory but for
humanity’s sake”. The same with the
Cubans, where the Americans came to rescue them from the torture of the Spanish
empire, was what it was for the Americans to join the Vietnam War. The Vietnam
War was part of the cold war where it was all about communism and fear. Since
the president of America signed a document saying that if any country needs
help in the stop against communism, the United States will help them without a
hint of hesitation. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way
to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider
strategy of containment. So, this quote is a famous quote basically used when
America wants to get involved with a war. For humanity’s sake, to help the
people who are in need.
To sum it all up, basically this
poster is an election poster for McKinley’s reelection and Theodore Roosevelt
being his Vice President in the year 1900. They were representing the
republican wing. This poster showed what McKinley has done throughout the years
and how he has helped America towards a more positive light. It showed a
comparison and how different America has become when he was the president. Of
course, in all political posters there is a propaganda hidden in it. But the
poster is rather eye catching. I would fall for this! With the quotations alongside
that matches the pictures like a main course and its side dish. Well, what is
represented in the picture is actually all true. But behind this entire picture
is an implied story that people might not know, but as historians might know.
Historians are like detectives; they look at every single inch of detail and
find the true answer underlying. It was fun analyzing these pictures and
playing historian, well at least as an amateur historian.
This shows the
cover of the May 1952 edition of the Police Gazette, a very
popular magazine back in the 1950s (roughly equivalent to People magazine
today).
When I looked through this picture,
the first thing that attracted me was the headlines itself. ‘The Truth about
Stalin’s A-Bomb’ was written in bold, with a picture showing the atomic bomb
explosion. This picture was displayed on the cover page of The National Police
Gazette . It seems at this time, the story or the gossip relating to the
Russians and the atomic bomb was selling like hot cakes. For the word ‘Russia’
and the ‘Atomic Bomb’ to be a hot issue at this time, means that this magazine
was definitely published during the Cold War.
During
this era, people were all terrified and scared of the possiblility of the
Russians dropping their Atomic Bomb on the United States. The quote ‘duck and
cover’ was very common among all the American citizen at this time. We were
surely aware at this time, that we were no longer at the advantageous side. In
the beginning of the cold war, the cold war may be leaning more to the side of
the Americans, thanks to ‘Fatman’ and “Little boy’. But, as years past,
Russians have started to keep up with the advancement of American technologies
including inventing their very own set of Atomic Bomb.
By
this time, Americans feel no longer as powerful as they used to be. Now, they
are equally matched and the tension was rising. But both well know that they
both would not want to even use their Atomic Bomb on each other, both sides
hated each other but neither wanted a hot war. That is te reason why they
contnued to have a Cold War between each other. A definition of a Cold war would
be a war without fire, another word for it is Proxy War which means fighting
each other witout exactly going to war with them.
The
Americans and the Russians had been in a cold war for the following
reasons, firstly the tension between
Communism [russians] & Capitalism [americans] (their ideology on industrialization
was clashing with each other. Both wanted to prove that their ideology was
better, and wants to spread their ideology to as many countries as possible. At
this time, we could see that the United States were pure rivals with the
Russians in terms of their own preference of industrialization ideologies.
Secondly,
due to the hatred the Russians have towards the Americans since World War I,
where we helped the Czar of Russia to go to war against Germany (which was against
what the society of Russia wanted). The rebellion against the Czar had caused a
really tragic day which I think had an impact to all Russians, the day known as
‘Bloody Sunday’ (U2 had a song written all about it!).
Lastly,
the series of invasions during WWII to avoid Russia from spreading itself to
invade Germany (the invasion of Italy and France). After the series of
invasions, comes the American attack (bombing of Dresen and Japan). The motive
of the bombing was to scare Russia, claiming to them that ‘we Americans are
powerful, so don’t you dare do anything that can harm us, because we have the
technology that can destroy you’.
Since
the start of cold war, and especially after the advancement of Russia with them
catching up with Atomic bombs, the Americans have lived their daily lifes with
full of suspicions and cautions. This picture and the headline just explains of
how paranoid the Americans were towards Stalin, Russians and the Atomic Bomb
coming right after them. Who wouldn’t be! I bet the Russians were living off
with the same fear as well.
The
second thing that cought my eye in this picture was the catchline at the top
right corner. ‘HITLER IS ALIVE! Secret Report of his Latest Activities’. I find
this catchline pretty amusing! Businesses go to that extend to attract buyers
to buy their product, in this case the magazine. This brings us to the topic
‘The Rise of Consumer Culture in the 1950s’.
After
World War II in the 1950s, the economy has changed. Everybody could afford
products or needs. So instead of advertising for people’s needs, businesses
starts to advertise in a different light in order to attract buyers. The
advertising stratergies for the products sold is no longer like before,
businesses tried out so many other different stratergies. The best example
would be the Cadillac advertisment we look through in class. Companies do not
advertise the car in the sense of attracting people through their needs. People
don’t buy a Cadillac because it’s a very practical object that could help one’s
life! People buy THE Cadillac because it’s a symbol of luxury! The car
literally screams I’M RICH! Now, even an average joe could be living life like
the rich and famous thanks to the Cadillac.
As
we can see in the tabloid, the catchline was a clear example of how after WWII
due to the rise of the economy, advertistments have evolved to suit the current
situation, where attracting the buyers with ‘hot gossip’ or ‘weird and
interesting’ headlines/subheadlines is a must in tabloid promotion.
Thirdly
what attracted me was the picture of the actress, Lucille Ball who acted in a
famous American Sitcom ‘I Love Lucy’. Seems to me by this age, the television
was available to public and looks like it is the era where many seem to have
own a television set at home. Why do I say so? Well, why would you write a
story on a tabloid if you don’t expect the story to be the reason why people
want to buy the tabloid.
‘The boob tube’ was invented by an American
named Philo T. Farnsworth, far back in the year 1905. At first this great
invention was not famous because people were not interested in it. Only in the
year 1920 did this invention became recognized. Unfortunately WWI, the great
depression and WWII came in the way and people became uninterested again. Only
after WWII did the TV took off, and amazingly almost overnight after WWII
ended, practically everybody wanted to own one. It took 40 years for the TV to
catch on, but unfortunately by that time Philo was dead.
Since
the phenomenon of the television started, TV has played a key role in shaping
American culture. There are 4 ways of how television shaped American culture
and that is TV creates a shared national culture (the sharing of events), TV
creates ‘shared punchline,catch phrase, etc’, TV shapes the economy and TV
played a big role in politics.
The
picture of the actors in ‘I Love Lucy’ in this tabloid have showed to us how
famous the sitcom was, hence telling us that almost everyone in America owns a
television, watches the same TV show and hence proved to us that TV really has
played a key role in shaping American culture. In fact, this phenomenon can
still be seen now and I believe it will very much continue in the future.
Lastly,
caption ‘Korea’s greatest adventure story’, confirms us even more that this
tabloid was published during the era of the cold war. Looks like this tabloid
was published before the Vietnam War though, since Korea seems to be the center
of our attention.
The
Korean War was a military conflict between South Korea, supported by the United
Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC),
with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the
physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the
conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II (Wikipedia). It lasted for three
years, starting from 25th June 1950 to 2th July 1953.
Now
taking the picture into a larger theme, the first thing that I thought of was
of course non other than the picture of the explosion of the atomic bomb. The
turn point of using atomic bomb as a technology used in wars go not that far
back from the cold war. The atomic bomb was first introduced by the Americans
in World War II during the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. At that time the Americans were very proud of
their weapons and technologies of mass destruction. America was very advanced
in terms of technology compared to other countries. No one could beat them when
it comes to war, they were too strong and well equipped with up-to-date
weapons. America was the only country that had the ability to develop such
powerful weapon, and was the only one that was in posession at this period.
‘Fatman’
and ‘Little boy’ were the nicknames for the two atomic bombs we posess at this
period of time. On August 6th of the year 1945, President Truman had
sent a command for Fatman to be dropped on Japan for ‘trial’. There were two
alternatives for the target planned for Fatman to be dropped, first was a
millitary base in Japan and secondly was the city of Hiroshima (the biggest
city that was not yet crushed into pieces). What determined which target to be
chosen, was the clarity of the target from the aircraft Fatman borded (the
aircraft’s name was Enola Gay). Unfortunately, the military base cannot be seen
due to the clouds, and so the second target, the city of Hiroshima was bombed.
80,000 citizens of Japan died instantly and another 40.000 died of cancer due
to the radiation.
Right
next day President Truman made a speech. There were three points to be taken
into account, these three points were directed to three different groups. The
first point was directed to the American citizens and the world explaining
about the situation. As usual, like every other time, Truman started the speech
by framing the other party as the evil one. He said that ‘they did it first’,
what happened in Pearl Harbour, and so they were just countering back what
Japan had did to us.
The
second point was directed to the Russians, to scare them (this was partly the
reason that brought America and Russia into the cold war, and the reason for
the Russians to start developing an nuclear bomb). Truman stated his second
point that the American’s are powerful, with the sustenance of American
scientists inventing more and more hi-tech military gizmos. Lastly, his third
and very last point was directed to the Japanese. He threatened them that if
the Japanese fought back, they will destroy the hack out of them.
But,
2 days after Truman gave his speech, even without any counterattack from the
Japanese, President Truman sent out the instruction to drop the second bomb
(Little Boy) on Japan. This time, the two alternatives for the target planned for Little Boy to be
dropped, first was a millitary base in Japan and secondly was the city of
Nagasaki (the second biggest city that was not yet crushed into pieces).
Ironically, similar as last time, the clouds were ‘blocking’ the military base
and they had no choice but to bomb the city of Nagasaki, bringing to death of
60,000 citizens.
President
Truman’s decission was a big risk, since if Japan was not fooled, they could
have counterattack the United States, this time without the United States
having any atomic bomb left. The motive for his decission was to backup his
points and to use the bomb as a stratergy to end WWII (to stop the Japanese
army from harming us anymore). Thankfully, Truman’s plan worked and the
Japanese empire surrendered which led to VJ day and the end of WWII.
From
this story, we are able to see that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagazaki had
been the starting point of using Atoming bombs in war. Now, I believe almost
all the major countries secretly have at least one atomic bomb just in case of
another war outbreak. Well, if you don’t possess one, you are definitely at
great risk!
The
second point for taking the picture into a larger theme would be from the
picture of Jimmy Carter. ‘Jimmy Carter boxing’s mystery champion’ was written
under his picture. In my point of view, after seeing this picture, I think that
Racism was not was much felt in the world of sport even from back in the days.
I feel that Jimmy Carter, even being a black american, was accepted by the american
society as a champion.
The
acceptance of champions from other colors in the world of sports in America can
be seen from than even up to now! In fact there are lots and lots of very well
known black american sportsmen, and they are all seen as idols for the
americans doesn’t matter what race you are! There’s Tiger Woods, Michael
Jordan, Shaquille O’Neil and many more, in fact (like what Professor Bates have
stated), almost all of the touchdowns made in American football are done by
African Americans! So, it’s no surprise to see African Americans to be accepted
in the world of sports without any descrimination compared to any other region
of interest, thanks to the outstanding performance of their sportsmenship.
As
a conclusion this picture is a front page from a tabloid called ‘The Police
Gazette’, published during the Cold War era. I believe it is published around
1951-1953 because the Korean war was around this perios (1950-1953) and I Love
Lucy started to be played on air in the year 1951. At this era also, the
different approach of advertisment is applied. From this picture also, we could
relate to the acceptance of other colors in the world of sports from back then
to the present days, and also how war has changed this days, from just ordinary
weapons that kill only soldiers to deadly atomic bombs that kill citizens of
the country be it soldier or not.
This shows an
anti-integration rally at a Southern high school in 1959.
This
picture shows an anti-integration rally at a Southern High School in 1959.
Despite the Supreme Court decission where they said segregation of education is
not allowed (Brown Vs. Board of Education), the White Southerners still did not
accept racial mixing and was going against the decission of the Supreme Court.
This picture tells us how much the White Southerners was unhappy with what the
Supreme Court decided.
The first point to be
discussed after observing the picture in detail, is the clothes they are
wearing. You could see all white men and women, young and old wearing decent
and handsome/pretty looking clothes. Clothes in which of the earlier era before
WWII could only be afforded by rich aristocrats.
This tells us exactly
that at this time, doesn’t matter if you’re not loaded, you could still afford
a nice looking outfit. Therefore, it has to be during the era after WWII where
people splurge on everything they can, where the economy was doing well again
and thus the era of the rise of capitalist culture.
Unlike what happened
after WWI where America was facing economic depression, when WWII ended,
America faced a total opposite phenomenon. Surprisingly, instead of another
great depression, America was facing the postwar economic boom also known as
the golden age of capitalism.
Because of what happened
in the past (the great depression), the Americans thought that they should
spend more money after war, as much as possible while they can. This is what
had caused the economy to prosper. Not only that, since in WWII the women
started tasting what it’s like to own their own money, the women whom have
worked during WWII have kept all their savings and started to spend up their
money after the war has ended. I guess, this is when the whole’women and
shopping’ era started. Women up till now, I believe has been a great support to
the economy.
To top this up, after
WWII the American poplulation started rising. This phenomenon is well known as
the ‘baby boom’. These babies are known to be the welthiest generation of
babies abd has been a key target for advertising. Now, many businesses use kids
for their marketing stratergy, and much to my surprise, businesses make more
money from kids rather than women!
The second point to be
discussed is the sign board being held by the people in the rally or also known
as the reformist. You could see the two signboard written ‘race mixing is
communism’ and ‘Race mixing; the march of antichrist’. Both of which are
stating how race mixing is such an evil act.
The rally was against
race mixing, and thus the poster being brought by the ralliers prove to us that
the white people doesn’t matter young or old was really against race mixing.
Bringing posters of such was to convince the nation how evil race mixing is.
Being compared to communism, the fear of the nation at that time can definitely
convince ignorant people in that era. Not only that, being copared to the
antichrist is even worst!
The term or title
antichrist, in Christian theology, is a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies
concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner.
The antichrist will seemingly provide for the needs of the people but deny the ultimate
salvation (wikipedia). The antichrist, is also similar to what Muslim believe
to be the ‘Dajjal’ and the Dajjal in our religion is evil, beyond evil. Evern
worse than commuinsm. Hence, if what I understand is correct, the christians
also believe that the antichrist is evil.
So for race mixing to be
compared with something even more evil than communism, it scares me of! But of
course, that was the stratergy. That was the plan. The white americans was
trying to convince othe white americans and the government to stop racial
mixing and that is what they were trying to prove. Just like what you see now,
this technique has been used over and over again. The most recent example are the
republicans whom are trying to bring down Obama. One of the tactics is by
claiming that Obama is supporting the terrorist, which sadly was because Obama
is supporting the muslims.
Thirdly, as you look even
more closely at the picture, we could see a man on the second floor of the
building looking over the rally. Although this might not have been he presiden,
bu I’d like to relate it to what the president was doing at that time. As you
can see, the man is overlooking the whole situation from a far, but he’s not
doing anything about it. He was just a spectator of a very interesting crowd.
The president at this time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was the thirty
fourth president of the United States and served as president from January 20,
1953 to January 20th 1961 was similar to this situation at first.
President Eisenhower was
just observing like a spectator throughout his years serving as president in
regards of the Civil Rights Movement. He was afraid to take any action against
any act of fighting against racial mixing or fighting for racial mixing. This
is because, he was afraid that if he took part, he will loose his votes from
being president (or perhaps from being reelected as president). Why would he
loose votes? Because in the beginning not much whites were actually into racial
mixing either. They were all probably against it. So to be supporting this will
bring a big impact on Eisenhower’s reputation and vote. Only until John F.
Kennedy became president was there action for the civil rights movement,
although not much. After Kennedy was assassinated President Lyndon Johnson who
took responsibilty as president did the Civil Rights Act was passed.
The last point we are able
to observe is the three men holding the Old Glory in this rally. This shows the
importance of the American flag representing the people of America. Like every
other countries, the flag represents the country. Bringing the American flag,
in my point of view is trying to convey that the people of America is against
race mixing and they are representing the voices of other white Americans.
The irony of this theory
though would be that, despite the White not liking the Black Americans or races
other then white americans, Black Americans are also Americans. So how can this
rally be representing the voices of Americans?
Relating this picture to
the larger theme, the first most evident point when you see a rally would be
the March of the Bonus Expeditionary Army. Why would I say that? Well that
comes to my head first. Rallies are a very famous way in expressing your
dissatisfaction against something, especially your dissatisfaction towards the
government. Unlike this Rally where it is taken place in front of a school, the
Bonus Expedition Army march took place in fron of the whitehouse. Let me take
back to what happened during the Bonus Expedition Army march.
The Bonus Expeditionary
army took place during the Great Depression after WWI. The March was led by
Walters W. Waters and participated by army veterans of WWI. The reason for this
march was because these veterans were told that their Chaques will be given 25
years after WWI was over. Of course the veterans became mad, and especially
because of the Great Depression they are more in need for their money.
While Hoover tried to
send away the Bonus Expeditionary army with an army and failed, FDR succeeded
in sending away the Bonus Expeditionary Army by sending his wife with donuts
and coffee. That is why FDR is a good president, and we are not. He was able to
think of the most absurd idea, but actually worked. Just like FDR, JFK was able
to send back the white southerners from rallying by threatening the, that they
should STOP or else the funding for the government will not be given.
When talking about
anti-integration, the talk about racism comes to my mind. When talking about
racism, what comes in my head first would be non other but the Ku Klux Klan,
also abbreviated as the KKK. So, the second point to bringing the picture to a
larger theme would be the KKK. The KKK is a three distinct past and present
far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist
reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and
anti-immigration, historically expressed through terrorism.
When relating to this
picture, isn’t what the people are rallying for what the KKK would have supported
to do? In my point of view, if we could relate this white southerners to, just
like how these white southerners relate race mixing as communism and
antichrist, we could relate them as the Ku Klux Klan.
The Ku Klux Klan was well
known to practice lynching as a way to torture black Americans. Klan members
adopted masks and robes that hid their identities and added to the drama of
their night rides, their chosen time for attacks. They torture the black
Americans with pride, as it is an honor to have cought a black american and to
have sfuffocated them.
Of course these people
are not that extreme to have lynch the black americans like what the KKK did.
But the idea of being white extremist is definitely similar of to what brought
the members of the KKK together. It looks like to me the fight against racism
was a long one. It has been there since 1877 and it has continues to be fought
against till 1964. As a matter of fact, despite de jury racism has been
abolished after the Civil Rights act have been signed in 1964, the fight for de
facto racism is still occuring in this current era.
To sum it all up, this
picture, the picture of an anti-integration rally in the year 1959 shows that
the White Americans were strongly against race mixing. This rally happened
after the decission of the Supreme Court for the case of Brown VS the Board of Education. At this time of the era,
we could see that the people were quite well off thanks to the economy
expansion after WWII. Despite all this racism was still running strong, and
hence the Civil Rights Movement wants to put and end to it.
From the picture above we
have learned that performing a rally had been and still is a way of
demonstrating unhappiness against something, and is especially used when the
society is unhappy against the government. We have also learned that, the
people participating the anti-integration rally could definitely be compared to
and connected to the first wave of the Ku Klux Klan.
