[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > As a student of the nineteenth century, I think one of the outcomes of > studying race in terms of black and white has been to oversimplify racial and > ethnic issues. In the nineteenth century, and when I was growing up in the > 50s and 60s, ethnicity was far more important than simply race. I am also a (somewhat) student of the 19th century --- and my understanding is that over the period of assimmilation of the various European immigrant groups, one of the things these groups BEGAN to learn that they had in common was their "whiteness." It's true it took a while for the white protestant "native" population to accept these non-protestant European groups as fully American --- just as it took time for the irish, Italians and other European immigrant groups to develop enough political and economic muscle to gain their "fair share" of the goodies that white America divided in the period between 1865 and 1965 --- but both trends were unmstakable even in the 19th century. One of the most dramatic was, of course, the exclusion of African Americans from the industrial sector in FAVOR of immigrants during the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- until World War I FORCED the industrialists to "try" AA workers. [see Jay Mandle _Not Slave, Not Free_ (1992, Duke U. Press) pp. 25-32 and the references]. Ethnic conflict WITHIN "white" America has certainly been significant --- and especially in the fight against unionization in various industries in various regions during the late 19th and early 20th centuries --- but the 1950s distinctions that white groups made amongst themselves was in a context of almost complete subservience of the African American -- and in fact complete absence from ANY interactions with African Americans as equals for most whites. Until I went away to college and began to travel in the US, I never realized how UNUSUAL my 1950s childhood/teenage years were in terms of actually meeting and interacting as equals (in school) with African Americans. As soon as I arrived in college (1960), I found myself in a lily white world that I didn't emerge from until I moved into an "integrated" (but mostly AA) neighborhood in 1970. I suspect that latter experience was more like the vast majority of the whites in the 1950s who saw ethnic differences as "more significant" --- Whites were > not whites, they were Italians, Irish, Catholic, Protestant, blue collar, > white collar, .... . One small example; a study of Boston in the 1830s shows > that many of the same discriminatory practices common in use against African > Americans in the twentieth century were common in use against the Irish in > the nineteenth century. For the twentieth century, I think viewing racial > issues in broad boundaries misses many of the important internal conflicts > within racial groups. For example, American born blacks do not necessarily > have the same set of cultural values as Haitians. BUt American whites treat them ALL the same. It's the same principle as that learned by non-observant Jews --- your nose and your name makes you a target of anti-semites even without the PA-YESS, the hats and the beards --- The highly superior and educated black bourgeoisie learned that, too. There are significant class differences among black America but unfortunately that PALES to almost insignificance in the face of pervasive racism in our society. Check out Ellis Cose's _The Rage of a Privileged Class_ --- or Lawrence Otis Graham's book --- he went "under cover" working as a busboy in a Country Club in Greenwich Connecticut (he was a six figures Wall St. Lawyer from Harvard Law School) --- First of all in blatant violation of the law, five of the places wouldn't even hire him just because of his skin color. While working he got a taste of the most unbelievably backward racism, bigotry, -- out and out, blatant, with no apologies and no hiding it!! It was really chilling to hear him speak. So, I beg to differ with Maggie. The prism of the color line is the key to understanding American culture --- from the 19th century through the present. The proof is that the very same people who were subjected to the most unspeakably ethnic bigotry -- the Irish, the Jews -- are now full fledged "whites" in America and part of the grand coalition against immigrants of color and Americans of color as blameworthy scapegoats for the next experiment in fascism. Roll over Mussolini and Hitler: here comes Pat Buchanan. > > maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -- Mike Meeropol Economics Department Cultures Past and Present Program Western New England College Springfield, Massachusetts "Don't blame us, we voted for George McGovern!" Unrepentent Leftist!! [EMAIL PROTECTED] [if at bitnet node: in%"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" but that's fading fast!]
