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. <—- You might see these little dots on all my pages at the beginning of my narratives. They are periods. After adding my last 2 pages, for some reason the orientation of the page was slightly messed up. I tried correcting it but couldn’t figure out how.

Since the words of my narrative cover up the links for the pages on the bottom row, I added the periods to add space between the bottom row of pages and the begging of my narratives. I hope this is not a probablem. I tried using the HTML coding for paragraph breaks -< p >- but it dd not work either.

Sorry.

Takaki: Chapter 12 summary

Takaki – Chapter 12 summary

“Come! Come! Come over it is good here,” where words written countless times from Mexicans who had crossed the border who were spreading the word of opportunity to those back home. (312)

In Chapter 12, Takaki takes on the Mexicans once again, this time post-Mexican Revolution and post-treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. As he puts it, the Mexicans “great migration to El Norte after 1900 was an extension of population movement already under way within Mexico.” (312) This was because of the aftermath of so many treaties and civil war within Mexico’s own borders. (313) Countless people perished, suffered political persecution and violence, and lost their homes, their possessions, their financial well-being, and their hopes. Many people fled Mexico after the Mexican revolution causing a huge wave of immigration into the United States.

“Pushed from Mexico by poverty and the horror of war, migrants were pulled to El Norte. Essentially they were searching for work and following wages.” Many crossed the border to forge a new future for themselves in the United States and at first all seemed good.

“During the early twentieth century, Mexicans were encouraged to cross the border because their labor was needed.” (317) Mexicans were already accustomed to poor wages and appalling living conditions so when they found jobs here that would pay slightly better they were overjoyed. Work at the time was also easy to come by. With the expansion of the railroad in the U.S., Mexicans went to work. “Chicanos were… heavily employed by the railroad companies.” (320) Although they work for low wages, they were willing and they worked hard. Takaki explains, “Actually, many Chicanos found they had no choice but to work on the railroads.” (320) They were forced because it was a tough job, a job no one wanted to do, and so the whites exploited their willingness to work and sent them to the “traque”. “Most Chicanos, however, worked in agriculture.” (320)

Chicanos had emerged as the single most important source of agricultural labor in California, replacing the Chinese and Japanese, who had worked the fields at the turn of the century. “Immigration laws such as the 1908 gentleman’s Agreement and the 1924 Immigration Act excluded Asian labor” giving rise to the Chicano people. (320)

But like all things, what goes up must come down, and it did- hard. “Chicanos were confined to the routine and backbreaking jobs…” (323) Working “conditions…were squalid and degrading” and so “feeling they were entitled to dignity as better working conditions and higher wages, Chicanos actively participated in labor struggles.” (324-5) The economy of so many states was being built on their backs and they were just asking for a little in return but this did not sit well with the whites. They continued to persecute the Chicano community with menial working conditions and low wages compared to their white counterparts. Mexicans were increasingly being divided in their workplace. They were being exploited once again and whites were taking up all the high paying jobs just because of their skin color.

Outside of the job site, “Mexicans found themselves excluded socially, kept at a distance from Anglo society… They were isolated by the borders of racial segregation. Their world was one of Anglo over Mexican.” (326)

Anglo’s, feeling the pressure of the entering Mexican migrants, established immigration quotas to lower their entrance into the States. “The demand for Mexican exclusion resonated among Anglo workers. Viewing Chicanos as a competitive labor force, they clamored for the closing of the border.” (331) When this did little to stop the immigration, they attacked the future generation of Chicanos the only way they could- through their schools. “In the segregated schools, Mexican children were trained to become obedient workers. Like the sugar planters in Hawaii who wanted to keep the American-born generation of Japanese on the plantations, Anglo farmers in Texas wanted the schools to help produce the labor force.” (327) Anglos figured that if these people were going to stay in their country, they must do all in their power to make sure they stay blue-collar workers for life. So in “serving the interests of growers, Anglo educators prepared Mexican children to take the place of their parents.” (327)

As more and more Mexicans crossed over, as Chicano parents started resisting the indoctrination of their children to become slaves to the Anglos, as the “Mexicans migrated to El Norte and began attending American schools, they were increasingly viewed as threatening to Anglo racial and cultural homogeneity.” (329) The Anglos did not want them in their communities. The Chicano children could no longer attend white schools and with the fear of mixed blood within the communities, “Mexican immigration seemed to threaten not only the genetic makeup of Anglo America but also its cultural identity.” (330) Whites wanted them out.

But with so many Mexican immigrants and American born Chicanos, Latino neighborhoods were sprouting throughout the cities and states. Since they were first established, barrios, like other immigrant ghettoes, gave their residents a semblance of their motherland, “indeed, over the years, Chicanos had been creating a Mexican-American world in the barrios of El Norte.” (335) Chicanos, instead of acculturating themselves with a community that hated them, were reclaiming their heritage and taking back the “ Mexican community and culture” they had left behind. (335) They created a little piece of home in the barrio; they were able to be a community again. “ In the barrio, people helped each other, for survival depended on solidarity and mutual assistance.” (336) And Chicanos needed this mutual assistance because outside their barrios although the were not black, red, yellow, they were men of color and that only meant one thing- life was going to be hard and the Anglos were only going to make it harder

Takaki: Chapter 9 summary

Takaki – Chapter 9 summary

In Chapter 4, “Towards the Stony Mountains”, Takaki established the fact that “instituted by President Thomas Jefferson, the land-allotment program became the principal strategy for taking territory away from the Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctows.” (88) Acts and treaty’s were being created every which way to take land away from the Natives. “The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek provided that the Choctows cede all of their 10,423,130 acres to the federal government and migrate to lands west of the Mississippi River.” (90) These three groups were not the only ones being raped of their rights’ the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapado, Kiowa, Sioux, and Pawnee all took their turn with the long, hard arm of the law. These treaties and “the land allotment program unleashed white expansion: speculators, farmers, and planters proceeded to take Indian lands ‘legally,’ while absolving themselves from responsibility for Indian removal.” (91)

Starting chapter 9, Takaki starts with the sad and tragic story of the massacre at Wounded Knee. A group of Indians, specifically the Sioux, began a form of spirit dancing known as ghost dancing. It was a religious ceremony thought to bring back their dead relatives with the hope that they will come back and all white people will perish. Wovoka, an Indian prophet, had a vision, asking him to take the message to all Indian tribes that performing the Ghost Dance would bring back the earth, the buffalo, and their dead family would live again “Wovoka’s vision of a world without whites spread like prairie fire through the Indian country. Ghost dancing became the rage, seizing Indian imagination and mobilizing frustrations.” (229)

The government, out of fear, “quickly identified the Ghost Dance ‘fronteners of disturbances’ and ordered the army to arrest them.” (229) The army eventually caught up with the dancers and ordered them to hand over their weapons. A search was ordered, and some of the weapons were collected. A shot was fired within the crowd prompting the soldiers to fire. Men, woman, and children- most unarmed- were brutally killed. The aftermath of the massacre was brutal. “For Indian America, Wounded knee violently symbolized the end of the frontier.” (231)

White expansionism “was bringing an end to the frontier and the Indian way of life. For people everywhere “the ‘Indian Question’ had become urgent: what should be done to ensure the survival of the Plains Indians?” (232) Francis Amasa Walker, commissioner of Indian affairs tried vigorously to answer that question. He believed that “since industrial ‘progress’ had cut them off from their traditional means of livelihood, Indians should be given temporary support to help them make the necessary adjustment for entering civilization.” His plans called for Indian Reservations, where the “ultimate goal was the eventual assimilation of Indians.” (233) Indians would be taught the “American way” of life. They would be trained to work hard, self-improve themselves, and educate themselves. Walker hoped that these reservations would make decent “civilized” men of the Indians.

“Other white reformers had a different solution to the ‘Indian Question,’ however. Regarding themselves as ‘friends’ of the Indians, they believed that the reservations only served to segregate native peoples from white society and postpone their assimilation.” (234) Thus, from their thinking and movement the Dawes Act was created. The Acts, “hailed by the reformers as the ‘Indian Emancipation Act,’ the law reversed Walker’s strategy, seeking instead to break up the reservations and accelerate the transformation of Indians into property owners and U.S. citizens.” (234) This train of thought asserted that the destruction of Indian tribal systems and customs would convert them into civilized landowners and citizens.

As always, there were people who went against both acts and opposed Indian citizenship. Land allotment became an issue again and the tragic usurping of Indian land became a reality again. A “new Deal” was being offered. “The allotment program was suddenly halted in 1934 by the Indian reorganization Act, a policy devised by John Collier.” (238) White assimilation was destroying the Indian. “In Collier’s view, allotment was destroying the Indian communal way of life… Collier proposed the Abolition of allotment and the establishment of Indian self-government as well as the preservation of ‘Indian civilization,’ including their arts, crafts, and traditions.

Some Indians liked his ideas yet others opposed them. This “Indian Question” that was brought up after the end of the frontier was had many answers, some better than others. But in the end, they all had one thing in common and Takaki put it best, to the Indians “Collier belonged to a tradition reaching back to Jefferson and Walker: though he was articulation a philosophy of Indian autonomy, Collier seemed to be telling the [Indians] what was good for them.” The Indians would never be happy with the answer to this “Indian Question” simply because they were never asked nor given a right to speak, the white man’s answer was always, always forced upon them.

Takaki: Chapter 5 Summary

Takaki – Chapter 5

Even before starting the chapter, I tried to guess what it was to speak about. I had been successful at guessing what the other chapters were about merely by glancing at the title. This chapter was rather difficult to guess and when I finally began to read, I was surprised. After just reading chapter 3, I did not guess that Takaki would continue to talk about blacks but as I flipped through the pages, it was clear that there struggle wasn’t ending, it was just about to begin.

Chapter 5 talks about another stepping stone in the progression towards black freedom. Now that the blacks are free, what is to happen to them? As Takaki shows, nothing!

At the beginning of the chapter Takaki states that “blacks were not outside white society’s ‘borders’: rather they were within… the ‘bosom’ of the republic.” (106) The North was “‘free,’ for the northern states had abolished slavery after the American Revolution,” and although the north wasn’t saturated with blacks nor did they “threaten the racial homogeneity of white society… they were the target of virulent racism.” (107) Blacks could not escape racism anywhere they went. “Everywhere in the North, blacks experienced discrimination and segregation.” (107) And in the South, “they constituted the essential labor force in southern agriculture,” they continued to be slaves. “To many white southerners, slaves were childlike, irresponsible, lazy, affectionate, and happy. Altogether, these alleged qualities represented a type of personality,” thus a new racial slur and degradation for the black community was born “- the Sambo.” (112)

Takaki goes on to talk about the fear that arose in people because of the blacks. After Bacon’s rebellion “the turn to slavery became sharp and significant.” (65) Due to the demand for labor and a decrease in immigrants from England, African slave imports grew rapidly. After such a horrible “giddy multitude” the whites had a reason to panic, they knew that blacks wanted freedom and were willing to go about it anyway possible. “Slaves were impatient, ready to break for freedom,” and whites feared that they would use violence to get it. (120) “Aware of the bloody slave revolts in Santo Domingo…they were warned by an American official in Haiti: ‘Negroes only cease to be children when they degenerate into savages.’” Out of fear of life whites “enacted laws that denied slaves freedom of assembly and movement.” (66)

“By the end of the nineteenth century…the possibility of progress for blacks was distressingly remote. Racial borders had been reinforced by class and caste.” (138) A great cultural chasm had been created between the whites and blacks because of the ‘giddy multitude’ that Bacon started years before. Separation, in the minds of whites, was not only necessary it was there only option. For every three steps a black was able to take forward, a white always made sure to push him back two. As Takaki put it, “this era was brutally repressive.” (138)