I found today's discussion about the Great Depression to be pretty interesting, especially our discussion about the parallelism between the Great Depression and the economy of today's time. A couple of students mentioned in class that people today aren't even letting their family members know about their situations (after losing everything). I wonder if this is due to the shame of being seen as failures or if it's the fact that they do not wish to burden their families. In the past, it seems that they were ashamed because they saw themselves as failures for the inability to provide for their family. It is interesting that America's initial reactions were to blame someone, anyone, for what has happened. People were quick to point their fingers; yet it seems that in the end everyone just blamed themselves for their situation. Was this because they didn't know who to blame? Or did they really believe it was their own faults for their poverty? I think it has to do with a little bit of both. Because there were so many factors that played into the Great Depression, it was hard to pinpoint one specific cause; therefore, people took the burden upon themselves and faulted their own shortcomings. I also think that it is dangerous to fall into this self-blame mindset. In order for a nation to rise out of something like an economic crisis, we must all think and work collectively to make any real changes that can improve something as huge as this.

SECOND REFLCTION POST

as far as the second month of this class has been going, i still am really enjoying it. i would like to thank everyone in my section for being so good about participating. i have been in sections before where that was not the case. i have really enjoyed getting to discuss all of these issue with you guys and the discussion has really helped me to better understand the issue. Also, i think all of the presenters have been doing a really good job, and i have left each section feeling like i had a better understanding of the material. i dont know about any of you but i am really looking forward to the last part of this course. i am a huge history buff and we are getting into my favorite part of american history WWII. i think that this section will be particularly interesting given the correlation it has with current events.
I musta admit i did struggle with early 1900's a bit as we were discussing them in class. i understood everything pretty well, just not as intuitively as some of the other material. i think that this has a lot to do with the fact that this material was less intersting to me. I must admit that if WWII is my favorite part of american history, the early part of the twentieth centrury is my least favorite, and it is often easier to learn/understand material that has an interst to you.
see you all in discussion!

Amos and Andy

I too did not find this video surprising. As a matter of fact, it is something I expected from entertainment of that time. It is very similar to the minstrel shows of that time in a sense that they both make fun of African Americans in a way that is meant for excitement and laughter. The difference between the minstrel shows and this type of cartoon is that the cartoons served the purpose of showing people in America how NOT to act. The sad part is that it is done at the expense of another group.
It is difficult to decipher whether or not African Americans actually spoke, acted, and thought the way that is portrayed in Amos and Andy (as well as other depictions). I feel that the depictions are exaggerated, but there is also some truth to them. African Americans at the time were not always able to receive good education, and many of them were just adapting to the American way of life, so it is very well possible for them to have spoken as such, and not been as intelligent. There is a problem with the way the show portrays African Americans because it goes over the top and makes it seem as if all African Americans acted in that way.
The American society went out of their way to make sure all other groups were integrated into the American way of living, but it seems as though they went out of their way to keep African Americans away from the American way of living. There were no steps take to show the group that the images shown in Amos ad Andy were not how THEY should be.

Amos and Andy

I did not find the clip very shocking, when the time period in which it was produced is taken into consideration. The film was made by white people for white people, during a time when eventhough African American's were free they did not have equal rights and were still constantly looked down upon by white Americans. I feel that the clip became so popular because the white people of this time looked for ways to justify their feeling of superiority and this clip did so through humiliation of the African American race and portraying them as being unintelligent, and rowdy. This is similar to how the White American's portrayed the Indians as being "savages" in the late 1800's. The clip exemplifies what was talked about in lecture about analyzing cartoons. The characters in the cartoon, although supposed to be African American's some what resemble clowns, which makes one think that white American's did not take African American's of this time seriously. The characters actions also give insight to how the white American viewed the African American of this time unintelligent, vulgar, and comical.

Lecture on the Great Depression

From the end of the Lange Film in lecture today, I feel that a lot of Dorthea Lange's power comes from the way that she felt when she took the pictures. In the interview segments with her assistant, it was expressed that she felt a lot of anxiety about taking these pictures and and the ideas that they were capturing. She "didn't like the erosion of Civil Rights" that these pictures represented for the Japanese internment camps and was "scared that she would not get the [Great Depression] pictures right". Lange like every other citizen was scared, was anxious, because she knew that there was very little that separated her from the subjects that she was taking pictures of. Her pictures are so powerful because of this point; they not only capture the shame and confusion of the subjects, but transmit the anxiety that Lange is feeling herself, that the rest of the country is feeling in that moment.

Discussion questions and photos for 3/5/09

1. How would you account for the popularity of Amos and Andy in the 1920s?
2. Why do you think settlement houses went out of use after WWII?
3. Why didn’t the government bother to Americanize African Americans?
4. Why do you think people felt so ashamed of their own poverty?
5. Do you see any of the same situations today as during the era of the Great Depression?
6. Why do you think Dorothea Lange kept finding herself at odds with her employer?
7. How could the formal properties of a photograph (color, line, shape, etc) contribute to its communication of “a specific point of view?”
8. What did Dixon’s photo manipulations reveal about the cultural climate he lived in? What do contemporary photo manipulation practices reveal about our culture today?

"Man working on hull of U.S. submarine at Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn."
Lt. Comdr. Charles Fenno Jacobs, August 1943.
Link: http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/images/ww2-24.jpg

Photographed in 1926 in Chicago, IL
title and author unknown
Link: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pro.corbis.com/images/VV1505.jpg%3Fsize%3D67%26uid%3D%257B669CFB9B-51D0-456D-BB6B-D88BE517448C%257D&imgrefurl=http://pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx%3FCID%3Disg%26mediauid%3D%257B669CFB9B-51D0-456D-BB6B-D88BE517448C%257D&usg=__nL_NMoLuhH3TsX5qwnML0XLgerQ=&h=480&w=335&sz=50&hl=en&start=16&tbnid=6534CMmScXeqYM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=90&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dflappers%2Bdoing%2Bthe%2Bcharleston%2B1920s%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG

Amos 'n' Andy

At first glance, this looks like a classic cartoon that may be viewed as merely a harmless comical program. Taking a closer look though, it is easy to identify the subtle hints of black stereotypes and it is easy to see the racism incorporated in the cartoon. Throughout the cartoon, the black characters act clumsy and slow. This is especially apparent in the scene with the car where the larger black character falls over himself and apparently can’t “watch everything at one time?”. This seems to paint the African Americans as being dimwitted and not capable to handling even the most basic tasks, which could be how many white Americans felt about African Americans at this time.

Also, during the boxing match, there are two instances where the black competitors are referred to as animals. The first reference is a horse and the second one seemed to be a stag. This may illustrate the underlying feeling that African Americans are unsophisticated and are even animal like in their behavior. White Americans may have this same feeling and treat African Americans as a lesser class.

sorry for the 3 repeats

Reflection #2

I was fascinated by today’s lecture about the importance of photography. Although I found the documentary a bit dry and difficult to take notes on, I found the commentary to be quite insightful. It really put the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” into perspective. Seeing those photos of the dust bowl I thought were the most interesting, since The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite novels. Steinbeck along with Lange truthfully bring out the honesty and harsh reality associated with American poverty.
I would relate Lange and her work to Annie Leibovitz. During Christmas break I saw Leibovitz’s exhibit in London, and there was a short 30 minute documentary about how she captured American culture through photographs in the 1960’s and 70’s. Her Vogue and Rolllingstones covers exemplify the simplicity and rawness of famous celebrities, just as Lange’s work brought the candidness of rural America to the forefront.
I think that many people take photographers for granted. They assume that its nothing more than a quick click of a button, deserving of little artistic praise. To the contrary, photographers like Lange are artists because their work not only captures a moment in time, but has the power to evoke change or in the words of Lange “every human action has consequences.”

Reflection #2

I was fascinated by today’s lecture about the importance of photography. Although I found the documentary a bit dry and difficult to take notes on, I found the commentary to be quite insightful. It really put the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” into perspective. Seeing those photos of the dust bowl I thought were the most interesting, since The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite novels. Steinbeck along with Lange truthfully bring out the honesty and harsh reality associated with American poverty.
I would relate Lange and her work to Annie Leibovitz. During Christmas break I saw Leibovitz’s exhibit in London, and there was a short 30 minute documentary about how she captured American culture through photographs in the 1960’s and 70’s. Her Vogue and Rolllingstones covers exemplify the simplicity and rawness of famous celebrities, just as Lange’s work brought the candidness of rural America to the forefront.
I think that many people take photographers for granted. They assume that its nothing more than a quick click of a button, deserving of little artistic praise. To the contrary, photographers like Lange are artists because their work not only captures a moment in time, but has the power to evoke change or in the words of Lange “every human action has consequences.”

Reflection #2

I was fascinated by today’s lecture about the importance of photography. Although I found the documentary a bit dry and difficult to take notes on, I found the commentary to be quite insightful. It really put the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” into perspective. Seeing those photos of the dust bowl I thought were the most interesting, since The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite novels. Steinbeck along with Lange truthfully bring out the honesty and harsh reality associated with American poverty.
I would relate Lange and her work to Annie Leibovitz. During Christmas break I saw Leibovitz’s exhibit in London, and there was a short 30 minute documentary about how she captured American culture through photographs in the 1960’s and 70’s. Her Vogue and Rolllingstones covers exemplify the simplicity and rawness of famous celebrities, just as Lange’s work brought the candidness of rural America to the forefront.
I think that many people take photographers for granted. They assume that its nothing more than a quick click of a button, deserving of little artistic praise. To the contrary, photographers like Lange are artists because their work not only captures a moment in time, but has the power to evoke change or in the words of Lange “every human action has consequences.”

Amos 'n' Andy

I believe this comic shows a transition from obvious bigotry to passive and unspoken prejudice. This skit highlights certain characteristics of the black men: offensive unruliness and primitive rowdiness. It implies a strong degree of vulgarity in the black men. However, the transition from blatant racism to passive prejudice occurs because the skit portrays these characters and their (obvious) temperaments with humor. By presenting these biases with an undertone of comedy, the authors give the audience an opportunity to laugh at the seriousness of racial tensions. As the audience accepts the humor in racial stereotypes, the subject becomes less severe. Racism presented through comedy reenforces the racial characterizations but lessens the frankness of the message. 

Amos and Andy Reflection

I absolutely agree with what everyone said. This cartoon video clip epitomizes the exaggerated stereotypes created by the white man in order to strengthen the color line. These African American men were portrayed as uneducated, animalistic and as more of a source of entertainment than human beings. I too am unsurprised by the "dumb" dialect of the characters. It exemplifies the racial hierarchy created in this country. Unfortunately, if I had only listened to this clip and did not watch it, I could have guessed the race of the characters. This thus proves the prevalence of color line. Since the clip was created in 1934 I must assume that there is a connection to the end of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. I'm assuming that white men who lost their jobs were fearful of professional competition, and therefore created such stereotypes to keep the black race out of the running for good jobs.

Amos and Andy Reflection

Although this cartoon is comical, underpinning racism towards African Americans is prevalent throughout this short clip.  A few things I noticed about the characters:  all of the characters throughout the entire cartoon are black and there are also no women.  This perhaps reflects segregationist views of the time (e.g. separate but equal, Jim Crow Laws, etc.) and enforces male hegemonic gender roles with the absence of women.  The characters speak very poorly, have exaggerated lips, and appear uneducated, which reflects racial stereotypes of this time period.  Another point to note is that the two creators of Amos and Andy were two white men, who each took on the roles of the various characters in the show.  This is very similar to minstrel shows in which white men dressed up and played African Americans.  The music is very similar to minstrel music as well (upbeat, jazzy tunes).

Another thing I noted is that there are many allusions to animals and how the characters are treated and/or act like animals.  At the wrestling match they tell Andy that they have the horseshoe of flowers that they intend to put around his neck.  Andy responds with a comment inferring that he feels like he is going to be crowned like a horse at the racetrack.  Andy's wrestling opponent is portrayed with animalistic qualities: he seems to snort like a pig and he appears to change into a moose (in Andy's imagination).   

The radio station that the show originally aired on was in Chicago.  I am curious if such a show would have been popular if it had originated in the south--- would the show appear more racist to reflect southern viewpoints? or --- would there have been more rebellion from African Amercians?  Also, since the show was type casted as a situation comedy, did that make all of the racial slurs more appropriate? (e.g.  the show was a comedy and therefore the racism in the show was supposed to be silly and harmless rather than hurtful and racist)  If the show had not been a comedy would it have seen more backlash from the general public, particularly African Americans.  Just some thoughts to think about!

Amos and Andy

At first glace this video appears to be a cartoon created simply for entertainment and amusement. However, upon further scrutiny it becomes obvious the producers had a different agenda. The depiction of the African American characters in the cartoon clearly shows the sentiment of white Americans toward minorities, especially black Americans, during the time period. The exaggerated features of the characters including their very dark skin tones, big lips, and big eyes relate to the practices of blackface and the minstrels. These are all features that white Americans used to stereotype blacks, and this cartoon only helps to enforce these views. The behavior exhibited by the characters is another way the producers mock and stereotype African Americans. Rather than behaving like people, the characters are more comparable to animals, acting aggressively and primitively. Their slow movements and dialect are also used to portray African Americans as unintelligent and ridiculous. The entire video uses these silly stereotypical black figures to further impose the racial divides of the time period. The creators most likely wanted white Americans to continue viewing black Americans as animal-like and “different” to keep the color line in tact.