October 22

America: Black people in the 1950’s

In the 1950s, life in the U.S was still quite segregated. To further understand this conflict it is good to note the history of racial bias in America (mostly in the south). White Americans harbored a lot of hate towards black people with laws like the Jim Crow laws.

Jim Crow is a fictional character that comes from a song where people who were black were stereotyped and so they named the laws after the mockery that was represented in the song. These laws were full of things such as black people and white people not drinking from the same water fountains and black people not using the same bathrooms as white people. I also looked into the politics at the time, where whigs were racist, and republicans represented more people. After some time, the whig party collapsed and as republicans became more concerned with the business aspect and power, they completely disregarded the black people who voted for them at the start and so white Americans started to be republican, and democrats started listening to minority groups and started the movement for hispanic people and black people. This is similar to the way republicans and democrats are today.

The 1950s were when black people and their struggle were a big part of day to day American life. By 1954, the Brown v. Board of education ruled that black children and white children should learn in the same environment and that black people’s facilities were “inherently unequal”, and so Jim Crow laws were becoming a less dominant feature in the U.S. This made White Americans furious, and many started a revolt, so much so that the first black children to enter an all-white school had to be escorted to school by the army because people threw acid on them and spit on them. By 1955, Rosa Parks had been arrested for refusing to get up on the bus for a white person to sit down, and this made national headlines. People were boycotting buses and establishments that supported this, which was a base for the 1960s and the black movement then, where people and events like Martin Luther King Jr. and the Selma march for black voting rights came about. In a way, the 1950s were a small step towards more equal rights for black and white people.

  

Eilis and her opportunities:

Eilis was lucky in comparison to many other immigrants trying to get into the U.S at that time. She had everything arranged for her by a priest, and although she was Irish, which was still perceived as different, she was still white. She went into the U.S. with a fresh mindset as well, so she had not ever seen black people, and she did not fully understand why people were as racist as they were to begin with. Furthermore, she went to night classes which I can assume were full of different kinds of white people but no black people. I came to that conclusion because the first time she dealt with an African American was in Bartocci’s, and when she mentioned the “diversity” in her class she mentioned jewish people and Italians but not black people. She had a relatively easy experience compared to most immigrants because on her way there she also had someone to guide her and give her tips, and a job and a home.

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October 18

Victorian Values

The Victorian values were originally made in the late 1800’s by Queen Victoria during her reign as queen of the British empire. The Victorian values were hard work, focus on personal success, morals, and the Christian church. Religion (Christianity) was very important for them and this gave the church a lot of power over the country. Elitism was also another big aspect of this era as wealthier people were more respected overall.

 

In terms of social values, married women were expected to keep the household running by cleaning, and cooking. Unmarried women would spend their spare time socializing to find a suitable husband. If you were a poor woman without a husband then you would be forced to work in factories. Finally, the rich women would live easily lives without having to work or do anything. They would have a lot of servants however they would also receive no inheritance when someone died. On the other hand, though, the men would be expected to work longer shifts and to get money for their families.

 

All the different men and women constituted the social class system at the time. Wealthy families would always inherit fortune and wouldn’t need to work. These were called the Royal Class. Then, the upper working class would perform skilled labor while the lower working class would perform unskilled labor. These two classes were the ones most affected by the recent Industrial Revolution in the 1820’s. Finally, there were the “sunken people”, which were the homeless, sick, and unskilled people.

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October 17

The Victorian Era: ‘Double Standards and Hypocrisy’

During the Victorian Era, there were strict social codes and certain pretenses that the English public had to keep in order to maintain their social status. The Victorian Era was also known as the Two-faced era as people put on a front of nobility to be accepted and valued in society but behind the scenes, there were issues with homosexuality, brothels, and prostitution which were regarded as severe crimes during the Era. The strict social codes limited people to whom they can marry specifically in their social class and who they can form friendships and relationships with. Additionally, many famous icons felt obligated to lead a secret scandalous life behind the public’s back due to the severe punishments and the social humiliation they receive. Amongst those famous people was the author Oscar Wilde who was a phenomenal writer during the Era and lead quite a sumptuous lifestyle but behind hidden door faced many challenges specifically regarding his homosexuality. Due to the occurring scandals, Oscar Wilde lost everything he owned and suffered as he was sentenced to prison.

As lots of people led a double life during the Victorian Era which leads to high-status people sent to prison and having their career crash because of their homosexuality. Wealthy families were always expected to become some type of a role model to the other people, therefore, a lot of pressure of subjected on the wealthy as they were expected to marry from their own social status. Moreover, this concludes that the high-class people weren’t usually who they said they’d be. This all leads us to question, to what extent does being involved and considered part of the high social status actually beneficial when you are forced to live a life of secrecy and hiding, which feels like it isn’t your own? And is it really worth having a title if you are going to suffer for your personal choices? How would that affect people psychologically in the future other than living an exterior shell of a life that they don’t want to be part of?

 

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October 17

Victorian Society: Double standards/Victorian Hypocrisy

The major double standards in the victorian society is between men and woman. In the Victorian Era they associated woman with an idealized, prudish and an unrealistic perspective of woman. Women were expected to conform to the idea of ‘feminine delicacy’ which excluded exercise except for gentle walking. obliged them to wear tightly laced corsets, and often limited their education to refined ‘accomplishments’ like singing and drawing. young girls were though to be like angels, not only physically, but morally. Woman were thought to be more innocent and generous than men, and are naturally will to sacrifice.

William Gladstone, Prime Minister in the Victorian era four times in the late 19th century, believed that giving women the vote would endanger “their delicacy, their purity, their refinement, the elevation of their whole nature”. Often, young girls were not allowed even to read the newspapers, for fear of the evil effects of contact with the real world. As well, married life also had beliefs of a double standard between men and woman. All of the woman’s property would be passed automatically into her husband’s hands. At this time no married woman could owned any property at all. If a woman tried to escape from a violent husband, he could kidnap and imprison her with the support of the law. A husband could divorce his wife if she committed adultery, but the woman who wanted a divorce had to prove her husband guilty not only of adultery, but also of incest, bigamy, bestiality, cruelty or desertion.

 

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October 17

Victorian Values

The Victorians were very hardworking, had savings, used to invest and were self-reliant. Victorians found success through business and dealing with others. They were confident with themselves and showed importance to religion; mainly Christianity. They had to maintain a status by showing wealth, snobbery and show superiority over people who were non-British. The Victorians were also very materialistic as they showed wealth by buying large and beautiful houses and expensive clothing.

The Victorians had social classes such as the upper class which was for queens dukes and princesses. They didn’t have to work: inherited fortune and got the best education. The middle class was for doctors, lawyers, scientists, and very well educated people. The working class was for factory workers, farmers, and servants. Finally, The poor class which was for the jobless, homeless or people without security and opportunities.

In a household, the father goes to work and is the head of the house and gets to vote whereas the mother is expected to look after her house and family. It was shameful if she worked after marriage and couldn’t vote. Furthermore, the unmarried women mostly socialized in their spare time, the poor women worked in factories, taught in private households or into prostitution and the rich women got no inheritance.

 

 

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September 28

1950’s racism as explored in Brooklyn

In the Brooklyn, racism is one of the big themes. Toibin doesn’t use this theme for just let readers emphasize with Eilis’s immigrant experience. It is a historical fiction, the book published at 2009 but it passes at the 1950s therefore, to be able to give the taste of the 1950s, Toibin uses the themes that created conflicts at that time period. Racism is one of them and actually, it comes with the immigrant experience. In the part of the book, it clearly stated that white people don’t like black people. They think black people will come and steal their job and life. As I researched and understood, the situation was exactly like that, it was actually harsher but in a nutshell, I think Toibin is right.

I found out the situation was poor -compared to now, but the African American community also had been doing better economically, largely due to wider trends of the United States. I can’t say the same for the racism though… Racism was much more open and the sharp competition for the lucrative manufacturing jobs often led to street violence among migrant blacks and other immigrant groups. As we can understand, the situation was not so bright. Right now, if the cops are shooting unarmed people now when they know they are on camera, I can’t imagine what they were like to blacks before the dawn of phone cameras and the Internet like in the 50s.

Speaking of racism, there were two (actually more) iconic victories in the supreme court. One of them is Brown Vs. Board of Education Topeka (1954). This was an iconic and landmark court cases that reflected on the future of blacks for education. This court case declared the laws of segregating black and white schools to be unconstitutional. The second one was, Sweatt vs. Painters (1950). Hemen Marion Sweatt was declined access to school in the University of Texas. The university didn’t want any blacks or mixed to be a part of the district. In Travis County, the state court issued a school only for black students in Houston Texas.

If we look at the book, we can see Eilish is different from the other immigrants. She treated differently and in my estimation, this is because of the Father Flood. As we talked about in the class, the religion is very critical in those days. Eilis would have never gotten to America without him. He went to school thanks to him, and she has some legit immigration papers -and it is arduous to get at those days. Probably in the future, those papers will help her about job or wedding. Other immigrants might not get a proper job, but she can and she did in the book.

People changed a lot. Racism is still a major problem in the worldwide but people started to unite. I still believe we have a long way to the worldwide peace but we made some pretty big steps towards to light. Especially new education systems like IB and AP, show how to be the one for the world, not for a nation or a skin color. The news is easily around of the world now, a photograph, a video can change a person’s mindset. It affects the world both ways but we can’t ignore the positive ways.

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