5 short answers (about 1-2 paragraphs)
you have a choice of six
The short essays are directly taken from the red terms at the beginning of each lecture powerpoint.
They are like identifications but in addition to telling me what the term means you should write a paragraph explaining why it’s important and connect it to its historical context. For example if I ask you about Lyndon Johnson I’m not looking for his biography paraphrased from wikipedia (adamantly NO). Rather, connect him to some of the terms and themes of this course such as the Civil Rights Movement and faith in government to solve social problems, affirmative action, the Vietnam War, the transformation of the Democratic Party etc. You don’t have to cover everything of course, but again, I’m not looking for facts about LBJ’s life you read on the internet but rather his importance as a figure as we’ve discussed it in this course (in lectures, forums, documents, and the textbook).
Each short essay is worth 20 points.
2 Essays (4-6 paragraphs)
Essay 1 (You have a choice of 2) and Essay 2 (The New Jim Crow)
A good essay will include references to documents we’ve read though you are NOT expected to quote them directly like in a formal paper. So for example, if you are talking about the the backlash of the 1920s refer to Hiram Evans as well as the congressional debate over the immigration laws we covered that week.
Essays should have an introduction, at least two paragraphs, and a conclusion. You do not have to come up with your OWN thesis. Your argument is your answer the question(s) I posed.
Each long essay is worth 50 points.
DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES. It’s a plagiarism trap. Just use your documents, powerpoints, and textbook to answer the questions. This is an EXAM not a formal paper. You are not expected to do outside research. Just answer the questions as if you were in class taking a 3 hour final exam. I know this will probably take you longer than 3 hours since you are able to use your materials but it really shouldn’t take you more than 5 or 6 at the very most or you’re doing more than you should and getting too caught up in details. This is NOT a paper but should be treated like an in-class bluebook exam–the difference is you have access to the book, documents, and your notes. There is no time limit–the exam is not timed. But you do have to put aside the time to complete the exam between Monday morning and Thursday night. You will upload your final exam to Canvas as a SINGLE file (pdf or word) in the same way you uploaded your papers. Late exams will have a stiff paper penalty and you only have 24 hours of the semester after the due date to turn it in anyway so get it in by Thursday at 11:59 pm.
Short Answers: Answer FIVE of the following questions in about a robust paragraph. (20 points each)
1. The Incompatibility of the American Dream and (Takaki’s) Master Narrative: Segregated schools were not only instruments of an ideological vision, as in the Jim Crow South, but served to train “obedient laborers” in the South, West, and Southwest of the country targeted at Asian Americans, Latinos, and even Native Americans. “You people are here to dig ditches.” How does the first-generation demand for education, so inherent to the American Dream, challenge (or threaten) the Master Narrative?
2. Backlash I: The second KKK (ca. 1915-1944) presented itself as the protector of “Americanism” and was a mainstream organization that controlled municipal governments from Terra Haute, Indiana to Anaheim, California. How did it define “American” and what were some of the components of this organization BEYOND the obvious connection to white supremacy and the first KKK? What long-standing American movements or traditions were championed by the second KKK? (Hint: in my lecture I argued that there were 6 distinct movements or groups in American history that were blended together in the second KKK—you do NOT have to discuss all of them but at least two beyond white supremacy should be a minimum and I strongly suggest including examples of the Klan’s religious beliefs as well as it’s anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism).
secondkkk.jpg KKK Anti Catholicism 1920s.jpg Grand Dragon of KKK with Klapprott American Nazi 1940.jpg
Left: KKK March on Washington (1925), Center: KKK anti-Catholic cartoon (1926), Right: James Bell, Grand Dragon of the KKK, shakes hands with August Klapprott, fuehrer of the German-American Bund (i.e. American Nazis).
3. Latinx Americans in the 20th century: According to Takaki, “Anglo educators were preparing Mexican children to follow in the footsteps of their parents? (303) In what ways were Latinx Americans in general excluded from Anglo society in the 20th century and what were the long term ramifications of this? Please give at least one concrete example.
mexican repatriation image2-1.jpgbracero monument los angelescropped.jpgProp-187-Photo-02.jpg
Left to right: Mexican “Repatriation” during the Depression, a statue of a Bracero in contemporary Los Angeles (Bracero Program of the 1940s extend to the Migrant Labor Agreement in the 1950s) and Protestors of Proposition 187 in California in 1994?
4. The New Deal: The Great Depression effected every community alike and the New Deal transformed to role of the federal government to address the crisis both in the short-term and to make long-term structural changes to the American economy. And it worked–a rising tide lifts all boats as the the expression goes. By 1936 the Democratic Party was re-elected by a powerful coalition that would dominate American politics for four decades. However, in this same period a “widening gulf” as LBJ put it developed. Some have gone as far as to call the New Deal “white affirmative action.” (Katznelson) Why is this the case and what were some of the ways that the New Deal was engineered to specifically exclude black Americans from the prosperity of economic security?
lbj howard.jpg Social Security-Beneficiary-by-race.png
5. The Southern Strategy: Explain how the Southern Strategy is related to the MAJOR electoral transformation between 1964 and 1980 paying particular attention to the following election:
the Election of 1964 (Goldwater [R], LBJ [D])
the Election of 1968 (Nixon [R], Humphrey [D], Wallace [I])
the Election of 1972 (Nixon [R], McGovern [D])
How did race and dog whistle politics play a role in this? (Hint Reagan 1980 and advisor Lee Atwater). Please give at least one concrete example.
dixieland.jpg Left: Nixon campaigning for re-election Georgia in 1972 with former rival George Wallace.
6. California Dreamin’
In the last chapter of his book Takaki suggests that the state of California (and particularly the city of Los Angeles) can serve as a model for “unlearning.” What was he referring to specifically and how does that tie in to his larger argument regarding the “problem of the color line” that W.E.B. Dubois identified almost a century earlier?
los angeles segregation2.jpg
Essay 1: Choose ONE of the following essays. 4-5 paragraphs. (50 points)
1. The Civil Right’s Movement and Reconstruction
In what ways did the Civil Right’s Movement pick up where Reconstruction left off? That is, in what ways specifically did the Civil Right’s Movement address the “splendid failure” of Reconstruction? Please give examples and mention figures/documents. DO NOT JUST TELL ME WHAT THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS. Answer the question as posed.
congressional representation in congress during Reconstruction.jpg Homer Plessy.jpgfannie lou hamer 1964.jpg
Left: First black congressional representatives from the South during Reconstruction. (ca. 1872)
Center: Homer Plessy (ca. 1896)
Right: Fannie Lou Hamer at the DNC denouncing the Democratic Party of Mississippi (1964)
2. World War II
Almost every chapter in Takaki’s “From a Different Mirror” tells the story of a different ethnic group during different historical periods. However, World War II gets its own chapter and he covers multiple ethnic groups in that chapter.
Why do you think he chose to do that and what does it tell you about his larger argument about the role of World War II in American history told from a different mirror?
In what ways did the war challenge as well as reinforce the “Master Narrative?”
What changes did the war bring about and/or accelerate at home both during AND after the war?
wwII.jpg Tuskegee Airmen.jpg
navajo code talker.jpg I am an American 9066.jpg
Essay 2: “The New Jim Crow” (50 points)
Write an five paragraph essay on the argument from Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow.” Each question should be a paragraph.
1. Lay out Alexanders argument in the Introduction and Chapter 1 of “The New Jim Crow:” What are the THREE racial caste systems that have existed in the United States according to her argument?
2. How and why did the final racial caste system emerge and why is “colorblindness” so important to it?
3. Give examples of the third (and current) racial caste system. Please make sure you address “the drug war” and drug crimes here. (Beginning p. 40).
4. How does the “new Jim Crow” or third racial caste system fit in to partisan politics according to Alexander? (That is Democrats and Republicans)
5. Please reflect on how the events of the last year (2020) and beyond, particular the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police as well as the murders of Breonna Taylor in her home in Louisville in March and Ahmaud Arbery while running in his neighborhood in Georgia in February, are connected to the argument(s) Alexander made in this book?
mass incarceration4.jpgMass-Incarceration.jpgmass incarceration3.jpg mass incarceration2.jpg
