Great Depression And Racism In The 1940s

What is racism? Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to categorize it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Racism has changed a lot over the last century.

The World War 2 era provided many changes in California. With the people coming off The Great Depression during the 30’s they saw California’s economic standing, social moral, and overall mentality transform completely. Not only did the country go through something as devastating as The Depression, they are now entering into the War. With the wartime, expansion came racial discrimination for minorities, especially Japanese Americans, which resulted in one of the worst cases of mass incarceration in America’s history. While America was restarting the country’s economic growth it was sending their own citizens into internment camps, an event that would affect hundreds of thousands of Japanese American citizens for decades to come.

What is segregation? Segregation is setting apart or separation of people or things from others or from the main body or group. (dictionary.com) In the 1930s African Americans did not have the right to vote. The policy of segregation meant that blacks had their own churches, schools, football teams, and even their own cemeteries. The Great Depression also took place in the 1930s. The economic crisis of the 1930s, the Great Depression, is one of the most studied periods in American history. Racism was at a high point in the 1930s.

Racism is a disturbing and brutal topic. People over look racism because they don't feel that their opinion is going to affect the community. The question often asked is “How has racism changed” and “Has racism gotten better or worse?” I am on the fence with this particular topic. Today, we have no more segregation in the United States, this means no more separate water fountains, bathrooms, schools, blacks don't have to sit at the back of busses, etc. Although, there has been more brutal acts of racially motivated acts against all races. Obviously there's still racism, it’s not just going to disappear, it’s always going to be here. It’s all about people’s opinions, it’s not like a fact that can be proven wrong. Racism has changed in many different ways since the 1930s.

Today we live in a society where it is acceptable for a white and black family to be neighbors, even close friends. This situation has not always been the case. During the 1950’s, the time that the Younger family was living in Chicago, whites and blacks were living completely separate lives and a majority of the blacks were living in poverty. Although there are significant improvements we have made, there are still things that remain the same. Many African Americans in Chicago today are still living in poverty, just like they were over 50 years ago. Two important changes have occurred during these years. Our race relations between whites and blacks have improved tremendously. Today it is completely acceptable for two different colored families to be living next door to each other. The second significant change is not as positive. The homicide rates per 100,000 people have gone up by almost 10 times the amount it was in the 50’s. Many sociologist believe that the cycle of multigenerational poverty causes violence in the mostly black communities, therefore raising the homicide rates. Even though as a city we have improved our race relations there are still problems such as the rising homicide rates and percent of people living in poverty.

The Great depression caused many problems for black people and they were greatly affected by it. Problems of the Great Depression affected every American, however, African Americans were the most affected. By 1932 half of Black Americans were out of work. In some Northern cities, blacks were fired so that a white person could take their job. But yet again, racial violence became more common, especially in the South. Even when President Roosevelt was trying to end the Great Depression there was still a conflict between the blacks and whites in the New Deal Housing and employment projects. This just goes to show that once everything has been set in motion that it can't really become a non-normal thing. Everyone was mostly worrying about themselves and their own people that they didn't bother

What is segregation? Segregation is set apart or separation of people or things from others or from the main body or group. (dictionary.com) In the 1930s African Americans did not have the right to vote. The policy of segregation meant that blacks had their own churches, schools, football teams, and even their own cemeteries. The Great Depression also took place in the 1930s. The economic crisis of the 1930s, the Great Depression, is one of the most studied periods in American history. Racism was at a high point in the 1930s.

American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon,

The book starts out addressing the problem with the New deal and Great Depression. Black Americans suffered the most because they were mostly in agriculture and would be hit the hardest. Black urban unemployment reached well over 50 percent, more than twice the rate of whites. In my own opinion that wasn’t a coincidence. In southern cities, white workers rallied around such slogan “back to the cotton fields city jobs are for white folks." The most violent times took place on southern railroads, as unionized white workers intimidated, attacked, and murdered black firemen in order to take their jobs. Throughout African Americans lost their jobs in various parts of the South. Ku Klux Klan practices were being resumed and it became more and more dangerous for Blacks to live daily lives.

The 1930’s started off with a huge economic crash which left the U.S. startled and in the Great Depression. The stock market had just crashed on October 24, 1929, also known as the Wall Street Crash. The “Jazz Age” had just ended and new musicians and artists were slowly rising up to their fame. African American’s were being discriminated against in the south. Many African Americans were farmers who had to suffer from the Great Depression as well as the Dust Bowl. As a result of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl many African Americans had to go through the struggles of losing their jobs and having to move north in search for a new life. Many Americans had this problem as well, but the racism that was used against Africans, added to the severeness of the situation. African Americans weren’t able to get jobs, homes, or opportunities as easily as African Americans. Many African Americans were in terrible condition and most of it was because of the way that African Americans were treated. After President Roosevelt was elected a new hope had arisen through the country and Africans Americans were given another chance.

Do you believe that racism has changed since the 1930's? What if there were people that told you that it hasn’t changed much because of all of the racist things going on in the world. Yes, racism changed when the Civil War has ended but whites are still treating blacks like absolute garbage. The reason that the Black Lives Matter started was because blacks are sick and tired of being treated like garbage and so they are bringing this topic up more and more with the news, media, internet, social media, etc. It’s not just black lives matter it's all lives matter no matter what race, religion, where you are from, etc. What is racism, racism is one group of people feeling like they have greater power over another group of people it doesn’t matter what that group of people did and or look like. Race is something that people can’t control, such as their hair color, skin color, where they are from, what heritage, they have, and all the other stupid things people see as a problem, for example.

African American individuals still faced inhumane discrimination and were often not looked at as people, let alone cared for or acknowledged. To anyone else, their opinions did not matter and their lives were not valued. The 1930?s was also a time in which America was being rebuilt after the detrimental effects of the Great Depression. Furthermore, there was a greater presence of African Americans in northern states, which brought about racial tension from powerful white figures who did not want African Americans in what they believed to be ?their cities?. The struggle to find jobs was present all over, and African Americans found it even more difficult to support themselves. The narrator faced all these obstacles throughout the course of this novel.

The United States was a divided nation at the time of World War II. Divided by race and racism. This Division had been much greater in the past with the institution of slavery. As the years went by the those beliefs did deteriorate slowly, but they were still present during the years of World War II. This division was lived out in two forms, legislation and social behavior. The legislation came in the form of the “Jim Crow” laws. The belief that some people were naturally superior and others inferior, scientific racism, was the accepted belief of the time These cultural traits were waning. After World War II ended they would decline even more rapidly.

Prior to the world of industrialization, many minorities, particularly African Americans (since the case study was about an African woman and man) in the United States of America worked on farms in the rural communities helping with farm work in order to produce large amounts of wheat, cotton, tobacco, foods, etc. Many adults and children were outside working long hours. When the world shifted towards a much faster pace in machinery and people, the demand was to move African Americans from rural communities to urban communities. The shift began because there was a demand of supply in the fast moving pace work environment. In addition, the demand of supplies varied from the North to the South. In the 1950s and 1960s, majority of the African Americans were fighting for equal rights, such as voting and housing rights which also played a factor on work and

The document I had to write about was a reading about racism occurring in America during World War 2. While men were fighting in the war, African American men and women were needed to work back home. Racism still was prevalent however, during the time frame the demographics in America were assumed that black men were rapists, white women pure, and black women uncleanly.