ETHNIC AND MINORITY CULTURES SEMINAR TWO The rise of the multicultural society.

ETHNIC AND MINORITY ETHNIC AND MINORITY CULTURES SEMINAR TWOCULTURES SEMINAR TWO

The rise of the multicultural society

TECHNIQUES OF IDENTITY TECHNIQUES OF IDENTITY BUILDINGBUILDING

Therapeutic self-justification-destruction of stereotypes, search for identity, assigning art a political function—culture is a gun

Essentialism—glorification of Otherness, Black is Beautiful

Conation, conativity: belief in the power of the written word to will social changes into being--Declaration of Independence

TECHNIQUES OF IDENTITY TECHNIQUES OF IDENTITY BUILDINGBUILDING

Versus patterns: black artist v. white artist, White Manifest Destiny—Black Manifest Destiny

Myth-making: self justifying intellectual constructs fusing falsehood and validity

Functions of myths: explanatory, projecting, legitimizing

WASHINGTON AND THE CHERRY WASHINGTON AND THE CHERRY TREETREE

I cannot tell a lieExplanatory: Washington close to

everyday peopleLegitimizing: honesty is a model to followProjective: promoting national unity

FORMATION OF MULTICULTURAL FORMATION OF MULTICULTURAL AMERICAAMERICA

Four waves of immigration1607-1787: Colonial Period: WASP, slaves 1820-1860: Old Immigration, still WASP

dominated 1880-1924: New Immigration: Non-WASP,

Southern, South Eastern Europe

1945-present: Major source: Latin America, South East Asia

SPANISH COLONIZATIONSPANISH COLONIZATION

1492: Columbus’ landfall1519-1521: Cortez conquers the Aztecs in

present day Mexico Main goals of the colonization process:

finding gold, spreading ChristianityOther explorers: Hernan de Soto,

Francisco de Coronado

SPANISH COLONIZATIONSPANISH COLONIZATION

Army and clergy works together for colonization

Nueva Espana not as successful as English

colonizationWhy? Tansplanting feudal institutions into

the New World: encomienda, Spanish commander gave land to veteran soldiers, Indians owed forced labor to land owner—similar to European serfdom

FRENCH COLONIZATIONFRENCH COLONIZATION

1524: Giovanni da Verrazano1534: Jacques Cartier establishes MontrealNew France: Territory of Canada, Midwest,

(from Great Lakes to Gulf of Mexico)Early 17th century: Samuel de Champlain

expands Southward, clash with Iroquois

FRENCH COLONIZATIONFRENCH COLONIZATION

Main goal:. Fur trade and religious conversions

Jesuits participate in both, converting the Hurons

Jesuit Relations: Collection of Official Reports submitted to Provincials

Lack of religious tolerance, settlements are Catholic

1643: Captivity of Father Isaac Jogues, captured, tortured by Mohawk, freed by the help of Dutch

ENGLISH COLONIZATIONENGLISH COLONIZATION

1584: RoanokeCause of settlement: religious

persecution, population explosion1497: John Cabot: New FoundlandPuritans: followers of Calvin

PURITAN HERITAGEPURITAN HERITAGE

Sense of nationhoodMission conceptChosennessCommon law

THE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACTTHE CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT

First major law restricting immigration to the United States.

Enacted in response to economic fears, especially on the West Coast

Signed into law on May 6, 1882, by President Chester A. Arthur,

Effectively halted Chinese immigration for ten years and prohibited Chinese from becoming US citizens.

Geary Act of 1892, the law was extended for another ten years

SEMINAR THREE SEMINAR THREE the slave narrativethe slave narrative

Seizing the word or writing enables the slave to enter the human community

Slavery as a sign of chosennessProgress from muted object to human

being

THE SLAVE NARRATIVETHE SLAVE NARRATIVE

Part of the myth of origination of American cultureSlavery as a test for the chosen people of God “The

Almighty seizes upon superior nations and by mingled chastisement and blessing, gradually leads them to greatness” Alexander Crummell

The slave thrown into Heideggerian nothingness (Houston Baker) and natal alienation (Orlando Patterson) writes himself into being

Apart from captivity narrative the most important aspect of autobiographical literature (John Barbour)

Role of religion, race, individuality, and healing Via writing the slave establishes his identity, a quest

for being, description of the life of Africans in an alien world


Vivid description of suffering, slave as ChristConnections to sentimental literature, luxury

of sorrowBriton Hammon (describes Indian captivity)Olaudah Equiano, James Albert Gronniosaw.

Educated blackNoble AfricAn authentic description of the slavery

experience


An effort to refute and destroy stereotypical images of blacks

Exotic primitiveBrutal savageNatural slaveWretched freemanTragic mulattoAutobiographical acts: transfer from object to

literate subject (Elizabeth Bruss)Ownership, control of the slavery experience

via writing

OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1745-1797)OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1745-1797)

OLAUDAH EQUIANOOLAUDAH EQUIANO

Offspring of a wealthy African family, kidnapped into slavery during childhood

Yearning for death as an escape from suffering

”The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived at the coast, was the sea and the slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo”

”I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men, with horrible looks, red faces, and long hair”

RELIGION AS AN ESCAPERELIGION AS AN ESCAPE

Adoption of Christianity African religions and Christianity: hoodoo, woodoo THE TALKING BOOK: identified by Henry Louis Gates in

several Afro-American autobiographical works (John Marrant, Olaudah Equiano, Ottobah Cugoano)

An encounter between the non-white person, or in most cases the slave, and the liturgical texts and practices of Christianity.

The young slave witnesses the captain reading to his crew from the Bible, but later he is sorely disappointed as he puts his ears on the same pages, but the Book “does not talk” to him. Although he attributes his failure of being understood or accepted by the Book to his blackness, the actual reason for his inability to decode the text is his lack of literacy.

TALKING BOOKTALKING BOOK

OLAUDAH EQUIANOOLAUDAH EQUIANO

“I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me.”

“the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner.”

“The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.”

”O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you—Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?”

„

JAMES ALBERT GRONNIOSAWJAMES ALBERT GRONNIOSAW

JAMES ALBERT GRONNIOSAWJAMES ALBERT GRONNIOSAW

”THIS Account of the Life and spiritual Experience of JAMES ALBERT was taken from his own Mouth and committed to Paper by the elegant Pen of a young LADY”

Offspring of a royal family from the West African region of Bournou.“houses with wings to them walk upon the water”

Slavery as an escape from death:”I ran to him, and put my arms round him, and

said, ‘father save me’ […] And though he did not understand my language, yet it pleased the ALMIGHTY to influence him in my behalf.”

HARRIET WILSONHARRIET WILSON

”What does he know of the half-starved wretches toiling from dawn till dark on the plantations? of mothers shrieking for their children, torn from their arms by slave traders? of young girls dragged down into moral filth? of pools of blood around the whipping post? of hounds trained to tear human flesh? of men screwed into cotton gins to die?”

THE NARRATIVE THE NARRATIVE

THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERIC DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE (1845)

CHAPTER ONECHAPTER ONE

It is the wish of masters to keep their slaves ignorant

Not able to tell his birthdayMother: Harriet Bailey: darker complexionFather: white man, miscegenationRefuting the Hamian curseDescription of the whipping of Aunt Hester

”I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest- time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood. The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege. I was not allowed to make any enquiries of my master concerning it. He deemed all such enquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit.”

”Every year brings with it multitudes of this class of slaves. It was doubtless in consequence of a knowledge of this fact, that one great statesman of the south predicted the downfall of slavery by the inevitable laws of population. Whether this prophecy is ever fulfilled or not, it is nevertheless plain that a very different- looking class of people are springing up at the south, and are now held in slavery, from those originally brought to this country from Africa; and if their increase will do no other good, it will do away the force of the argument that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscrip- tural ; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters.”

”After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the Hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to her,

’I'll learn you how to disobey my orders !’ and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor. I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over.”

After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to i^he Hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to her, Ci Now, you d d b h, I'll learn you how to disobey my orders !" and after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor. I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out till long after the bloody transaction was over.

CHAPTER 6CHAPTER 6

The dehumanizing impact of slavery”The fatal poison of irresponsible power was

already in her hands, and gradually commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, eventually became red with rage; that voice made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon. Thus is slavery the enemy of both the slave and the slaveholder.”

”Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs, Auld, she very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own words, further, he said, " If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now/' said he, " if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave, He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy."

CHAPTER SEVENCHAPTER SEVEN

”I LIVED in Master Hugh's family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by any one else. It is due, however, to my mistress to say of her, that she did not adopt this course of treatment immediately. She at first lacked the depravity indispensible to shutting me up in mental darkness.”

”In the same book, (The Columbian Orator) I met with one of Sheridan's mighty speeches on and in behalf of Catholic emancipation. These were choice documents to me. I read them over and over again with unabated interest. They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance. The moral of AMERICAN SLAVERY, which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder. What I got from Sheridan was a bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights.”

Symbolic death: ”I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wished myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed.”

The desire to learn: ”During this time my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these, I learned mainly how to write. I then commenced and continued copying the italics in Webster's Spelling Book, until I could make them all without looking on the book.”

CHAPTER NINECHAPTER NINE

Religious sanction for cruelty: ”In August, 1832, my master attended a Methodist camp-meeting, held in the Bay-side, Talbot county, and there experienced religion. I indulged a faint hope that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves, and that if he did not do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind and humane, I was disappointed in both these respects. It neither made him to be humane to his slaves, nor to emancipate them. If it had any effect on his character, it made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways; for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion.”

CHAPTER TENCHAPTER TEN

”I lived with Mr. Covey one year. During the first six months of that year, scarce a week passed without his whipping me.”

”You are loosed from your moorings and are free, I am fast in my chains and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift winged angels, that fly round the world, I am confined in bands of iron!”

”You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.”

”This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. My long crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place and I now, resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.”

Chiasmic statements: verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed (antithesis)

Individual, personal declaration of independence

Conativity: belief in the power of the written word to change reality, willing a new world into being

SLAVE REBELLIONSSLAVE REBELLIONS

Eliminate the legend of the contented and docile slave

American slave rebellions are small as compared to that of Central and South America

1760: Jamaica, British Colonial Office reports a large scale war, 1000 slaves rebel

Guayana: Between 10-20,000 slaves revolt in 1823

SLAVE REBELLIONS IN AMERICASLAVE REBELLIONS IN AMERICA

Largest: 1811: St. John the Baptist parish in Louisiana

Famous rebellionsGabriel Prosser, (occupation: blacksmith)Denmark Vesey (free Negro)Nat Turner (overseer)Justification: appeal to the BibleMain result: strike fear in the hearts of

slaveholders

SEMINAR FOURSEMINAR FOUR

Review:What is the significance of the slave

narrative?Which slave narratives can you mention?What is the reason for the importance of the

Douglass Narrative?How does Douglass describe the slave’s life?What are the greatest difficulties the slave

encounters?Mention the most important slave rebellions

Two views on slaveryTwo views on slavery

The Negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. The women do little hard work, and are protected from the despotism of their husbands by their masters. The Negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a day....Besides they have their Sabbaths and holidays.

The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the Negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin when its labor end. He has no liberty, and not a single right.

George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All or Slaves Without Masters, 1857 What type of pro-slavery arguments can we discern?

Two views on slaveryTwo views on slavery

The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning, and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times labor till the middle of the night. They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver.... Solomon Northrup

How does this view differ from the previous one?

The caged bird syndromeThe caged bird syndrome

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom

sore,— When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s

deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings! from ”Sympathy” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Views on the black selfViews on the black self

W. E. B. DuBois: The Souls of Black Folk (1903) //an American Negro, two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body//

Langston Hughes: The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926) //We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual-dark skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If not, it does not matter//

LANGSTON HUGHES: I TOOLANGSTON HUGHES: I TOO

I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America.

Martin Luther King, I have a Martin Luther King, I have a dreamdream

Influences: Bible, Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address

Can be seen as poetry, sermon, political essayThe speech has two major parts: the horror of

racial injustice, the utopistic view of racial harmony

fervent emotional sermon, forged out of the language and spirit of democracy. King’s mastery of the spoken word, his magnetism, and his sincerity raised familiar platitudes from cliché to commandment.” Stevie Edwards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vDWWy4CMhE

Leroi Jones: Dutchman (1964)Leroi Jones: Dutchman (1964)

Clay: educated blackmanLula: white temptressThe play takes place at the New York subwayA war fought with wordsLula taunts clay to bring out the real

stereotypical Negrohttp://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VRoOAmtHsQText:

http://faculty.atu.edu/cbrucker/Engl2013/texts/Dutchman.pdf

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF NATIVE AMERICANSNATIVE AMERICANS

The Noble SavageAppears in the following works:Cadwallader Colden: History of the Five

Indian Nations (1727)The Indians of New York are described as

”poor and barbarous people, under the darkest ignorance, yet a bright and noble genius shines thro these black clouds”


Captivity Narratives written during the 17th and 18th centuries

Mary Rowlandson’s “Narrative:” referring to Indians as “merciless heathens, hellhounds, ravenous beasts,” yet during her captivity she discovers the beauty of living close to nature, develops an appreciation of Indian diet


Benjamin Franklin“Remarks on the politeness of the

savages of North America” (1783)We call them savages because they are

different-lack of punishment, repression in Indian

societies-a differing view of education,

emphasizing practicality, survival in the wilderness

-Indians are polite in conversation

COMPONENTS OF THE NOBLE COMPONENTS OF THE NOBLE SAVAGE IMAGESAVAGE IMAGE

Courage v. revengeHonor v. crueltyInnocent v. infidel, learning vices, such as

alcohol, violence

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHICANOSCHICANOS

Stereotypical imagesGreaser, promoter Jeremiah Clemens, Villa

Cather, George EmerymaleElements: ignorance, cowardice, dirt,

indolence, lazinessPancho: jovial sidekick parallel to comic

negroLatin lover: suave, romanticBandido: cowardly, violent, attacks from

behind with a knife

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHICANASCHICANAS

FemaleTricultural person in a triple-bind

oppression(European, Native American, Mexican

heritage)economic, racial, gender-based

oppressiondominant imageLa Malinche (traitor)----Virgen de

Guadalupe (pure, angelic female)

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHINESECHINESE

At first the Chinese represented the totality of Eastern culture for the West

16-17th century: wise scholar king, the Gentleman of Cathay—image created by Jesuit missionaries

19th century: opium wars—coward, inhuman, dirty, incompetent victim

British have a flourishing tea trade with the Chinese, British pay with silver, when they ran out of silver, they started to pay for the tea with opium

Heathen Chinee, land of degraded and sinister heathens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7QGaYuxbGc

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES OF CHINESECHINESE

Popular culture: Fu Man Chu: descendant of Heathen Chinee, sinister,

threatening, and violent https://archive.org/details/CastleOfFuManchu-Trailer

Emperor Ming, Charlie Chan: ridiculous, pompous, ”a good Chinaman trying to

be a second rate westerner” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7QGaYuxbGc

Pearl Buck, The Good Earth description of Wang Lung the Chinese peasant: conical hat, black pajamas, main features: superstitious, ignorant

1979: American newspaper described Deng Xiao Ping, ”he is a compelling and exotic little man in his charcoal Mao

suit with white socks and an enigmatic smile”

IMAGES OF ASIAN WOMENIMAGES OF ASIAN WOMEN

Suzy Wong: passive, charmingly innocent, sexually accommodating, similar to Geisha image http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnepiAcqb_g

Ahmah: equivalent of the Mammy

POSITIVE IMAGESPOSITIVE IMAGES

Basis: Enlightenment’s admiration of the East- Wisdom of the East syndrome

Today: Zen Buddhism, Hare Krishna, Book of Lao Ze, Shiatsu, acupuncture, Ji Ching, Kung Fu, Bruce Li movies

CONTEMPORARY NEGATIVE CONTEMPORARY NEGATIVE IMAGESIMAGES

Model minority: emphasis on education, hard work, an example to follow for other immigrants or minorities, but this image hides sexism, oppression of women

Rambo films: incompetent victim, underlying thought: how could we have lost the war (to them?)

1988: M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang Rene Gallimard a French diplomat obsessed with the myth

of Madame Butterfly falls in love with Song, a Chinese spy masquerading as a Japanese woman

Clash of stereotypes: East: feminine, West: masculine

ETHNIC AND MINORITY CULTURES SEMINAR TWO The rise of the multicultural society.

Documents

Transcript of ETHNIC AND MINORITY CULTURES SEMINAR TWO The rise of the multicultural society.