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Research Notes: Work Cited- Trisha & Lauren

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#3: How did racism base the work environment of the colored?

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#3: How did racism base the work environment of the colored?

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Taking place in the 1930’s, work environments contain various kinds of discrimination. Sadly, work environments have been based off of racism where they make it harder for the colored. Some examples vary from being paid unfairly to being the smallest priority of the company. According to the Harlem interview, the colored worker stated how poorly the other workers worked compared to him, but received a better payment. He explained the other men as lacking by, “The foreman comes in about 10 every day when he's supposed t' be here at 8:30. An' me? I knows the wuk's gotta get out so I comes in at 8 instead a 8:30 like I'm supposed to t' get the wuk done. He gets $75 a week t' be foreman an' I gets $16 an' I does some a his wuk.” (Ellison) Based off of this statement, we can infer that a key factor of the work environment is racism, due to the fact that they would pay someone better due to their ethnicity instead of their performances in work.

Michael S. Holmes, the author of “The Blue Eagle as ‘Jim Crow Bird’” repeats throughout the book degrees of unfair actions that were held against the negroes. Although there were laws in a feeble attempt to provide them with justice, many people did not abide to the law. As one white employer succinctly put it, “I will shut down my business before I will pay a nigger a white man’s wages.” Along with many other business owners during the time period, he was one of the reasons that the environment became more useless and deemed as a “dead end job.” In situations including these, there was no chance, with the given mindset, “better pay than no pay.”  Again, the color of their skin was the only factor that determined their pay, no matter the quality of their work nor levels of experience. There was little to expect once one entered work; working on end for the same pay, constantly being paid less than white men, and being fired instantly once the business needed it. The amount of racism and prejudice pushed city mayors to make actions, however even the imposed NRA, designed to free African Americans with gun usage, was used against them. “The Negro community began to label the NRA as the “Negro Removal Act,” or “Negro Rarely Alloewd.” Whites who sought, and failed to obtain racial wage differentation replied that NRA stoof for “Negro Relief Act,” or “No Roosevelt Again,” explained the author. In all work environments, there was no way to elude the binding restrictions that the racism prejudice of people imposed.

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#2: How did racism shape their perception of mental and physical abilities?

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#2: How did racism shape their perception of mental and physical abilities?

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The white people viewed themselves as superior to the colored race. Many writers, including Edward M. East, began making false inferences in their writing based entirely on his judgment, rather than accurate evidence. He wrote, in Mankind at the Crossroads, “... the negro race as a whole is possessed of undesirable transmissible qualities both physical and mental, which seem to justify not only a line but a wide gulf to be fixed permanently between it and the white race. (p. 133) Wherever the negro has been placed he has failed, failed miserably and utterly, by the white man’s standards. (p.138) The author points out how that East has been raised in a “white man’s world,” to detest the negroes. The tests that he based his evidence on were made standardized on “white man’s knowledge,” their language and culture; knowledge that the black had no way of understanding, and as a result, “totally ignored the problematical validity of tests and measurements.” He was not the only one in his time, but it was especially surprising to see it from a scientist, experienced in the field of environmental differences. In other words, East’s scientific judgment was badly clouded by his racial prejudice.
This was a common situation for the geneticists in the time period, who conducted actual tests, supported by East’s “reasoning.” The author once again states, “...no one went farther than East in lending his authority to racist and social prejudices. His very claim to scientific objectivity and his excoriation of the ‘extreme’ eugenists seem to have pulled the wool over the eyes of many historians of eugenics…” The studies, fueled by East’s racist prejudice alone, inspired the studies and writers, including people with good morals. Daniel J. Kevles, who was “initially hopeful of the evolutionary promise of producing a better mankind…” now was hesitant, questioning their own level of intelligence. By using the various cases and examples of writers, the author demonstrates that racism at the time influenced their way of thought and morals. The author inputs his own thoughts, “The colored race has not had an opportunity for advancement comparable to the white race. This must be admitted… (p. 199),” contradicting East’s claim: “We can find no probability that the negro will contribute hereditary factors of value to the white race.”

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#1: How was discrimination conveyed in work and home environments?

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#1: How was discrimination conveyed in work and home environments?

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In times, such as the 1930s, African Americans have endured discrimination of differing ways. Discrimination can occur in places from work to home environments. An interview published and produced by the WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection, gathers information on the daily life of a garment worker in Harlem from 1939. Based on the interview, the worker claims how grueling and unfair his work experience is. He explains how well he’s good at his job by saying, “I knows the job. I known it inside an’ out. I practic’ly runs the place,” (Ellison) but only gets an unfair amount of payment in return. The worker explains how a foreman that works with him performs a poor job at work, but earns a payment of $75, which strongly shows the idea of discrimination. At the end of the interview, the garment worker explains his feelings towards the act of discrimination by saying, “This here's discrimination t' us cullud people. We gotta do ev'ry thin' an' get paid least. We knows th' job as well as any an 'me but they don' give us a chance t' do th' same wuk. The situation ain' good. Somethin's t' be done.” (Ellison)
As said before, not only is discrimination conveyed in work environments, but also home environments. In an interview between Mr. and Mrs. Wolford Hopkins from North Platte, the two negro couples consider their living conditions as decent back then in 1938. In the area around them, the couple implies how black people were struggling on sustaining a better lifestyle where, “just about 35. . . . Negroes . . . are segregated, they say in restaurants and in hotels, not as much so in schools tho very few negro children attend North Platte schools. . . .” (Freeman) Besides the act of segregation in several areas, the couple explains how it would be impossible to attain a modern house for colored people. In addition to that, the landlords would make negroes’ live harder by not repairing nor cleaning for Negrotenements. Yet, Mr. Wolford Hopkins believes, “negroes take as good care of the places they rent as the white people.” (Freeman)