H674Discussions

Explain the meaning and context of Theodore Roosevelt’s idea of “barbarism” and “virtues” during the time period of 1876-1917.
How did industrialization propel America to become an imperial force in global affairs? How did industrialization and immigration combine define U.S. foreign policy?
From an economic standpoint, what benefits did Americans see in foreigners here and abroad? How were foreigners, here and abroad, used as an economic tool to help stabilize American national well-being? How did it create anxiety among Americans?
On page 7, the author talks about collateral damage. What is collateral damage and how did it reflect the change in U.S. dominance in foreign countries?
How did travelogues feed into the mass consumption in America? How did this genre help create an image of America and of foreigners?
In what ways was the American masculine identity threatened during this time period? How did it provide fuel for modern American nationalism and imperialist goals? How did figures like TR react to the “weakening” of the masculine identity? How was feminity represented?
In the midst of the United States industrial progress and economic growth, what is the difference between what foreigners abroad experienced and what immigrants at home experienced?
How did America’s engagement with diverse peoples here and abroad change American nationalism?
What were the reasons for America’s fears of coming into contact with foreigners? What kind of rhetoric and beliefs Americans used to hide their fears?
What kind of conclusions did scholars during this time period develop in defining the relationship between mentality and democracy among immigrants here and abroad?
How were the American needs of economics at odds with the American needs of the republic?
After reading this, do you agree with the author’s argument? What weaknesses and strengths do you see? Does the author make the connection of the events that developed during this specific time period and today’s events? What faults does the author find in recent debates on immigration and American imperialism?

What three characteristics do you find this story reveals about Japanese immigrants to the Sacramento area? Why?

What three characteristics do you find this story reveals about American born Californians in the first half of the twentieth century? Why?

1. “Life at that time presented many inconveniences.” What were some of the “inconveniences” that Fran encounters?

2. During which part of her early life, did Fran begin to realize that she was entitled to a better life? How did she reinforce her determination? How did she emphasize her determination?

3. How did religion and the farm experiences have an affect on Fran’s schooling? What were some of the “parallellisms” that Fran becomes aware of?

4. What were Fran’s three worlds? In her impermanent world, where and how did she seek to find permanence?

5. What were some of Fran’s self-identification issues? How did she come to terms with them?

7. What were some of the changes Fran’s parents underwent? Why the change of heart? Family dynamics change?

8. What was Fran’s relationship/views with language? What did she avoid? Did language help her find an identity?

9. How was Fran determined to overcome the gender bias? Where did this determination stem from?

10. How does geography an important role in her testimonial? (specifically, in Berkeley?)

11. What role did American Literature play in her life? What conflicts did she encounter with it?

Shirley Liu on Contagious Divides:
Why does he use the term Citizen –subject?
How does he use the term queer domesticity?
What importance did the social networks provide for the Chinese community?
Aside from the apparent divide between whites and the Chinese community, were there any other divides among class and gender?
What type of mechanisms aided in the perception of Chinese immigrants as diseased and unsanitary?
How did the media portray Chinese immigrants? What importance did the role of the media play?
What factors led to the acceptance of Chinese immigrants in the twentieth century?
Shah argued that the public health reforms was more than a mechanism to prevent and contain disease but was also a form of governance of cultures and communities. Do you agree or disagree and why?

(as soon as I have them I will post them) Gabriela Madera -Fifth Chinese Daughter
How was Jade Snow raised?
What are some of the Chinese practices and standards used at the Wong home that impacted you the most?
According to the Mr. and Mrs. Wong, what two traits are believed to be invaluable in raising proper Chinese children?
Was Jade Snow gender a significant aspect in her household?
How is the individual perceived?
Did Jade Snow’s father believe education was important? How did it reflect in terms of Jade Snow’s attendance to college?
Which significant word does Jade Snow make it a point to highlight the fact that it does not exist in English?
How were Jade Snow’s academic achievements perceived in her household? Did she ever receive any recognition and if so when and how?
How do the cultural experiences of the Chinese community living inside Chinatown in San Francisco convey themselves in reference to their interaction with outsiders, specifically Caucasians? How did this interaction affect Jade Snow?
What was the first time Jade Snow stood up for herself?
How did Jade Snow’s mother teach Jade?
What was the ultimate punishment for women who are not honorable?
How did Jade Snow’s college experience help shape her life and made it possible for her to find fulfillment? How did she defy the standards set by her gender?
Despite the differences Jade Snow faced between her desires and her parent’s expectations, how did her parents show their love and concern for Jade Snow?

1. Throughout the book, the recurring theme of American capitalism as the driving force for immigrant labor surfaces. Do you agree that it was, indeed, the driving force?

2. Bodnar dispels many common beliefs in this book. One is that each ethnic group of immigrants lived in separate slums. Is this an important difference? What, in fact, determined an immigrant’s choice of where to live?

3. Bodnar’s extensive use of sources ( over 350) is impressive; however, do you feel any specific type of source was missing?

4. From which social class were the largest number of immigrants? Is this surprising?

5. In Chapter Two, Bodnar explores the role of family as central to the lives of immigrants. How did family members both benefit and complicate life for one another?

6. Bodnar’s discussion of the middle class is a lesser known fact about immigrant life. How were communities divided by this emerging class, and how did it change relationships?

7. What challenges did religious worship present for immigrants, and what conflicts arose?

8. Americanization became an important issue, as the children of immigrants became the responsibility of the State. How did immigrants handle this thorny issue?

Kim Yoon
The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924.
Discussion Questions:
1. In what ways did the quota system legitimize and construct racial categories?
2. How did the federal government restrict citizenship to immigrants?
3. Why was harder for U.S to exclude and deny Mexican citizenship than it was for Asians?
4. How did Americans utilize administrative strategies to limit Mexican citizenship and further limit immigrants from entering the border?
5. Why did the Quota Board set categories of national origin, native stock, and nationality? How did this benefit white Americans place in society and disadvantage non-European immigrants?
6. How does eugenics play a part in understanding immigrant eligibility of citizenship?
7. How did the Immigration Act of 1924 create a hierarchy of immigrants upon their race and nationality?
8. How was American racial ideology reinforced?

“The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924”, by Mae M. Ngai

-What is the central argument in Ngai’s article?
-What was the significance of including the concept of “national origins” into Federal law? How did this notion modify the accepted divide of white /black in American society? How did this affect the construction of the American identity?
-To what extent did the Immigration Act of 1924 respond to economic interests and to racial discrimination and nativism? How can we trace the effects of both aspects, racial discrimination and economic interests reflected in the immigration policies of the 1920’s, to today’s conditions of immigrants previously qualified as ineligible to citizenship? How did these two aspects play in the specific case of Mexican immigration?

I. Main Ideas
- Why did some members of the US working class come to think of themselves as white?

Part III
1) Roediger argues that US capitalist values, among other behaviors of the white working class, were a response to “longed for” lifestyles that whites believed blacks led?

2) According to Roediger, how does the changing meaning of terms such as coon and buck reflect the creation of whiteness?

3) How did minstrelsy and minstrel shows create a new sense of whiteness? Roediger argues that blackface and minstrelsy assuaged tensions – black vs. white, urban vs. rural, etc. Do you agree that racial/ethnic parody have a role in easing tension? Is it ever appropriate to do so? Do we manifest these tensions in parody today?

4) How – and why – did the Irish attain the “wages of whiteness”? Based on the story of the Irish, do you believe any group can become “white”?

Part IV
What explanation does Roediger give for the white working class fear of total black emancipation?

Roediger notices that whites simultaneously “held blacks in contempt as both lazy and, incongruously enough, too accepting of overly taxing” work. Does this contradictory viewpoint have any parallels in modern day prejudice toward immigrants? What, according to Roediger’s main argument, might explain these modern contradictions?

Questions:
1. What are the book main argument, method and sources?
2. Where the white workers more advantaged in their working conditions of lifelong labor and in their relations to their master? Did the white workers join the ranks of slavery as a working class with the same conditions?
3. What is the meaning of Herrenvolk democracy? How can it be compared to the 19th century US working-class republicanism?
4. How did the author demonstrate that the early white proletariat of the US did all it could to clear the designation of their labour, or their employers, of all association with slaveholding and slaveholders.
5. How was the language of labor racialized?
6. In which case, according to the author, could it be possible for US wage workers, in the 19th century, to discuss efficiently wage slavery and engage in a fierce battle over the meaning of free labor?
7. How does this book relate to our seminar class, with our approach to the Immigration Issues of our day?

1. Throughout the book, the recurring theme of American capitalism as the driving force for immigrant labor surfaces. Do you agree that it was, indeed, the driving force?

3. Bodnar’s extensive use of sources ( over 350) is impressive; however, do you feel any specific type of source was missing?

4. From which social class were the largest number of immigrants? Is this surprising?

5. In Chapter Two, Bodnar explores the role of family as central to the lives of immigrants. How did family members both benefit and complicate life for one another?

6. Bodnar’s discussion of the middle class is a lesser known fact about immigrant life. How were communities divided by this emerging class, and how did it change relationships?

7. What challenges did religious worship present for immigrants, and what conflicts arose?

8. Americanization became an important issue, as the children of immigrants became the responsibility of the State. How did immigrants handle this thorny issue?