Johnson-Reed Act (1924) aka Immigration Restriction Act

The full text of the restrictive 1924 legislation is available here.

The U.S. State Department synopsis is available here.

Ripley: Race Progress and Immigration

1. Why does Ripley fear an American future in which Europeans are “divided, permanently, into groups of different nationalities”(135)?


2. How might the social programs that Ripley proposes contribute to the "nurture" he feels immigrant populations need?


3. Why was the "physical preservation" of European immigrant populations of importance to Ripley?


4. Micheal Omni and Howard Winant in their "Racial Formation Theory" reject the concrete biological definition of race and argue that race is instead more of a fluid concept who’s meaning and understanding morphs based on the socio-political atmosphere of the time. How does Ripley’s argument for including European immigrants into the “white” racial group affirm Omni & Winant's “Racial Formation Theory?




Link to Omni/Winant article.

Give the kids some books, because prisons are getting pricey. Cat's Questions!

Diego Rivera, Pan-American Unity

• Both Ripley and Bourne assert that there is an understood ascendancy of Anglo-Saxon "native born" Americans over that of the European immigrants entering the United States at the turn of the 20th century. There is a blatant negation of the inherent value of the cultures which these immigrants represent insofar as what they could add to the existing Anglo culture of the US, but instead stresses their value for how they can work toward growing a healthy and intelligent servant class of individuals. Yet, Bourne understands that there is a sort of sensational American surface culture in which the immigrants tend to cling. In which ways does he think that the sensational culture at the time tend to deteriorate the Anglo ideal, and how is it that the growth of this sensational culture by the large immigrant community further deteriorate the existing dominant culture of the US at the turn of the century?
• Ripley's article repeatedly makes use of dendrological metaphors in relation to the immigrant class. (Hewing wood, graft {here graft has both horticultural and political dual meanings} and greed, all sorts of references to the relative fruitfulness of women.) Given that the idea of relocating and settling permanently somewhere is often referred to as "setting down roots," in which ways do you think Ripley's article is suggesting that the Americans do that very thing? How could the notion of "the family tree" be related to both the article and the metaphor?
• There is a notion in both articles of a sort of radical racial purity among the Anglo-Saxon majority of the US. Conversely, as Ripley suggests, there is a plurality of cultures and racial intermixing prevalent among immigrant communities in the United States. How does this separation of cultures propagate the very problems Bourne and Ripley are addressing? (a culture of excessively sensational mediums, decreased birth rate, criminal activities, etc.)  

Cat Tan

Claude McKay poems - Kevin's discussion Q's

Kevin Bresnan writes:

America and The White House are complementary poems, America being one about his love for a place that drives him mad and treats him poorly (because of his race, although he never mentions that), and The White House which is what I see as the breaking point of this tension found in America. 

I don't know how closely in time America and The White House were written, but for my arguments sake lets home America was written first. Does the optimism found in the final four lines in "America" die off in the writing of "The White House"? Or is he just elaborating on that "bread of bitterness"?

In a previous class with Entin we read Claude McKay and discussed his use of Sonnet as a form. Here both America and The White house, poems in protest of the way this country treats him, are written in the traditional sonnet form, most famously used for fawning over a romantic interest. Is this re-appropriation of the sonnet a way for him to take a very Anglo-American, Western, form and turn it against them?

Essay 1 Assignment

Click here for Essay 1 assignment sheet

Immigration and Caricature Images Questions

• What information can we gather about the era, especially relating to immigration, by analyzing these caricatures? 

• What is the significance of incorporating Uncle Sam in some of these caricatures? How does his representation differ from one caricature to another?

• There is a difference in visuals/illustrations throughout the caricatures, which can be seen particularly between “The Anti-Chinese Wall” and “The Salons of New York”. Why is that? What factors could have affected the illustrators' choices in creating those visuals? 

• What were the various functions that these caricatures served? Did they exacerbate or attenuate the political climate of that time?

• Without knowledge of the historical context around these caricatures, would they still be useful or meaningful in any way?

Discussion Questions on Jacob Riis

Jensine Wharton writes:

• In regards to the “basis of opposition”, what can be said to the facts that both sides/groups/classes of people agree on the overlying issue, not wanting the government infringing on their rights to operate in a certain way? 
• What can be said to the fact that the way that  the “other side” lives is being written by a person not experiencing the struggles that the “other side” lives—this idea of history being written by the victor, and/or the oppressor. 
• What is the author’s intention or purpose of writing this essay—what is he trying to get across? Is it positive or negative?

How the Other Half Lives - Photo Reflection

Through his photojournalism, was Riis trying to arouse activism?

Riis' work was often sensationalized, yet neutralized with realism. Is his photo set reminiscent of modern day photojournalistic depictions of poverty in the third-world? Why or why not?

It is likely that Riis was able to capture American life of squalor with such intimacy because he himself had experienced poverty and tenement housing first-hand. Does this make Riis a hero? Or something less?

Theodore Roosevelt once said that Jacob Riis was "the greatest American" that he knew. According to this assignment of such a title, what made/makes one a "great" American?

The Jazz Singer Questions

Does Jakie come back in the end to sing in his father's place simply out of guilt, or are there other factors?

Jakie states at one point that his career is more important than anything else. Is this really true?

Do Jakie's parents not understand his desires, or do they understand, but reject them?

Th 9/8 Yezierska, Bread Givers Discussion Questions

How does the setting of Bread givers interfere with Reb Smolinsky's religious beliefs?

What was the most important objective for Smolinsky's daughters, getting out of poverty, or gaining independence from their religionist father?

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Click here to watch The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolsen.

Bread Givers chs VI-XVI

Brennen Johnson writes:

In what ways does the Smolinsky family accept/reject social conformity?

How does the Russian culture/heritage of the family effect the Smolinsky sisters views of America?

How does the father's religious values shape his hyper masculine views toward women?

Discussion Question Signup

Discussion Question Signup

This is when you signed up to post discussion questions on the course website one day in advance.

 

Th 9/1 Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers __________________________________________

T 9/6 Yezierska, Bread Givers ___Brennen________________________________________

Th 9/8 Yezierska, Bread Givers ____Muhammad__________________________________

 

T 9/13 The Jazz Singer (film, 1927) ____Elliott____________________________________

Th 9/15 Settlement House photos _____Viviane__________________________________

Jacob Riis, “How the Other Half Lives” essay and photos, and Lewis Hine photos __

_____Mackenzie, Jensine________________________________________________

 

T 9/20 Immigration and Caricature images ____Amira_____________________________

Th 9/22 Claude McKay, selected poem ____Kevin___________________________

 

T 9/27 William Ripley, “Race Progress and Immigration”______Dominick_____________

Randolph Bourne, “Trans-National America” ___Cat______________________

Th 10/13 John Okada, No-No Boy ___Michael K____________________________________

F 10/14 Okada, No-No Boy _________Christian__________________________________

T 10/18 Okada, No-No Boy _______William__________________________________

Th 10/20 Colm Toibin, Brooklyn_____Natalie, Viviane___________________________

T 10/25 Toibin, Brooklyn ________Kimberly_______________________________________

Th 10/27 Toibin, Brooklyn __________Karina, Melissa_______________________________

T 11/1 Lone Star (film, 1996) _______Rachel, Andrew__________________________

Th 11/3 Nuyorican & Latino poetry ___Xavier, Nicholas___________________________

Th 11/10 Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy ______Laura______________________________

T 11/15 Kincaid, Lucy _____________________________________________________

Th 11/17 Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things ____Komal, Dominick___________________

T 11/22 Mengestu, The Beautiful Things ________Jattna_________________________

Th 12/1 Mengestu, The Beautiful Things  ___Serena____________________________

T 12/6 Ocean Vuong poems _________Michael T_______________________________

Th 12/8 Philip Metres poem; Suheir Hammad, “First Writing Since”; Mohja Kahf, “The Chicken Queen” ___________________________________________________________