I have decided to change my object completely to an African-American Woman in the U.S. in the 1900s who was a singer, dancer and entertainer, specifically the singer and dancer, Josephine Baker, who was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, who later relinquished her citizenship and migrated to Paris, France, where she pursed her career and became a big sensation in France. She was an icon known as a Queen of the Jazz age, during the roaring 20’s and often performed exotic dances on stage in France. I had picked her specially because Baker during the peak of her popularity, Baker decided to return to her homeland, the United States, and became a performer in the Ziegfield Follies, which was a big Broadway show in New York. In returning to the United States, she was met with oppression for her race, gender, and sexuality and was even called a “Negro Wench” in the New York Times. During this time, America was very segregated and had established Jim Crow Laws. This was also the time when the Ku Klux Klan performed lynching against African Americans.
Baker went backed to France to escape the prejudiced, racist, anti-black United states. France during this time was more open to different races and was embracing African culture and was going through a Jazz age. During the time, Josephine was in France, she worked for the French Resistance who fought against Nazi Germany and often hid messages in her sheet music. Later she returned to the US in fear of the reaction she would get and performed at the Carnegie hall in the 1950s. Although she got a standing ovation to her performance of “Times gone a changing” she still encountered severe racism and objections such as only able to get a hotel room unless she goes through the servant’s entrance, or getting spit on by white ladies who believed that a black woman should not promote sexuality or power. She later returned to the U.S. and fought alongside Martin Luther king and supported the Civil Rights Movement. She would refuse any segregated performances and demanded that she would only perform non-segregated audiences.
In the 1900s, racism was a big part of American outlook on who is inferior in society and who is lesser in society. There was racial segregation every between “Blacks” and “whites.” This was going against the civil and constitutional rights of all who are in America. Blacks were also dehumanized and were thought of as disposable and immoral which constituted them as “non-beings.” There was also the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan through the film, The Birth of a Nation, which depicted them to be knights who are saving America from the painted view of Blacks during that time. They followed an anti-immigration and anti-blackness view and believed that blacks and immigrants were a threat to America. They believed that “Whites” were superior and often used violent reactions towards non-“Americans” and non-Whites. They were against letting African-Americans to participate in congress and even voting and were violently opposed to the civil rights movement. I have decided to do a relational analysis between Anti-blackness in the U.S. particularly in the 1900s with the increasing Anti-Japanese American during World War 2 specifically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
After Pearl Harbor, Anti-Japanese Paranoia started to increases and people were starting to be afraid that there could be Japanese, specifically in the West Coast that were working against the U.S. This caused the relocation of any one of Japanese ancestry to be forced to sell their properties and relocate into Concentration camps. Many were hostile towards Japanese-Americans during this time and fought to relocate them. President Roosevelt had also had given an Executive order saying that there would be “exclusion zones” that allowed the Military commanders to take out or relocate anyone who was suspected as a threat. Many White farmers also were very hostile towards Japanese-American farmers and were happy to relocate them to take their land and use it as their own. This created view of Anti-Japanese-American and Anti-immigration is related to the view on Anti-Blackness during this time. Both situations where people of different race and ethnicity were shunned was against the American Civil Rights and the rights given in the constitution.
http://www.biography.com/people/josephine-baker-9195959#curtain-call
http://www.cmgww.com/stars/baker/about/biography.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_S._Eisenhower
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation
http://www.ushistory.org/us/51e.asp
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