Week 4 Reading Guidelines
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San Francisco State University *
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Course
MISC
Subject
History
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by DeanReindeerMaster273
1.
What is/are the work’s key question(s)?
In both articles, the author Roediger looks into analyzing the rise of white racism through
the development of white workers. Hence, one of the articles ‘The prehistory of the white worker
(The Wages of whiteness)” looks into the poor working conditions such slow wages white
workers in various industries received. Therefore, leading to them being considered average
workers living in poverty. To show just how much this is possible Roediger’s other article “Irish-
American Workers and White Racial Formation in the Antebellum United States (The wages of
Whiteness)” looks into how during the colonization years the Irish immigrants were associated
with the same oppression and stereotype black communities faced. They were considered lazy
and even wild and uncivilized. However, after the slavery, their whiteness was never questioned
again, and they began embracing it, some of them taking part in white supremacy ideologies.
However, due to their low skills and low wage requirements, their labor was considered valuable
by various industries that were emerging and had suffered from the abolition of slavery. Thus,
they began to face the same unfavorable working conditions as White Americans.
2.
What is or are the work’s method(s)?
The articles by Roediger rely on archival methods; specifically historical written
documents by different scholars from the 18
th
century when slavery was still legal and rampant,
to the 19
th
century when slavery was abolished. For example, the author relies on David Brion
Davis's history studies on the existence of slavery and its impacts after its abolition. Specifically,
the author states that “…as Davis shows, the discourse of slavery and abolition shaped that of
labor reform in the mid-nineteenth-century Britain, which held no slaves…” (20).
The author
adds that it is not surprising that the same thing occurred in the U.S. where slavery was rampant.
Therefore, with the abolition of slavery the development of the “...white and worker...” took
place where white workers began to be associated with “…free white labor, white slaves...”
(20),
which saw capitalism continue to be associated with race and class.
In addition, archival records
help the author create accurate arguments. To show how Irish Americans and African Americans
were compared before the abolition of slavery. He states that there were environmental and
historical reasons and not biological that were used to compare Irish and African-Americans, “…
the two groups often lived side by side in the teeming slums of American cities of the 1830s…”
(134).
3.
What is the evidence?
The author states that by the 1830s what was associated with Irish and African Americans
was that their freedom was taken from them. They lived in poverty, their labor was free, faced
injustice and oppression, and were never considered citizens of the country. In addition, by
joining the abolitionist movements the Irish became even closer to the black community. To
show this the author states that “…in 1842, 70,000 Irish in Ireland signed an antislavery address
and petition, which called on Irish-Americans to cling to abolitionists in seeking not just the end
of slavery but of racial discrimination as well…” (134).
However, after the abolition of slavery,
Irish immigrants were accepted as whites among a larger American population. The author states
that history shows that Irish people distanced themselves from Fredrick Douglas and Daniel
O’Connell and insisted on “… their whiteness and on white supremacy. The success of the Irish
in being recognized as white resulted largely from the political power of Irish and other
immigrant voters…” (137). However, the author argues that this was not suppressing as satyr
shows American abolitionists exaggerated the number of abolitionist Irish supporters in Ireland.
Ireland did not have diverse communities of colored people, thus they were likely to associate
blackness with evil just like their European counterparts. For example, he uses Irish-American
folklore that states how the ancestors jumped off a boat when they came to America and
encountered a black man for the first time associating him with the devil.
In the author’s argument regarding the development of the White worker he uses a 19th-
century minstrel book to show the titled ‘race’. the white worker would have preferred to be
associated with ‘white slave’ and not be called a ‘wage Indian’, they would prefer complaining
as having to ‘work like a nigger’ but not of having to ‘work like an Indian’. This shows how the
White worker uses social ideologies to compare himself to blacks based on the fact that blacks
underwent slavery and worked for the wealthy white folks who could afford them with no pay.
4.
What is/are the argument(s)?
The argument created by the author is that the white workers received poor wages and
had economic vulnerability associated with the black community through the hardship they
faced. This is applicable to how they were not paid well, had poor working conditions with very
demanding masters, lived in poverty, and had their rights as workers taken from them. black
slavery and the need for white freedom developed as both were workers under an oppressive
master even though the white workers were paid very low wages. However, the abolition of
slavery saw the social stereotype ideologies of the black community take over. With their
freedom already in place and with the rise of the Republic party and the White votes this
relationship began to fall. This was associated also with the Republican party’s successful
separation of black slavery and white freedom.
This is also seen in how the Irish-American immigrants’ relationship with the black
community was very close when slavery was in place. This is due to the fact both sides wanted
freedom, thus establishing and associating black slavery with white freedom. However, after the
abolition of slavery, the Irish Americans could vote. Thus, even both Democrats and Republicans
began to rely on Irish-American immigrants for their votes. Black communities even with their
freedom were portrayed as not having the capability to perform civic duties. Thus, both parties
began to see this as an opportunity to associate all white be it immigrants or White Americans,
with the power to vote. This developed Irish-Americans' prejudice against their whiteness and
embraced White supremacy for their whiteness was not being questioned but embraced.
5.
How does/do the author(s) define “Racial capitalism”?
Racial capitalism is created from the suffering of a minority group. The need for
economic and political power influenced racial capitalism and this led to a majority of society
embracing it as a good thing for the growth and development of the country even if it was at the
expense of some.
. What is useful about the work? What works for you?
What is useful for me is how the author relies on historical facts, events, and archival
records to argue his points. For example, to show just how much political power for both parties
leads to even the Democrats embracing whiteness ideologies he uses a historical fact. He states
that in “… the 1830s, Democrats appreciated how the idea that all Blacks were unfit for civic
participation could be transmuted into the notion that all white were so fit…” (141), by the time
more Mexican and Chinese immigrants were already in the U. By the 1840s and 1950s
Democratic party had to develop “...racial schemes unequivocally gathering all European settlers
together as whites against the ‘colored’ race…”
(141).
6.
Were any of the points made questionable? If so, why?
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I did not feel like the points made were questionable. This is because the author relies on
historical events to make a point and argument.
8
How does this work inform the other readings? Contradicts
? Raise new questions?
Just like the author Heng states the formation of race is intertwined with the conditions
that both labor and capital work under. Thus, capitalism saw white populations from different
parts of the world come together for the benefit of ensuring free labor takes place and more profit
to continue supporting slavery. Therefore, to benefit from the power of capitalism white
immigrants, and even the democratic party embraced racial schemes and formations, leading to
the escalation of conflict between the white population and the ‘colored’ race.