Video-3rd installment of “The Power of an Illusion”

In this 3rd installment of “The Power of an Illusion” they take a more recent look at racism in the United States. This video includes World War 2 and is mainly within the past 50. They focused more on how race is mostly a difference in opportunity and not actual cultural distinctions. Immigrants came seeking a greater economic standing, freedom and opportunities for their families. They end up working the hardest jobs and getting paid the least. This was seen as “racial consequence” or even “national consequences”. They mention a situation in Atlanta where a Jew was pulled from jail and hung for killing a white girl. This is where the question of whether Jews were considered “white” and could possibly Europeans become white when moving to America? Only free “white” immigrants were given the right to vote such as the Irish, French and others. If you were considered white in America, you would gain the full rewards. The video mentions how in different parts of the country you could be considered white or a mix of both African and American or Japanese and American. In one state if you were 1/8 Ancestry of black you were considered black and 1/16 in another state. You could literally go from state to state and completely change race. Another instance was given of a man in 1922 who was of foreign descent and was born in America if he could become a “natural citizen”. He was determined to be granted this from the Supreme Court. He did everything that was considered “white”; spoke English, went to church. The Supreme Court denied his grant to be American in claiming that he was not Caucasian and according to science he was not white. Not all immigrants were granted citizenship and their land was taken from them and given to whites. In 1924 the Johnson Reed Immigration Act was put into play. This completely cut immigration from eastern to southern Europe. In 1930 the FHA was created giving loans to average Americans to buy housed and own land. They had to pat 50% of the sale price up-front. But the presence of colored families would depreciate the value of the surrounding homes. Most of these mortgages went to suburban whites. Between 1934 and 1961, 120 billion dollars in housing was deled out, less than 2% was for non-whites. So in reality the G.I. Bill was only available to certain people. In 1968 there was the Free Housing Act in which blacks moved into white communities by numbers. The technique was called “blockbusting” when whites’ homes were resold to blacks for inflated prices. This was the start of the white people leaving and settling down in other communities. The tax raised and the schools struggled. This was the first initial key to segregation.
This movie related to Brodkin when he talks about the G.I. Bill and how it affected only certain people such as the middle class whites. It relates to the sections of land and how it was divided among different races and incomes such as the red zone and the green zone. It completely shut the blacks out of their benefits from the G.I.