Fwd: A Journey Into The Mind of Watts

[Mark Kohut]

Thnx..what background. P's "white city" resonances indeed.

--- On Sun, 8/30/09, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> Subject: Fwd: A Journey Into The Mind of Watts
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 8:49 PM
> >
> > Review by John Putman
> >
> > The Shifting Grounds of Race focuses primarily on how
> African
> > Americans and Japanese Americans both competed and
> cooperated with
> > each other as they struggled to improve their lives in
> a city that
> > celebrated its white character. Kurashige examines the
> formative role
> > of race, economics, and even foreign policy in shaping
> the triangular
> > relations among whites, blacks, and Japanese residents
> who inhabited
> > the urban space of Los Angeles. Changing historical
> circumstances,
> > especially World War II and the Civil Rights movement,
> reoriented
> > these relations, forging at times promising coalitions
> between African
> > American and Japanese Americans, while at other times
> propelling them
> > down divergent pathways.
> >
> > To trace the multiethnic making of Los Angeles,
> Kurashige divides his
> > study into three sections. In the pre-World War II
> years, racism and
> > the use of restrictive covenants allowed LA’s
> dominant white community
> > to promote a “white city” which promised newcomers
> neighborhoods free
> > of crime, immigrants, and people of color. Real estate
> developers
> > played a particularly important role in designing a
> new LA by
> > utilizing housing associations and restrictive
> covenants to close off
> > LA’s Westside neighborhoods to African Americans and
> Japanese
> > residents. The author argues that these efforts marked
> a significant
> > change from the turn of the century when racial
> minorities saw the
> > city as a better place to live, especially when
> compared to eastern
> > industrial cities.
> >
> > Shut out of white neighborhoods, black and Issei
> residents worked hard
> > to create a vibrant multiethnic community on the
> Eastside. Black
> > homeowners, for example, organized improvement
> associations to
> > beautify their surroundings hoping to allay white fear
> and resentment
> > of African American residents. Kurashige reminds us
> that whites also
> > represented an important part of the multiethnic
> Eastside; however,
> > they were less successful than their wealthier white
> friends at
> > defending their neighborhoods from black and Japanese
> interlopers.
> > Remaining white residents instead upheld segregated
> schools to
> > maintain some semblance of a “white city.” While
> all racial minorities
> > confronted similar barriers, Kurashige convincingly
> argues that
> > citizenship provided the larger African American
> population the
> > political power to better challenge white resistance
> than Issei
> > residents who had to worry about their tenuous rights
> and status in
> > the country.
> >
> > Segregated neighborhoods forced African Americans and
> Japanese
> > Americans to make the best of a bad situation.
> Kurashige explores how
> > both groups built a vibrant local economy as one
> strategy to achieve
> > racial progress. Issei entrepreneurs, for instance,
> attempted to
> > exploit their prominent position in the region’s
> agricultural sector
> > in order to demonstrate their value to the community.
> Considering the
> > extensive labor discrimination, Issei and black
> leaders also believed
> > that self-employment could help them achieve financial
> security and
> > overcome white animosity. Eastside working-class
> residents, however,
> > found solace not in the bourgeois dreams of local
> businessmen, but
> > rather looked to the political left for encouragement
> and support.
> > Marginalized and facing fierce labor discrimination in
> Depression-era
> > Los Angeles, African Americans and Japanese Americans,
> Kurashige
> > suggests, found the Communist Party of the United
> States of America
> > attractive but ultimately ineffective in the wake of
> fierce state
> > repression. Labor unions likewise were unrewarding
> since white workers
> > controlled most unions, including the more radical
> Congress of
> > Industrial Organizations, which at best offered people
> of color
> > segregated locals or weak auxiliaries.
> >
> > World War II becomes the focal point of the middle
> section of this
> > study. Kurashige begins by briefly outlining local
> organizations’
> > efforts to confront the reality of racism in Los
> Angeles. Neither the
> > LA chapter of the National Negro Congress (NNC) nor
> the Japanese
> > American Citizen’s League (JACL) successfully united
> members of their
> > respective communities. Poor financial support and
> tepid community
> > commitment plagued the NNC, while differences about
> whether loyalty
> > and assimilation were appropriate tactics in the face
> of fierce white
> > resistance deeply divided Japanese residents. Pearl
> Harbor, Kurashige
> > forcefully argues, marked a profound watershed for
> both African
> > Americans and Japanese Americans by bringing to an end
> shared
> > conditions of exclusion. War opened a wedge between
> groups as Japanese
> > residents faced total exclusion and African Americans
> witnessed a
> > unique window of opportunity to press for
> integration.
> >
> > To his credit Kurashige avoids sentimentalizing the
> tragedy of
> > Japanese internment. Instead the The Shifting Grounds
> of Race explores
> > how the impending mass evacuation opened a rift within
> the community.
> > JACL’s call for loyalty as the best response to
> internment outraged
> > many residents leading to charges that the
> organization’s officers
> > were little more than collaborators. JACL’s
> strategy, however, had as
> > much to do with white outrage toward Japanese
> residents as it did the
> > group’s conservative character. Its position on
> internment, the author
> > maintains, can only be understood in light of the
> hostile actions by
> > LA’s mayor and other local and state white
> officials.
> >
> > “Negro Victory” became the slogan of LA’s
> African Americans with the
> > onset of war. Seizing the moment, black leaders
> expanded political
> > activism, claiming that the community’s
> participation in the war
> > demanded the end of segregation and discrimination.
> The Negro Victory
> > Committee organized protests to open jobs for local
> blacks and formed
> > grocery co-ops to overcome the unequal distribution of
> food to white
> > and black neighborhoods. Exploiting the rapid demand
> for labor, a
> > broad swath of local leaders together egged on the
> CIO’s efforts to
> > organize workers, especially African Americans.
> Despite the patriotism
> > and unity war promoted, Kurashige notes that white
> resistance remained
> > strong. When local white officials placed the entire
> Mexican [End Page
> > 112] community on trial during the infamous Sleepy
> Lagoon case, black
> > leaders publicly expressed support for the defendants
> because they
> > understood that Mexicans were a comfortable scapegoat
> in LA, whereas
> > in other cities blacks fulfilled that role. Racial
> progress in LA,
> > local newspaper editor Charlotte Bass claimed, could
> only be advanced
> > by a multiethnic front against continuing white
> defiance. The war
> > years taught African Americans, Kurashige concludes,
> that racial
> > progress still depended upon government intervention.
> >
> > In one of his best chapters, Kurashige examines the
> difficult process
> > of reintegrating Japanese Americans following the
> closure of the
> > internment camps. Tensions were high in LA’s
> Eastside where returning
> > internees found that African Americans had largely
> taken over Little
> > Tokyo. Increasing wartime migration and stubborn
> racial barriers in
> > Westside community only encouraged African Americans
> to spread into
> > former Japanese neighborhoods. While numerous black
> leaders defended
> > Japanese Americans’ right to return to LA despite
> white calls to
> > prohibit them, political relations between the two
> minority groups
> > remained lukewarm during the early postwar years.
> Kurashige argues
> > that this was not simply the result of cultural
> difference, but rather
> > the differing attitudes each possessed about
> integration and the role
> > of the state in addressing their concerns. African
> Americans leaders,
> > for example, leveled charges that Japanese American
> residents were
> > indifferent to civil rights and more concerned about
> taking back their
> > old neighborhood. Japanese Americans, however appeared
> wary of
> > integration, which many saw as a white-imposed idea.
> Moreover,
> > Japanese residents, fresh off of government internment
> camps, did not
> > share black enthusiasm for state intervention as the
> primary avenue
> > toward racial progress. By the mid-1950s, it was
> increasingly clear
> > that these neighbors now traveled on increasingly
> divergent pathways.
> >
> > The Cold War, Kurashige suggests, further complicated
> both Africans
> > American and Japanese American relations with each
> other as well as
> > their relative status in the United States. The last
> section of The
> > Shifting Grounds of Race explores the “two
> overlapping processes of
> > integration that set the two groups apart and
> ultimately gave rise to
> > multiculturalism” (p. 8, author’s emphasis). Once
> the erstwhile enemy
> > during the 1940s, Japanese Americans were quickly
> rehabilitated in the
> > American mind. The rapidly evolving Cold War in East
> Asia encouraged
> > American leaders to celebrate Japan’s transformation
> and its vital
> > role in the struggle with communism. Benefiting from
> their homeland’s
> > new status, Japanese Americans saw wartime hatreds
> diminish and their
> > standing in the nation rise. At the same time, the
> United States
> > promoted its racial progress and democratic principles
> by celebrating
> > Japanese Americans’ achievements and successful
> integration. JACL
> > leaders, the author explains, exploited this
> opportunity by pushing
> > for better immigration laws and moderate civil rights
> reforms. The
> > Model Minority image that exploded on the scene by the
> 1970s,
> > Kurashige concludes, found its roots in the rapidly
> changing climate
> > of early Cold War America. [End Page 113]
> >
> > The national struggle with communism, however, proved
> less
> > advantageous for Los Angeles African Americans. The
> virulent
> > anti-communist environment of postwar California
> weakened coalitions
> > and undermined demands for reform. Troubling economic
> conditions and a
> > conservative political climate, for example, damaged
> progressive labor
> > organizations like the CIO, which had promoted a
> multiracial
> > working-class agenda. Even a prominent black leader
> like newspaper
> > editor Charlotte Bass saw her power dissipate when the
> local NAACP
> > purged her from the organization for reported ties to
> the CPUSA.
> > Kurashige notes that the NAACP’s strong
> anti-communist stance did,
> > however, help provide it political cover from which to
> attack
> > segregation and discrimination in Los Angeles.
> Nevertheless LA’s black
> > community saw firsthand how the strong current of
> anti-communism
> > emasculated fair hiring and public housing programs.
> Claiming that
> > such initiatives were akin to socialism, white voters
> turned their
> > backs on fair employment initiatives. Likewise, racism
> and
> > anti-communist sentiments encouraged white officials
> to reject public
> > housing projects proposed for black and Mexican
> neighborhoods.
> > Instead, housing problems were solved by clearing the
> slums. New
> > housing would be left to private development, not
> socialistic public
> > housing programs.
> >
> > Kurashige concludes his study by tracing the final
> demise of
> > segregated housing in Los Angeles. While the Supreme
> Court had
> > declared restrictive covenants illegal in the late
> 1940s, informal
> > discrimination and the practices of real estate agents
> initially
> > limited integration. Growing prosperity and job
> opportunities, the
> > author claims, allowed professional and middle-class
> African Americans
> > and Japanese Americans to overcome white resistance
> and move into
> > white suburbs. Nisei residents fared better in this
> effort because
> > their small numbers and the positive image of the
> “model minority”
> > made them less threatening. In contrast, powerful
> racial stereotypes
> > and the notion that African American prospective
> homeowners
> > represented an invasion stiffened white resistance.
> When the barrier
> > was breached, white flight rapidly followed. The
> Crenshaw
> > neighborhood, however, emerged as a symbol of hope for
> Los Angeles.
> > Here, black and Japanese Americans constructed an
> energetic and
> > thriving multiethnic community. Integrated Crenshaw,
> Kurashige
> > contends, witnessed a flourishing business district,
> though troubling
> > class divisions continued to separate the
> community’s working- and
> > middle-class neighborhoods.
> >
> > The birth of Los Angeles as the “world city”
> closes this important
> > study. Kurashige details the final struggle to
> overcome stubborn white
> > resistance to integration. African Americans hailed
> the passage of the
> > Rumford Fair Housing Act in 1963, but the balloon
> quickly burst when,
> > by a wide margin, California voters passed Proposition
> 14, which
> > repealed the act. This outcome, the author contends,
> illustrated the
> > political weakness of moderate integrationists,
> opening a window for
> > more militant approaches to segregation. The battle
> over fair [End
> > Page 114] housing, in short, served as a backdrop to
> the 1965 Watts
> > Riot and emerging black power movements. In the wake
> of these
> > conflicts, Tom Bradley and his fellow Crenshaw
> neighbors attempted to
> > build a multiethnic coalition, which eventually
> elected Bradley as
> > LA’s mayor. In perhaps the weakest part of this
> study, the author
> > argues that Bradley, recognizing the impact of new
> laws, which
> > accelerated immigration from Asia and Latin America as
> well as the
> > emerging economic importance of the Pacific Rim,
> embarked on a
> > campaign to move Los Angeles from a “white city”
> to a “world city.”
> > The upshot of these events, Kurashige suggests, is the
> multicultural
> > mosaic that is LA today. Unfortunately, the author
> offered too little
> > time and space to this complex transition, leaving
> readers somewhat
> > perplexed about the actual process.
> >
> > The Shifting Grounds of Race is no doubt a welcome
> addition to the
> > rapidly growing interest in the dynamic history of Los
> Angeles. The
> > fact that Kurashige and other scholars often have to
> reach back to
> > Carey McWilliams for insight into mid-twentieth
> century LA testifies
> > to what was, until recently, a rather bare cupboard.
> However, thanks
> > to the efforts of William Deverell, Douglass Flamming,
> Becky
> > Nicolaides, George Sanchez, Mark Wild, and several
> other young
> > scholars, the puzzle of LA is finally being pieced
> together.1
> > Kurashige’s study no doubt helps bring this puzzle
> into clearer focus.
> > He navigates rather successfully the demanding terrain
> of a complex
> > and admittedly difficult period running from the early
> suburbanization
> > of the 1920s to the tumultuous 1960s. The multiethnic
> emphasis
> > dovetails nicely with Wild’s study of
> early-twentieth-century LA,
> > though it lacks a little of the intimacy and vitality
> of street life
> > that Wild nicely probes.
> >
> > A strength of this study, and there are many, is the
> author’s ability
> > to illustrate the impact of larger social, economic,
> and political
> > forces on a particular urban space and how inhabitants
> of that space
> > participated in the refashioning of it. Kurashige
> demonstrates how
> > this small parcel of Los Angeles was a place of
> contact, competition,
> > cooperation and conflict. This untold story of how
> African Americans
> > and Japanese Americans together, and at times
> separately, shaped the
> > rise of modern LA is an important accomplishment. Some
> readers,
> > however, will wonder how a multiethnic history of LA
> can largely
> > ignore Latinos. The author admits that his story is
> only one part of a
> > larger narrative that scholars are piecing together. A
> brief encounter
> > with Mexican American city councilman Edward Roybal
> notwithstanding,
> > readers will feel that there is an elephant in the
> room that seems to
> > be overlooked. Likewise, whites are a vital side of
> the triangular
> > relationship that comprises this study, but more often
> than not they
> > come off as cardboard figures when compared to African
> Americans and
> > Japanese Americans. Aside from the mention of a white
> mayor or some
> > white organization, the study at times reads more like
> an isosceles
> > than an equilateral triangle. Such criticism, however,
> may not be
> > completely fair since one puzzle piece can help to
> delineate the
> > entire puzzle. [End Page 115] Kurashige has ventured
> into uncharted
> > territory and deserves much praise and applause for
> advancing our
> > understanding of one of the most important, but often
> overlooked,
> > cities in American history.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Aug 30, 2009 at 8:34 PM, Doug Millison<dougmillison at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> >> I suspect that IV keys somehow to Pynchon's own
> '60s-era essay about Watts
> >> and the riots,  won't be surprised to find deep
> intertextual connections.
> >>  It might be interesting to compare the language
> that Pynchon uses in this
> >> essay in that '60s moment, to the way IV seems to
> be parodying the hippie
> >> lingo of '60s.
> >>
> >
> 
>