Author Archives: mk162079

Extra Credit

by mk162079

                In 60s, prisoners were treated badly and some of them were sent to a prison with unreasonable. The following is an interview with a young black man, who refused to register for the draft during the Vietnam War, by Willard Gaylin, a psychiatrist.

“How was your hair then?” I asked.

“Afro.”

“And what were you wearing?”

“A dashiki.”

“Don’t you think that might have affected your sentence?”

“Of course.”

“Was it worth a year or two of your life?” I asked. “That’s all of my life,” he said, looking at me with a combination of dismay and confusion. “Man, don’t you know! That’s what it’s all about! Am I free to have my style, am I free to have my hair, am I free to have my skin?”

“Of course,” I said. “You’re right.” (516)

While others had received two-year sentences for the same prosecution, this black man received five-year sentences. This interview tells he received such a strict penalty because he was black. Zinn also mentions the statistics of people who were sent to a prison. Poor people were more likely to go to a prison than wealthy people. According to Zinn, not only poverty made people to commit crimes, but also wealthy people hired good lawyers to avoid prosecutions or to get better sentences. That is, prejudice about race and social class affected sentences. Zinn implies that these socially oppressed people were sent to a prison and it made the way to treat prisoners worse.

The Indians were also people who had been oppressed in the U.S. for a long time. Since the Pilgrims arrived at Americas, they attacked and took away the land and the culture from the Indians. The Indians were placed in the Indian reservations and had suffered for poverty. Although the Indians finally protested against the government and well-educated Indians led the protest and negotiation to improve the Indians’ right, the oppression against the Indians continued in a different form.

“Indian people laugh themselves sick when they hear these statements (526).”

            Vine Deloria, Jr., made ironic remarks in his book about President Johnson talked about commitments of the U.S. and President Nixon talked that Russia failed to respect treaties. Zinn explains, “the United States government had signed more than four hundred treaties with Indians and violated every single one.” To ease the Indian’s protest, the government just pretended to make a compromise with the Indians. This dishonest attitude increased the incredibility against the government.

    

Where is Our Civil Right?

by mk162079

“We felt that this was our campus, that we were doing nothing wrong, and that they had no right to order us to disperse. If anyone ought to leave, it’s them, not us.”

Tom Grace, The Shooting at Kent State(1970)

              Many Americans had protested the Vietnam War for different reasons by 1970. Especially college students protested strongly because college deferments would be abolished and students would be drafted into military service. Despite the strong protests over the nation, the government sent troops and bombed into Cambodia. It accelerated the protest movement and students of Kent State University held a protest on May 1, 1970. During the protest, four students were killed and nine students were wounded by the National Guard, and the National Guard was exempted from prosecution.

              Students had questioned the way the government slided into war, ignoring people’s intentions. Also, they believed their civil rights to express their opinions should be guaranteed as Tom grace thought, “we were doing nothing wrong, and that they had no right to order us to disperse.” However, the government tried to force people into silence in reality. The shooting at Kent State made people notice that they were actually oppressed by the government and it was not the government of, by and for people.

The Honest Capitalists

by mk162079

During the second Industrial Era, wealth was dominated by banks and corporations, whereas laborers were exploited at lower wages and many of them died at work by accident. Russell Conwell, the author of Acres of Diamonds justified the rich by saying, “I say you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich … The men get rich because they are honest men … there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcoming.”(262) The Capitalism movement tends to be criticized because of the inequality between rich and poor. Only some people had wealth and authority and the rest of people were exploited as labor. However, the idea of Capitalism was accepted by the public including lower-class people in the American Society and gave opportunities to the poor and improved people’s life certainly.

              At that time, the entire society encouraged the Capitalism movement. Indeed, churches, schools and literature taught people the idea of Capitalism the rich is superior to the poor and the poor needed a tremendous effort and extraordinary luck to become wealthy. Furthermore, wealthy people donated their money to education and were called philanthropists. As a result, many colleges were founded and many children became literate. It was like the rich built the factory to produce new generations who are better-educated and trained. It was beneficial to both the public and the corporations. People started having better jobs and salaries. On the other hand, people obtained the opportunity to climb to the upper class by education. These rewards to the poor from the rich formed the obedience to the authority. The poor appreciated the rich people for spending money for the poor and also recognized the fact that the rich people had enough money and power to control the school systems. Hence, the poor people realized they needed to obey the rich people.

I think Howard Zinn mentions these arguments because he thought the Capitalism improved the society a lot although it caused inequality and harsh working environments. Zinn also gives examples of successful people, such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, to emphasize how Capitalism gave people opportunities and luck. In my opinion, Zinn does not say that the rich are generous to the poor. They redistributed their earnings to the poor for their own and the society’s future prosperity. Capitalists are good at manipulating people like easing their complaints and encouraging them to be obedient to the authority. In my opinion, the philosophy of Capitalism is not as simple as “the more money the rich gets, the more the poor suffer,” but also “the more money the rich gets, the more the society is improved” because the rich people enhanced the standard of life of the poor in actuality.