Author Archives: Huishan Zheng

extra credit

by Huishan Zheng

In the American history women had been treated unequally. They don’t have right to vote and couldn’t get same pay as men got. Therefore, they stared feminism for their right. Therefore, they went out to protest for their right. In the chapter the author wrote” Women were 50 percent of the voters-but (even by 1967) they held 4 percent of the state legislative seats, and 2 percent of the judgeships”. This shows that even after feminism, women still been treated unequally. Although half of voters were women, they only held a few seats in state legislative and judgeships. In additional, the state legislative is the government branch to create laws, if they don’t have enough seats, they will not have any chance to pass the law for women. Moreover, if there are a few women in judgeships, they will not get fair adjudge. As the result, they still didn’t have the same right as men had. Therefore, I think they are important in the chapter because it forces people to change their views, that the women are equal as the men.

In the chapter Zinn also includes the Native Americans because they were persecuted in the past. In the American history, the Native American had signed many treaties with white people. Some of the treaties were signed is voluntary, but some of the treaties were forced to sign by the white people, such as gave up their home land and moved to the wild west. “When it was over between 200 and 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children were dead. The twenty-five soldiers who died were mostly hit by their own shrapnel or bullets, since the Indians had only a few guns”. This shows when the Indians refused to do what the white people ordered them to do; they would be attacked by the militaries. Moreover, even most of them were women and children, and without weapons, soldier still cold-bloodedly killed all of them. Some of the soldiers were killed by their own bullets when they butchered the Indians. In conclusion, since the Indians were been treated unequally, I think they also important in the chapter because it force people to know whoever has the same right as we have, even they are the Native Americans, they are American too.

loss of trust to the government

by Huishan Zheng

Nixon would go, but that the power of the President to do anything he wanted in the name of ‘national security’ would stay–this was underscored by a Supreme Court decision in July 1974″ which affirmed the “confidentiality of presidential communications”

During the 1970s, the political corruption was exposed. The government has lost the trust of the population. At this point, Watergate scandal exposed, at first, Nixon lied again and again, tried to cover his involvement. The resignation was the final act of the Watergate scandal that was fundamentally about abuse of power. Nixon was caught using the power of the presidency to obstruct justice. We cherish the idea that no one is above the law and that idea was violated.  When Nixon resigned, everything stills the same as Nixon administration. And so the faith in the presidency was damaged. People reduced the amount of trust to the government.

However, I think Zinn mentions it because it is ironic; Zinn argues that the resignation of Nixon and the exposure of Watergate Scandal during the decade were done by the government in order to regain support for the government from the American people.  When Gerald Ford took office and said the nightmare was over. In reality, government tried to get back the trust from the population without making fundamental changes to the system. Nothing changed.  Foreign policy remained the same, and one of Ford’s first acts was to pardon Nixon. Even though Nixon resigned from office and was considered for impeachment due to the Watergate affair, his policies were still continued to be used. The best quote to summarize what happened after Nixon’s resignation regarding his policies was stated by a Wall Street financer: “What we will have is the same play with different players”.

“racism in the south” by a black woman in 1902

by Huishan Zheng

“some one will at last arise who will champion our cause and compel the world to see that we deserve justice, as other heroes compelled it to see that we deserved freedom.”

While blacks gained freedom in the South, they hardly gained equality. Despite the Radical Republicans’ efforts at Reconstruction, many blacks in the South struggled with poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment. In the entry “racism in the south” by a black woman in 1902, the author talked about her life in the south, how she get racism from the white people Even the amendment abandons the slavery, but the society didn’t set white people and color people equally. Like what the author said in the entry, the park had the sign that no black people can enter except for the servant; and when she walked on the street, she was embarrassed by the stare of white people.

Discrimination in the South further intensified with the passage of Jim Crow laws in the 1880s. Jim Crow laws segregated many public accommodations such as trains, steamboats, streetcars, and schools, and restricted or forbade black access to other facilities, like theaters and restaurants. There are also some supreme court case can related to this situation, like Brown VS Broad of education, and plessy v. ferguson. Both cases happened for the segregation. One case happened before this article publishes and another was happened after fifty years later. During so many years, the society still with the “segregation but equal” by Jim Crow Law which tend to separate the color people and white. Colored people seem to have the same right with the white people, but actually, they still in the lower statue in the society. Colored people are not allowed attending the place which white people attend. If they tried to break the rule, they will get the law punishment. Therefore, during that time area, in every place, there are separate places for different people; even for the bathroom have different place for white people and color people. The Supreme Court upheld such segregation in its Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896), which declared all “separate but equal” facilities to be constitutional. This decision cleared the way for decades of demoralizing discrimination against blacks.