Race Relations and Women’s Status Essay

A rule of thumb about clubs and committees suggests that the secretary is the most important officer because they record the actions of the organization. In the same way, the scribes of modern society, the newspapers shape how events and are remembered. Newspapers document what people are thinking, their priorities, and their assumptions, or at least, what a journalist thought about these.

Comparing news accounts from more than one period, with the advantage of historical distance and historical perspective permits the reader to spot differences. For this discussion, the two periods to be examined are January 8 of 1992 the same date in 1942, In the case of these two weeks in the early 1990s and the early 1940s, the most dramatic difference that colored the news was the war boiling in Europe, and the USA had been drawn in dramatically by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor just weeks before.

However, there was a myriad of other differences as well. January 1942 was before the civil rights movement, as well as before the women’s movement. These and other changes are reflected in a variety of places in the newspaper.

Demonstrating the profound changes that have occurred in race relations, consider the article titled “Whites in Hawaii Arm for Defense in Fear of Japanese Residents.” This report highlighted anti-Japanese suspicion and bigotry soon after Pearl Harbor when many of the 150,000 residents of Hawaii of Japanese descent staffed the ROTC and the Territorial Guard. Hawaiians of European ancestry feared their Japanese neighbors could “rip off” their armbands, and open fire.

The authorities quoted in the article acknowledged the difficulties of placing every citizen of Japanese ancestry into a concentration camp. However, this option was reported as being under serious consideration.¹ This gives the modern reader a disturbing hint of what was to transpire later in the relations between Japanese Americans and their white neighbors. Later on in the war, persons of Japanese ancestry were, indeed, interned on a mass scale.

This was an eventual outcome that would seem both surprising and shocking today if modern readers had not observed the reflexive, often violent, and the equally irrational anti-Muslim response of many citizens to the attack on 9/11. Finally, in an almost throwaway sentence, the correspondent listed the various ethnic and racial identities that inhabit the island.

He mentioned Filipinos, Chinese, and Koreans by numbers of the population, lumping Portuguese, Spaniards, and Puerto Ricans together in a way that today would be considered at best ignorant and at worst insensitive. Then he mentioned the 1000 “Negroes” living on the island, a word choice that represented an improvement over the alternative at the time, but which jars the ear of the modern reader.²

The same week in 1992 reveals a far different relationship with the Japanese. During a state visit to Japan to request that the Japanese purchase more auto parts, President George H. W. Bush experienced a brief collapse at a formal dinner. Prime Minister Miyazawa held Bush in his arms with tears in his eyes. Japanese journalists suggested that the American economy was just like a tired old man in need of help.³ The increased respect, the continuing competition, and the mutual dependence of the two nations are reflected in this story.

Japanese-Americans also made the news as Kristi Yamaguchi competed in Olympic Skating. Both Yamaguchi and the Japanese contender Midori Ito were described in glowing and appreciative terms⁴. This suggests that Japanese-Americans were fully integrated into US society by 1992.

A similar use of this now-offensive term appears in an announcement of an art and craft exhibition of works by African American artists, referring to them as “Negro” artists.⁵ The article noted that the exhibitors were drawn from Karamu House of Cleveland⁶, which the article describes as ‘discovering and training the abilities” of African Americans since 1915.⁷ The description of the exhibit sounds quite modern, except that craftwork and fine arts would be less likely to be paired today.

The committee of sponsors included a varied group of notables, both African American and white. Among the African American committee members were Marian Anderson, Ethel Waters, Asa Phillip Randolph, and Langston Hughes, for example, representing both the arts and social justice.

White sponsors included the most prominent and wealthy of the day: Marshall Field III, of the large Chicago store fortune; Louis Crane, of the Crane Paper fortune; and Mrs. William S. Paley, the wife of CBS’ founder⁸. By contrast, the artwork discussed in a 1992 gallery review used figures of important African American figures in creating artwork from images.⁹

African Americans also clearly had a mixed experience during the war. This is evidenced by articles on military installation race riots, apathy, and a pageant honoring blacks’ military service. These contradictory events all occurred in the same week in 1942.¹⁰¹¹¹² This reflects the evolving role of African Americans, as well as the resistance of many whites to their increasing participation in the war effort, and in the life of the nation.

In the area of women’s rights, the industry was reported to be ready to train and hire women to replace men absent at war.¹³ However, companies would title women “technical aides,” rather than according to a more substantial title. The article noted industry’s having “ignored” past applications, despite the numbers of math and science majors qualified for the newly established training programs.¹⁴

Another training program for women to repair autos noted (without apparent sarcasm) that a “child of ten” could accomplish this task.¹⁵ While on such jobs, women could presumably wear the jumpsuit and dress styles for “factory and farm” pictured on the same page.¹⁶

In a 1992 display ad, by contrast, the sporty fur coats pictured were no doubt warm. However, they were hardly practical in the same way that the wartime styles discussed above were.¹⁷ This shows how the peacetime economy permitted women to aspire to furs for everyday use.

As an indication of how much things stay the same even while changing, the 1992 commentary expressed mixed feelings regarding “Women in Combat” dying in the Iraq war.¹⁸ This is significant because it shows how women had increased their participation in an ever-wider range of professions and job descriptions. No longer were women necessarily relegated to the rear lines, or to job titles that played down their contribution.

However, this commentary also demonstrates people’s continuing uncertainty about women’s appropriate role in the armed forces, as well as in society as a whole. This discomfort has persisted even as N.O.W. celebrated 25 years of dramatically successful advocacy for women’s pay equity.¹⁹ That such advocacy continued to be necessary is attested to by an article entitled “Subtle Discrimination.” This piece points up ongoing challenges that women faced in progressing professionally.²⁰

The same week saw an article reporting the career moves of the head of the Planned Parenthood Federation, another important advocate for women’s rights continuing to be needed because of ongoing challenges to legal abortion.²¹ On the other hand, in a hopeful international move for women’s dignity, Japan acknowledged the “comfort women” abuses of WWII.²²

In an article in which race and gender intersect, a 1992 report on infant mortality is shown to have understated the problem.²³ The correspondent noted that that cause was that the infants’ race was incorrectly assumed to be the same as the mother’s.²⁴ This article shows that race labeling continued to be a troublesome obsession, and one with practical, sometimes negative effects.

The article additionally shows that women and infants continue to feel the fatal impact of problems affecting birth and child health that arise from poverty. These problems existed in 1942 as well, as evidenced by a novel of 1940s Harlem, The Street, re-published and reviewed in 1992.²⁵

The problems of disparities in living conditions were addressed as well about persistent differences in criminal statistics between racial groups.²⁶ This suggests that, despite civil rights achievements and changes in attitude noted in a study of evolving and improving attitudes towards ethnicity, much had not changed enough.²⁷.

Even a brief dip into a newspaper from 50 years previously shows major changes in a variety of aspects of life. Unconsciously or not, journalists record the trends and attitudes of their time, even if only in what they assume or leave out.

In these 50 years, in the area of race and gender relations, laws and regulations have been advocated for, passed, and implemented, to encourage greater equality in the two periods studies. However, sadly, despite this stunning legal progress, the evidence from newspapers in 1942 and 1992 suggest that there was a disheartening lack of practical change in the conditions of people’s lives in the interim between these two times.

Footnotes

1. “Whites in Hawaii Arm for Defense in Fear of Japanese Residents,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p.5.
2. “Whites in Hawaii Arm for Defense in Fear of Japanese Residents,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p.5.
3. Weisman, Steven R. “Stunned Japanese Offer Sympathy As Some Are Struck by Symbolism,” New York Times, January 9, p. A8.
4. Janofsky, Michael. “Only Ito Can Stop A Sweep,” January 13, 1992, p. C4.
5. “Art Notes,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p.27.
6. Karamu House still exists as a theatre in Cleveland.
7. “Art Notes,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p.27.
8. “Art Notes,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p.27.
9. Kimmelman, Michael. “Rob Pruitt and Jack Early ‘Red, Black, Green, Red, White and Blue’: Leo Castelli Gallery 420 West Broadway (near Prince Street) Through Jan. 25,” The New York Times, January 10, 1992, p.C28.
10. “Negroes Kept In Camp After Louisiana Riot: 28 Soldiers, Woman, Trooper Hurt in Alexandria Flare-Up,” New York Times, January 12, 1942, p.9.
11. “Negro Groups Find An Apathy To War: Conference to Suggest Ways to Arouse Members of Race,” New York Times, January 11, 1942, p. 30.
12. “Negro Service Men Honored By Revue: Pageant Depicts Role of Noted Members of Race in All This Nation’s Wars,” New York Times, January 12, 1942, p. 23.
13. “Defense Plant Survey Reveals Demand for Women in Industry: Training Institute Here Reports Increased Call for Them to Fill Jobs Now Available as Technical Aides,” New York Times, January 9m, 1942, p. 25.
14. “Defense Plant Survey Reveals Demand for Women in Industry: Training Institute Here Reports Increased Call for Them to Fill Jobs Now Available as Technical Aides,” New York Times, January 9m, 1942, p. 25.
15. “Women To Study Autos: Course in Motor Mechanics to Be Started Tonight,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p.25.
16. “Wartime Fashions for Factory or Farms On Display for Women Called for Duty: Garments Are Designed for Usefulness and Style of Sturdy Cotton Fabrics and With Free-Action Sleeves,” New York Times, January 8, 1942, p. 25.
17. “Display Ad 3 — No Title.” New York Times, January 10, 1992, p. A3.
18. Quindlen, Anna “Women In Combat,” New York Times, January 8, 1992, p A19.
19. Barringer, Felicity. “NOW Reasserts Its Role as Outsider: A group tries to be all things to all feminists,” New York Times, January 12, 1992, p. 14.
20. Sanger, David. “Fighting Subtle Discrimination,” New York Times, January 12, 1992, p. F23.
21. “Women at Work.” January 10, 1992, p. A26.
22. “Japan Admits Army Forced Koreans to Work in Brothels,” New York Times, January 14, 1992, p.A8.
23. “Death Rates for Minority Infants Were Underestimated, Study Says,” New York Times, January 8, 1992, p.A14.
24. “Death Rates for Minority Infants Were Underestimated, Study Says,” New York Times, January 8, 1992, p.A14.
25. Fein, Esther. “An Author’s Look At 1940’s Harlem Is Being Reissued: Author’s Look at Harlem Is Going to Be Reissued,” New York Times. January 8, 1992. p.13.
26. Frank, Barney. “Race and Crime: Let’s Talk Sense,” New York Times, January 13, 1992, p. A15.
27. Tamar Lewin. “Study Points to Increase In Tolerance of Ethnicity,” January 8, 1992, p.A12.