OVERVIEW:
The docudrama “The Killing Floor”, tells the story of the fateful encounter that took place among threedistinct sociopolitical groups in the United States in the first two decades of the 20th century, 1900-1920.
Those three groups were 1. the “new immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe; 2. the descendants of the “old immigrants” (especially the owners of the “means of production” (the big businesses) in industry, the controllers of real estate, and residents of long-established White neighborhoods) and 3. the Southern Black migrant population (along with earlier, urbanized Blacks already living in the North).
In your essay, you must use, and correctly cite: A. lecture and power point, B. chapters 2, 3 and 4 of Fusfeld’s text, C. the docudrama “The Killing Floor,” D. and the following on-line terms as defined in class: power, politics, power conflict paradigm, political socialization, ethnic enclave and ghetto.
ESSAY TOPIC:
Describe and analyze the series of changes that occurred between 1900 and 1920, whereby: 1a. European immigrant working class neighborhoods in many American cities changed from ethnic enclaves, to “White” communities and Black working class neighborhoods changed into ghettoes, with both neighborhoods in opposition to each other.
1b. Explain why and how the Black ghetto came into existence, and who was instrumental in this process.
1c. What was the role of the “Red Summer of 1919” in this process of ghetto formation?
2. How did the following two groups come to be politically socialized differently from each other? a. European immigrants, and b. Black migrants
Important Points:
**The key to successfully carrying out your discussion is: you must use the terms power, politics, power conflict paradigm, ethnic enclaves, ghetto and political socialization to analyze, not merely to describe events. By this I mean you must avoid simply repeating the definition of terms; instead you must fully utilize the terms to analyze issues in such a way that I can tell you understand what they mean in relationship to the essay topic . Make sure you describe the various groups in terms of socio-political class and/or ethnicity with depth. Avoid simplistic terms such as “Whites” and “Blacks” ! For example, use Europeans immigrants, descendants of old immigrants, rural Blacks, Poles, Slavs, Blacks with military experience, new immigrants, Irish gangs, realtors, etc. in analytical ways.
