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Dissertation Information for Scott Tadao Kurashige

NAME:
- Scott Tadao Kurashige

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2000)

ADVISORS:
- Eric H. Monkkonen

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Transforming Los Angeles: Black and Japanese American struggles for racial equality in the 20th century

Abstract: Over the course of the 20th century, exponential economic and population growth transformed Los Angeles into a global city with a multi-ethnic population. Racial and ethnic diversity were the product of the capitalist economy's increased reliance on non-white labor and the efforts of communities of color to carve out a space for themselves in the city. Race and class interacted in the construction of a structure of inequality that was produced and reproduced not simply by hierarchichal relations of production but through residential segregation and through a contestation over urban space.

Prior to World War II, the Japanese American and African American communities remained predominantly under the leadership of ethnic elites, who subscribed to the philosophy racial uplift. In response to the segregation produced during the suburbanization of the city, middle-class ethnic leaders promoted the idea of housing "improvement" to distinguish themselves from their less fortunate brethren and improve relations with whites. However, white resistance to integration, limited the effectiveness of the "improvement" strategy.

Struggles for racial progress through employment generated broader participation. The general rejection of minorities by organized labor pushed Japanese American workers to greater dependence on the ethnic economy, while African Americans were moved to mass political action for public sector and defenese-industry employment. It was only with the dramatic emergence of social movement unionism in the CIO during World War II that the fight for racial equality became integral to organized labor. However, the unity that made the wartime advances possible dissipated under the pressure of Cold War politics.

While the social conditions of black and Japanese Americans diverged considerably in the postwar era, community leaders united behind an integrationist agenda. Integrationists achieved success in breaking down discriminatory legal barriers but ultimately failed to dismantle the structural bases of inequality. The pent-up frustration caused by concentrated poverty and segregation exploded in the Watts Rebellion. Japanese Americans came to be identified as a "model minority," whose acceptance into the middle-class validated mainstream society's claim to being "colorblind" while signifying that the hardship of blacks was self-produced.

MPACT Scores for Scott Tadao Kurashige

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-09-15 10:49:58

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Students under Scott Tadao Kurashige

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None