Daniel Hurewitz, Bohemian Los Angeles, Chapters 5 and 6
Study Guide:
Chapter 5: United Nations in a City
Questions to think about:
1. The American communist party figures centrally in the emergence of an alliance between white and often Jewish leftists from Edendale and ethnic and racial minorities in Los Angeles from the 1930s to the 1950s. What was the intent of the Communists? Why would white radicals embrace this strategy? How successful was it in bringing minorities into the party?
2. What were the demographic characteristics of Los Angeles minorities in 1940? How did the war change those characteristics?
3. What was the impact of World War II on the understanding of race and racial issues in Los Angeles? What was the war’s ideological framework? Why did the war raise questions about ethnic origins of groups and their loyalties? How did the war against fascism transform white leaders ideas about prejudice and racial injustice? What were the consequences of the fear of a Japanese attack on the west coast? Why did Mexican youth become the target of official and public repression during the war? How were radical whites and non-radical whites affected by the racial conflicts in Los Angeles? Why did local white political leaders change attitudes toward racial injustice at wars end?
4. The onset of a Cold War against the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is seen by Hurewitz as having a negative impact on racial tolerance or inter-racialism (to use the term of that time)?
5. Where would you locate on the Bennett scale the efforts by white radicals in the late 1940s and early 1950s to develop a critique of “white chauvinism” and to cultivate empathy for and commitment to the struggles of minorities in Los Angeles? Why did these efforts inspire more repression by the State of California and local politicians?
6. What does Hurewitz see as the major achievement of white radicals with regard to understanding the struggles of minorities for racial justice? How did this relate to understanding group political identity?
Chapter 6: Getting Some Identity
1. The onset of a Cold War against the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is seen by Hurewitz as the beginnings of a new round of repression against homosexuals after World War II. Why were homosexuals linked with communists as a double threat to American security? What were the consequences of that linkage for homosexuals in government? In society?
2. Why is the emergence of the Mattachine Society important? What role did members of the Communist Party play in its emergence?
3. What were the goals of the Mattachine Society? Who was Harry Hay and why was he important to the formation of a homosexual identity? What did he believe defined a homosexual identity? Why weren’t other homosexuals persuaded by his point of view of homosexual identity?
4. Can you apply external and internal identity dynamics to Hurewitz’s reconstruction of Mattachine’s experience?