The Double Edged Sword Analysis

Eric Wetzel Wetzel 1

996763008

HIS 174B Paper

The Double Edged Sword

The interwar decades of the early nineteen hundreds saw a period of new challenges facing America on the domestic front. One of the major changes that came about was the idea of racial passing. This was the idea of a member from one group of racial classification could be accepted into a different ethnic group and could “pass” by as a different race. The interwar decades saw tension towards immigrants and non-white races escalate due to the formation of work unions and the use of immigrants as strike breakers. Native born Americans became more and more hostile towards these immigrants, which caused them to have to try and pass into white society. Different ethnic groups formed together to unionize as stated by Lizabeth Cohen in her novel Making a New Deal. While she states that trying to pass into white culture can be beneficial she also argues that a “second-generation ethnic class” (Cohen 147) was created. This is also shown in Nella Larsens’ book Passing where she argues that although passing has some benefits, it comes at the greatest cost. She believes that living a life that is not true is a tragedy. The interwar periods saw a sudden shift of people trying to trend away from their own racial backgrounds and gain acceptance into main stream culture. Because of this, America was forced to adapt and create a nation that was more open to the acceptance of these ethnic groups.

The interwar decades were ones of high stress and turmoil in the United States. The Great Depression had crippled many people and the number of banks that were closing from

Wetzel 2 year to year was astonishing. This culminated in 1933 when almost four thou...

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...o gain success. Because of this, there were many victories for unions in the interwar periods and some of the success can be attributed to the consolidation of these groups. Even with the idea of assimilation, both authors argue that ethnic culture is essential to the lives of the people living in ethnic communities. Without this, they become a traitor to their own identity.

Overall, passing during this period contained a great amount of costs and benefits. Although one can argue that the benefits made the passing peoples’ lives better, it appears that the cost were of greater scale. The loss of one’s culture should not be overlooked just because of material benefits. Without culture, a group of ethnic people will soon be forgotten. The people during this time found a fairly good balance of passing, while still keeping their individual culture alive.