Republican Dominance and Opponents 1981-92

Question 1

Reagan’s economic policy - family income

Answer 1

1981 persuaded Congress to pass most budget requests

Reduced the budget of 212 fed programmes - food stamps, student loans and child nutrition programmes

Reduced the level and range of benefits for ‘safety net’ programmes- Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). 13 million children living below the poverty line in 1984 with many being offspring to single mothers who depend heavily on AFDC and majority being black

Tax rises by Reagan called ‘revenue enhancement’ hit the less wealthy hardest - The average income of the poorest decreased by $1,300 per annum. The number of homeless people increased from 200,000 to 400,000

Recovery by 1987 but only to 1973 levels

Only ½ of families maintained their standards of living in the 1980s usually due to both parents working

Question 2

Reagan’s economic policy - employment rights

Answer 2

Opposed minimum wage- obstructed congressional attempts to increase it

Hostile to unions- 1981, 12,000 air-traffic controllers went on strike for higher wages ignoring the no striking action for fed employees in their contract, fired them all calling in the military to do their job. Liberals and Labour leaders horrified

Whereas Conservatives were impressed especially when striking action plummeted as major companies followed suit

Appointed over 400 conservatives to the judiciary- late 80s rulings made it difficult for women, minorities, elderly and disabled when suing over discrimination

Question 3

Reagan’s economic policy - deregulation

Answer 3

Cut the staff of regulatory agencies by 25% on average - failed to differentiate between stifling economic regulations and ones that protected the environment/health and safety

50% fall in prosecution for illegal disposal of hazardous waste- adverse impact on the environment

Ensured bodies like Occupational Safety and Health Administration made decisions in favour of business and against labour- decreased protection against accidents and unhealthy working conditions

Number of personnel in the Consumer Product Safety Commission was cut by 38%- less active in ensuring the product customers purchased were safe

Question 4

Reagan’s economic policy - congressional and public resistance

Answer 4

Later budgets were substantially rewritten and Congress was not cooperative with his many attempts to reduce the size of fed gov

Vetoed the renewal of the $18 billion Clean Water Act- overrode his veto of the virtually identical in 1987 Water Quality Control Act

Social security, Medicare and veterans benefits were the most valued policies so left them basically intact along with school lunches and Head Start (free breakfast for poor kids)

The Department of Agriculture’s - save money by having ketchup and pickle relish substitute part of the vegetable portion in fed-subbed school lunches was publicly ridiculed then dropped

Question 5

Reagan’s economic policy - economic successes

Answer 5

The tax reform bill of 1986 simplified the tax code:
Increased taxes on corporations and capital gains
Lowered the top rate of taxation from 50% to 28%
Raised the bottom rate of taxation form 11% to 15%

US experienced its longest- ever period of economic growth in peacetime:
1980-1988 inflation fell from 13.5-4.7%
Unemployment fell from 7-5.2%
16 million new jobs were created

External factors e.g. fall in oil prices due to finding new oil sources

Defence expenditure and tax cuts led to a budget deficit which would cause problems for future Americans and their families

Question 6

Reagan’s economic policy - growth of trade deficit

Answer 6

Mid-1980’s American went from the world’s largest creator to the world’s largest debtor nation

Owned to changing consumer spending- rocketed because of the rise of new discount stores e.g. Walmart as they boasted they were the friend of the consumer (low-cost, good quality goods and widely available)

Cheap goods were mainly made in low-wage foreign factories contributing to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the US and the trade deficit

Deficit rose from $38 billion 1982 to over $150 billion per annum by the second half of the decade

On average every week of Reagan-Bush years (1981-92) American consumers spent $2 billion more on imported goods than foreigners on American goods

Question 7

Reagan’s economic policy - government action

Answer 7

Reagan administration persuaded Japanese manufacturers to voluntarily limit their exports to the US in 1981

Japan responded by opening manufacturing plants in the US giving employment to thousands of Americans

The gov imposed at 25% tariff on imported trucks and 3% tariff on imported cars

The trade deficit still continued to grow

The annual trade deficit with Japan passed over the $50 billion mark in 1985

Late 80s and early 90s many Americans were accusing Japan of launching an economic offensive against the USA

Question 8

The significance of Bush raising taxes

Answer 8

Elected because of his ‘no more new taxes’ promise but pledged a decrease in the $2.7 trillion deficit upon which $200 billion interest was being paid annually
Agreed with Congress in Nov 1990 that taxes must rise

Signalled his belief that the fed gov had spent beyond its means- did nothing to help workers worried about family income

Demonstrated the difficulties facing a democratic nation living beyond its means- politicians in a search of votes made promises they couldn’t keep

Infuriated conservative Republicans who dominated the 1992 Republican Convention and weakened Bush’s bid for re-election

Tax rise caused many voters to reject Bush - poor campaigner who appeared helpless and uninterested in the face of recssion, lost to the charismatic Bill Clinton in the 1992 election, workers felt Clinton could ‘feel their pain’, nation seemed to be swinging back to the left electing a Democratic president and Congress

Question 9

Religious Rights promotion of traditional values

Answer 9

Through organisation, the media and politicians emerging as a political force in the 1970s and 1980s

Preached against change instead they should follow the Bible

Baptist minister Jerry Falwell established the “Moral Majority” in 1978 as ‘pro-life, pro-family, pro-morality and pro-American

in 1980 he helped raised millions for Reagan’s campaign and estimated his ‘Moral Majority’ registered about a million voters – disbanded in 1989

Christian Coalition (1989) – 1992 had 150,000 people – claimed to control the Republican Party in southern states

Question 10

Reagan failed the Religious Right

Answer 10

During his campaign in 1980, he emphasised his disgust at 60s excesses and permissiveness opposing feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Wanted constitutional amendments to ban abortion and restore prayer in public schools (banned by SCOTUS in 1962), but could not get the necessary 2/3 majority in Congress. The Religious Right felt he didn’t try very hard on these issues and grew disappointed with him during his presidency.

He failed to endorse the Family Protection Act 1981-1982 which would prohibit abortion, restore school prayer, tax breaks for wives and mothers who stayed home, denial of teenage contraception unless parents were notified. Congress did not pass it

Question 11

Reagan helped the Religious Right

Answer 11

Had a highly successful judicial strategy which helped him pursue victory for social conservatism.
Successful nomination of nearly 400 conservative judges ‘Reaganised’ the judiciary, and helped compensate for his failure to win congressional approval for his conservative social agenda.

By the end of his presidency, he had appointed over 50% of the federal judiciary. The election of George H.W. Bush as his successor ensured that 3/4 of federal judges were conservative through Reagan or Bush appointees by 1992.

Question 12

Religious Rights campaign against abortion

Answer 12

Methods
It used emotive mailings and slogans and used ‘reformed’ sinners to advertise its causes - former feminists were encouraged show how they had renounced feminism.

Support of Republican politicians who sought their votes. Even moderate Republicans felt they had to oppose abortion. George H.W. Bush was pro-choice like his wife, but changed to please the RR and said in a 1988 campaign that ‘abortion is murder’.

Appropriated civil rights movement tactics, including ‘rights’ language that emphasised the rights of the unborn child (vs the rights of the mother), and Operation Rescue’s sit-ins

Federal government disappointed the RR
Following Justice Brennan’s retirement from the Supreme Court in 1990, RR hoped Bush would nominate a known pro- lifer, but he nominated David Souter, whose views on abortion were unknown.

1981 – Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court, upsetting the RR because of her sympathy for women needing abortions.

On the other hand, the Religious Right was sometimes encouraged by federal government actions. For example:

Federal gov pleased the RR
Reagan persuaded Congress to fund ‘chastity clinics’ where women were encouraged to avoid sex.

Reagan’s judicial appointments meant several Supreme Court rulings that hindered abortions – Webster v. Reproductive Services of Missouri (1989) - ruled Missouri could deny women access to public abortion facilities - hoped others would follow but only 3 states did

Question 13

Religious Rights campaign against homosexuality

Answer 13

Leading campaigners against homosexuality were:
Televangelist Pat Robertson – 1966 – The 700 Club, a Christian news and television programme that is still running – promoted traditional values, like writing to donors that the ‘socialist’ feminist agenda encouraged ‘women to leave their husbands, kill [abort] their children, destroy capitalism and become lesbians’.

1988 – he declared himself a Republican presidential candidate but lost to George H.W. Bush – did not help his cause by publicly praying for God to divert a hurricane from Virginia to New York (New York had more voters than Virginia).

1989 – established the Christian Coalition, which lobbied against gay rights and abortion, and was pro-school prayer

Concerned Women for America

Pat Buchanan – 1992 – George H.W. Bush won the Republican presidential nomination but allowed defeated Republican rival Pat Buchanan to deliver the opening speech at the National Convention. Buchanan said that the Democrat presidential candidate Bill Clinton and his vice-presidential candidate Al Gore constituted the ‘most pro-gay and pro-lesbian ticket in history’

Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority and televangelist Jim Bakker and his PTL (‘Praise the Lord’) Club (in 1988, Bakker was indicted and convicted for large-scale fraud and conspiracy).

Question 14

The Impact of the AIDS Crisis

Answer 14

Impacted the lives of homosexuals, drug users and haemophiliacs which impacted their public perception

HIV was discovered in 1984 but there was no treatment making it a death sentence and you were ostracised

Most young gay men with 5,500 died by 1985 and 46,000 in 1989

1989 there were over 80,000 confirmed but a possible 10x more

It was associated with immorality fuelling anti-gay sentiment - led many to stay in the closet meaning many said they did not know a gay man

1987 - created ACTUP (Aids coalition to unleash power) followed by the 1st Pride Parade in New York which demanded more research and equal rights

Question 15

Reagan and Aids

Answer 15

After his friend died from AIDS in 1985 Reagan asked Surgeon General Koop for a report on the problem which suggest 3 remedies and called for sex ed even in elementary.
However, Reagan refused to advocate for the use of condoms or speak to Congress to get help to fund an investigation into curing the disease.
His inaction had the support of conservatives who opposed the promotion of condoms and sex ed.
Social conservatism meant HIV infection in the US was far higher than Western Europe which had advocating about needle exchanges and sex ed

Question 16

Ryan White Care Act

Answer 16

1990
Improved federal government assitance to those suffering of Aids
Ryan had contracted it through a blood transfusion as he is a haemophiliac
He was highly articulate and was able to change some of the public perception of Aids
After his death, Congress passed the act which granted $220,00 million to help the victims of the ‘gay plague’

Question 17

The growing problems with drugs

Answer 17

In 1985, under 1% of Americans surveyed counted illicit drugs as a major national problem. The main concerns were economic and foreign policy issues. However, by 1989, over 50% of those surveyed said that drug use was the gravest threat to national security.
Reasons for this change:

1 - the inexpensive cocaine derivative ‘crack’ became widely available. Even poor ghetto inhabitants could afford crack which was a temporary escape or social mobility for black and Hispanic Americans who could make fortunes selling it.

2 - media coverage of drug use increased. Stories of addicts staging robberies to finance their addiction and newborn babies in agony from withdrawal - frightening yet compelling reading.

3 - the Cold War was winding down in the mid-to late-80s and some contemporaries felt that the drug war was replacing the Cold War as the major national security issue in the minds of Americans.

4 - the President and First Lady placed a great deal of emphasis on the drug problem

Question 18

Nancy Regan’s ‘Just Say No campaign’

Answer 18

Anti-drug campaign obtained a great deal of media coverage from visiting nurseries that treated ‘crack babies’ telling the media what they saw as heartbreaking condmeing it as immoral and criminal

The best cure was the promoting religion, strict enforcement of anti-drug laws and harsh school discipline

1986 Reagan order federal workplaces to be ‘drug free’ and called for routine urine tests on workers in ‘sensitive’ jobs e.g. public health and national security

1988 the Drug-Free Workplace Act was passed - unis and contractors receiving fed gov money had to maintain this

Rather than money going towards those stuck in poverty (often the underlying reason for drug use), $10 billion per annum was spent on law enforcement and imprisonment

750,000 were charged yearly mainly for using marijuana

Meant people risked losing their jobs if they were an addict and had a positive urine test for

Ultimately both Reagan and Bush were unsuccessful as there was no change on the availability or price of drugs - futile

Question 19

Robert Bork

Answer 19

Reagan’s nomination for SCOTUS saw most Republicans approve but Democrats loathed him

Bork attacked some liberal SCOTUS decisions, defended a Connecticut law that would have denied contraceptives to married couples, opposed abortion, claimed women’s rights were not included in the 14th Amendment, criticised racial equality

Black organisations (NAACP) and women’s organisations (NOW) worked hard to stir up vociferous popular opposition and engaged in exceptionally aggressive lobbying of Senators, which contributed greatly to the rejection

Question 20

Growth of inter-party division in the Republican Party

Answer 20

Despite Bush winning the election the conservative Republican attacks contributed to his defeat in 1992 like Pat Buchanan as he vewed Bush as an insincere conservative

1992 campaign rival Buchanan attacked him saying he’d start a ‘culture war’ against liberal influence in gov, education, churches and Holywood

Buchanan had considerable support after members were disillusioned with Bush’s tax hike and lack of enthusiasm for the Religious Right social agenda-

Bush wouldn’t mind a gay cabinet member

Question 21

Growth of inter-party division in the Democrat Party

Answer 21

Less bitter than the Republican party

Old-style still desired the Great Society policy but recognised that more centrists were more electable

New Democrats e.g. Bill Clinton advocated a balanced fed gov budget and decreased fed gov intervention

Clinton said the era of big gov was over and wanted to end welfare as we know it- ‘cease to be a way of life’

Question 22

Trends in Youth Culture - Heavy Metal

Answer 22

Heavy metal was first popular among young, white males in the early 1970s and then revived and dominated youth culture in the 1980s. Popular performers included a 1983 LA group like Dokken sung about males victimised by a femme fatale.

Radio was uninterested in heavy metal, but MTV played a vital role in promoting it, so that heavy metal’s market share of popular music rose from 8% in 1983 to 20% in 1984.

Opposition the right-wing Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC).
1985 – PMRC successfully pressured MTV to cease its promotion of metal with explicit lyrics and sexually explicit and violent videos. HOWEVER, as heavy metal became more popular, MTV created a weekly late-night programme devoted to it, Headbangers’ Ball – decreased complaints and averaged 1.3 million viewers weekly

1988 – 11/50 bestselling albums were metal, meant it lost its outsider status. Became more commercial sounding, which contributed to its fragmentation into several sub-genres.

The heavy metal scene attracted alienated young white male fans. Few women or black Americans were part of the heavy metal scene. However, the great and continuing black influence on, and popularity in, American music was demonstrated when, by 1990, black pop and rap were overtaking heavy metal at the forefront of youth culture

Question 23

Trends in Youth Culture - rap

Answer 23

Roots in the gang cultures of the South Bronx and Harlem ghettos.

First commercially recorded in 1979, hip-hop’s rap music covered topical and controversial themes such as ‘How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?’ (1980).

Black separatist New York group Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back album cover (1988) seemed to show incarcerated black Americans, a reference to the disproportionate number of young black males in jail.

Rap revealed generational and class divides in black music.
Ignored by black radio, which one publicist blamed on the ‘buppies’ (black urban professionals) who dominated rap.

Criticised by older black Americans as: bigoted (Public Enemy made anti-semitic comments), sexist (Ice Cube attributed lyrics in his 1980 album AMERIKKKA’s Most Wanted to the black masculinity crisis) violent (one 1988 hit was ‘Fuck Tha Police’ by N.W.A.)

A few women like Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa became rappers and male rap groups started a Stop the Violence campaign in 1988. By the late 1980s, rap artists such as MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice demonstrated how rap was becoming mainstream.

Rap was the focal point of several movies about ghetto life and a white rapper group sang ‘Proud to Be Black.’

Question 24

Trends in Youth Culture - Pop Music on trial

Answer 24

A group of wives of influential Washington politicians established the PMRC, motivated they said by lyrics that are sexually explicit, excessively violent, or glorify the use of drugs and alcohol’

The music industry pointed out that it would be hard to police and rate lyrics like movies as there were thousands of recordings each year and lyrics could be misinterpreted. Undeterred, the ‘Washington wives’ mobilised their husbands in the Senate, which began investigating the PMRC’s accusations in 1985.

1988 – PMRC added the occult and suicide as dangers that pop music presented. The music industry finally accepted a voluntary rating system because of great pressure from Washington and the publicity resulting from many publicised suicides - 2 Chicago teens suicide notes contained the lyrics of Metallica’s ‘Fade to Black’. Metallica rebutted that many young people said their music stopped them killing themselves.

Jello Biafra (of the Dead Kennedys) was arrested in 1986 for distributing harmful material to a minor- a young LA girl had bought the group’s Frankenchrist album, which contained a poster picturing ten penises and vulvae. They were found not guilty, but legal costs nearly ruined them

Ice-T’s ‘Cop Killer’ sung of Black discontent with the ‘not guilty’ verdict on police who beat up fleeing Black American suspect Rodney King. Critics included George H.W. Bush and conservatives and police organisations across America called for a boycott of the label and Ice-T agreed to delete it from the Body Count album in future, raising the extent to which cultural challenge was influenced by financial considerations.

Question 25

Trends in Youth Culture - Non-oppositional youth culture

Answer 25

Many participated in non-oppositional manifestations of popular culture. They were fans of sport or mainstream movies and some seamlessly developed into what Time magazine christened ‘yuppies’ (young, upwardly mobile urban professionals).

Yuppies liked making money, BMWs, designer casual gear, gourmet food, high-tech sound equipment, jogging. high-fibre diets and natural-fibre clothes.

A Berkeley study of yuppies concluded that American individualism had left the community-conscious citizen behind and morphed into the ‘economic man’. The popular TV show Family Ties (1982-89) was about two ex-hippie and liberal parents with a young Republican son and a highly materialistic daughter, both believers in Reaganomics. It demonstrated the increased fragmentation of American society, a trend accelerated by new developments in technology

Question 26

Technology on youth culture - PCs

Answer 26

IBM sold small desktop personal computers for the office or home.
Bill Gates launched Microsoft 1983 - Word process for finance and games
User-friendly software - nearly 1/4 had one in the early 90s
By 1992 Microsoft’s annual revenue reached $1 billion making Gates the richest man in the world

Question 27

Technology on youth culture - VCRs and remote control devices

Answer 27

Let viewers avoid ads and allow what they watched (channel-surfing)
VCR was made in the 60s but became cheap in the 1980s due to mass production - a result of the Supreme Court that recording Tv shows does not violate copyright laws
3/4 of homes owned a VCR which enabled renting films from video stores allowing a personalised entertainment

Question 28

Technology on youth culture - CDs and Cassettes

Answer 28

Popularity grew in the 1970s previously vinyls so they could buy prerecorded cassettes or blanks which they could record things on
They played them on boomboxes or Sony Walkmans
CDs went on the market in the late 1970s - better sound, more resistant to damage, easier to use
Allowed for more personalisation leading to pop music fragmentation and portable entertainment

Question 29

Growth of cable television and MTV

Answer 29

1981 non-stop music
85% of a predominantly white + suburban audience of 12-34
Fastest growing channel with 23 million viewers by 1982
1981-83 was mostly rock which inspired the development of other channels like Black Entertainment Television

Question 30

Growth of cable television and MTV - racism and sexism

Answer 30

Initially criticised by the popular press for lack of Black artists - showed Micheal Jackson’s Thriller when popularity soared in 1982
Focused appealing to young, white men -
Women were objectified - Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love
New feminist anthems - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun in 1984
1/10 MTV awards nominations were women
Madonna got a lot of money objectifying herself which raised questions on who exploited who

Question 31

Social issues in film and TV - homosexuality

Answer 31

Wary of homosexual in film and TV – Religious Right pressure led Hollywood to not touch gay issues or topics

1981 – NBC aired Love, Sindey – about a gay artist who was surrogate father to his friend’s daughter. But, NBC got cold feet and instead he became a strange man who didn’t date.

Longtime Companion (1989) – 1st widley released to deal with AIDS – critical acclaim but small audiences with under 1% of the receits of the years top-grosser Lost Crusade

Question 32

Social issues in film and TV - Sex

Answer 32

Reagan felt there was too much sex and violence on TV, but deregulation policies weakened the FCC, so sex and violence continued and increased

Led to films like Basic Instinct (1992) and sitcoms like Beverely Hills (1990-2000) showing having sex was ‘cool’ and being a virgin was embarassing in The Frensh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-6)

Planned Parenthood Federation - bought front-page ads in newspaper and magazines - ‘they did it 20,000 times on television last year, but nobody used a condom’

1988 - The Last Temptation of Christ - depiction of Jesus Christ fantasising about marriage to and sex with Mary Magdalene upset the Religious Right. Conservatives such as Concerned Women for America organised opposition with camapigns which were effective as some movei chains refused to screen the movie. (Box office costs barley covered production)

Question 33

Social issues in film and TV - Violence

Answer 33

Both Hollywood and TV were cticsed for gratuitious vioelcen 1981-82

The Silence of the Lambs raised issues of whether depicitions of extreme violence were acceptable – great critical acclaim but made some critics uneasy as eneded on a reference to canabalism

The A-Team (1983-87) - cartoonish violence – Divided some felt that it might have an undesirable influence on the 7 million viewers/42 million aged 2-11.

Question 34

Social issues in film and TV - violence on Cable TV

Answer 34

1988 - Senator Paul Simon found a gory movie murder scene in 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre while channel surfing

Persuaded Congress to pass a 1990 Act – but was ineffective as late 1992, Bill Clinton told TV Guide that the networks and producers should be ‘deglamourizing mindless sex and violence’ - meaning the act failed at its aim to do that

Question 35

Social issues in film and TV - war

Answer 35

A favourite theme for many moviegoers and television viewers

Anti-war films – Born on the Fourth of July (1989) was about the memoirs of disabled and disillusioned Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic.

More common was films showing the glory of war and ‘machismo’ and had regressive depictions of women, reflecting the conservative revival of the Reagan years e.g. An Officer and a Gentleman 1982 portrayed the man as an admiral individual whil the woman wanted to caputre an officer husband

Question 36

Black American’s Political status 1992

Answer 36

Reagan appointed a black cabinet member, and Colin Powell headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff under H.W. Bush.

More black candidates were elected to office. In 1988, Jesse Jackson ran for Democratic presidential nomination until controversy on anti-Semitic remarks.

1980s – NAACP lawyers won cases - meant changes to congressional districts and voting systems assisted the election of thousands of black officials by the 1990s.

Black people in Congress – 45 in 1990 to 69 in 1992. Cities continued to elect black mayors – Chicago 1984 and Philadelphia 1988.

Rejection of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court

Limits – Black Americans rarely won state-wide elections;1992 only Black governor was Douglas Wilder of Virginia 1990-94, and only black Senator was Carol Moseley Brun from Illinois.

Question 37

Black American’s Legal status 1992

Answer 37

After a car chase in LA in 1991, white police caught up with black suspect Rodney King and were filmed beating him up. Riots erupted when an all-white jury found the police innocent; 55 died, 2,300 were injured and riots followed in Atlanta, Birmingham and Chicago.

1992 - Sheriff’s Department of Volusia County, Florida, stopped a disproportionate number of black and Hispanic American drivers on the portion of the interstate highway that ran through the county. While they made up only 5% of the drivers on that portion of the road, they were 70% of those stopped by the police, and were stopped for far longer periods than white drivers were.

Disproportionate number of Black men in jail - common black viewpoint was that this denoted unequal status and the police victimising Black Americans.

Question 38

Black American’s economic status

Answer 38

1970 - 1990 - around 30% of black Americans lived in poverty - they were twice as likely to be poor than their white counterparts

Black unemployment was twice of whites

Some opportunities decreased; 2/3 of adult Black men in Chicago’s South Side were employed in 1960, compared to 1/3 in1990.

1983 - 38% of black high-school students enrolled in college immediately after high school graduation compared to 1992, 52% of black high-school graduates enrolled directly in college - still lower than 64% of whites.

Growing black middle class as average black income rose by nearly 20% between 1981 and 1992

Question 39

Impact of Black successes - business, sports, pop culture and politics

Answer 39

Business
1980s - more production/consumption of traditional black American foods meant success for black American companies
1989 - Glory Foods sold traditional dishes like cornbread mixes, okra and beans. Its products were available nationwide in supermarkets.
Jerry Rubin - 1960s - in anti war protests, helped found the Yippies and joined the Black Power movement. 1980, he became a Wall Street stockbroker and established the Business Networking Salons - organised parties to enable professionals and entrepreneurs to network

Sports
Black sports stars such as basketball’s Michael Jordan were national heroes. (1992 Jordan got $21 million in royalties). Black athletes dominated in the 80s. 1986, 63% of top football players, 33% of baseball players and 75% of basketball players
Few Black people in management and reinforced prejudices that Blacks were better naturally at sport and aggressive and lack intellect

Pop culture
The Cosby Show, about a black physician and family man with a lawyer wife and exceptionally well-behaved children, was the top-rated sitcom for most of the late 1980s (over 30 million American households watched it in 1986 and 1987).
A high proportion of musical superstars were black Americans, including Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.
19/50 top albums of 1985 were by black artists, and 8/12 in 1986.

Politics
Jesse Jackson - impressive run for Democratic Presidential nomination - attracted white support at the 1988 Democratic National Convention - 2nd to Michael Dukakis

Question 40

Hispanic American’s political status

Answer 40

Hispanic American organisations like LULAC and the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational Fund (MALDEF, established in 1968) became more effective in their lobbying. For example, they helped persuade Congress to make the Immigration Reform Control Act (1986) more sympathetic to the status of undocumented people.

Reagan appointed the first Hispanic cabinet member in 1989 and the number of Hispanic Americans in the US House of Representatives rose from five in 1970 to ten in 1980 and 17 in 1992.

Question 41

Hispanic American’s legal status

Answer 41

1992 - Hispanics were somewhat represented in police departments but there was continuing racism in law enforcement and the legal system

1992 - Sheriff’s Department of Volusia County, Florida, stopped a disproportionate number of Black and Hispanic American drivers on the portion of the interstate highway that ran through the county. While they made up only 5% of the drivers on that portion of the road, they were 70% of those stopped by the police, and were stopped for far longer periods than white drivers were.

Question 42

Hispanic American’s economic status

Answer 42

Around 1/4 of Hispanic Americans lived below the poverty line.
Growing Hispanic middle class

Percentage of Hispanic Americans with some college education increased by 1/3.

The average Hispanic income in rose from $10,524 in 1975 to $28,822 in 1992

Question 43

Asian American’s legal status

Answer 43

Asian Americans were equally convinced of racism within the legal system after a case that began in 1982.

Chinese- American Vincent Chin was clubbed to death in Detroit by two white car workers who thought he was Japanese and blamed for car industry layoffs. There was disgust when the killers’ sentence were only 3 years’ probation

Question 44

Native American’s political status

Answer 44

Many Native Americans preferred separatism - 1990 - ¼ Native Americans lived on tribal reservations.

Tribes become more assertive over sovereignty and land rights – activism focussed on lobbying on issues – often effective – the Supreme Court supported Native American tribal sovereignty and tax powers in Merrion (1982).

Duro v. Reina (1990), the Supreme Court ruled that tribal courts did not have criminal jurisdiction over someone who was not a member of the tribe, but that tribes also possess undisputed power to exclude persons deemed to be undesirable from tribal lands or eject them
Where authority to try and punish an offender rests outside the tribe, tribal officers may exercise their power to detain and transport him to the proper authorities.
Native Americans had put their rights and status firmly on the national agenda since the 1960s, while not yet attaining all that they sought. Duro demonstrated that full tribal sovereignty was not possible within the United States.

Question 45

Native American’s legal status

Answer 45

Although Native American tribes had increased powers of law enforcement on reservations after 1974, they remained caught between their cultural traditions and the dominant legal system

1990 - Supreme Court ruled states could deny employment to peyote users because peyote was an illicit drug not part of an essential religious practice (Native Americans traditionally used peyote for religious experiences)

Question 46

Native American’s economic right

Answer 46

Native American income was less than half the national average

Number of Native Americans with a college education increased by 20% between 1970 and 1990

Question 47

The extent of racial tolerance and integration by 1992 - the role of the federal government

Answer 47

Battle over affirmative action - increasingly conservative Supreme Court limited the scope of affirmative action programmes in City of Richmond v. Croson Company (1989) which ruled against Richmond City Council’s policy, which guaranteed that a minimum of 30% of the value of city contracts would go to minority-owned firms.

Democrat-controlled Congress retaliated with CR bill providing new legal remedies for workplace mistreatment (1990), but Bush vetoed it, claiming that it would lead to trivial lawsuits and force businesses to set racial hiring quotas - HOWEVER, anxious to improve his image with women and minorities after the Justice Thomas confirmation issue, Bush accepted a altered version in 1991

1984 - Grove City College v. Bell - ruled only area of GCC that required compliance with anti discrimination laws was financial aid programme - Congress retaliated with 1988 Civil Rights Restoration Act that Reagan vetoed which was overridden. It stipulated that recipients of federal funds must comply with civil rights laws in all areas.

Reagan had more success with the courts than Congress, due to a ‘Reaganisation’ of the judiciary. Most of the 368 federal judges appointed were young white males. Only 7 were Black, 15 Hispanic and 2 Asian - unlikely to promote integration + racial tolerance

Question 48

The extent of racial tolerance and integration by 1992 - tolerance

Answer 48

1986 - Californian voters expressed their decreased tolerance of the Hispanicisation of the state in approving Proposition 63 (‘English is the Official Language of California” to constitution) by two to one, but in 1989 the LA School Board agreed to bilingual education

Chief Justice Rehnquist (1985) and Reagan (1988) made remarks about ‘inferior’ Native American culture, but Congress demonstrated respect in the Native American Grave Protection and Reparation Act (1990), which enabled Native Americans to retrieve remains of their ancestors from museums and universities

The Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Art’s show ‘The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920’ rightly emphasised white mistreatment of Native Americans, but it infuriated conservatives and led some Republicans to threaten to cut the museum’s budget.

White audiences enjoyed watching The Cosby Show, but were less enthusiastic about television depictions of romantic relationships between black and white Americans. In 1989, the cancellation of The Robert Guillaume Show was due to inability to cope with interracial relationships.

Question 49

Women and Work

Answer 49

The Religious Right blamed feminism for more women in the workforce, but it was the financial calculation that getting a job best served their families’ well-being that lay behind the increasing number of working women
1980 -52% 1990 - 57.8%

The economic status of women was improving but remained inferior to that of men, so groups such as the NOW campaigned for equal pay and job opportunities. Although women’s wages were rising (they were 62 per cent of men’s wages in 1980 but 72 per cent in 1990), they remained markedly unequal. Furthermore, women held fewer executive and managerial positions and less than one-fifth of doctors and lawyers were women. Continuing inequality reflected both sexism and many women’s desire to interrupt their careers to have children

Sexual harassment tolerancedecreased as women became more assertive and the government more supportive.
1980 - EEOC classed sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination, prohibited by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Supreme Court agreed in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986). Enabled women to take legal action over sexual harassment in the workplace so that by 1991 the number of sexual harassment cases filed annually reached 6,000.

The Tailhook Scandal - alleged over 100 Navy and Marine officers sexually assaulted or harassed around 80 women. Rear Admiral Duvall Williams led the investigation, but the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Barbara Pope, heard him say, ‘A lot of female Navy pilots are go-go dancers, topless dancers or hookers’. This led to another investigation, and over 100 resignations (among them Rear Admiral Williams) and demotions

Question 50

Impact of Women at Work

Answer 50

Social conservatives emphasised what they perceived as the negative impact of women in the workplace. They asserted that working women took men’s jobs and working mothers could not look after their families properly and that women in the workplace contributed to the destruction of the family through higher divorce rates and ‘latch key kids’. Newsweek magazine lamented divorce rates and wondered whether working ‘supermums’ were damaging their kids.

On the other hand, liberals and organisations like NOW argued that employment opportunities had a positive impact upon women, helping them to fulfil their potential and achieve satisfaction.
It is difficult to deny that the increasing number of waged women had a dramatic impact on family finances, helping many American families maintain their standard of living during the 1970s and 1980s.
This is not to say that women were uniformly enthralled by participation in the workplace - the impact upon the many who were doing the ‘double shift’ (paid work and housework) was frequently negative: ‘I need a wife’ was a common joke among American working women

Question 51

Reproductive Rights and Social conservatism

Answer 51

Roe v. Wade (1973) seemed to guarantee women’s reproductive rights but a series of Supreme Court rulings like Webster v. Reproductive Services of Missouri

Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) - upheld a Pennsylvania state law that required women to undergo counselling and then wait 24 hours before the abortion but struck down the Pennsylvania provision that a married woman had to produce ‘a signed statement that she has notified her spouse that she is about to undergo an abortion’. Justice O’Connor argued that the many women who were victims of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of their husbands would have good reasons not to tell them about an abortion
Issues highlighted by PP v. C
O’Connor was the first female Supreme Court justice. Appointed her in 1991, and signaled changing status of women - even a conservative president felt to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court and her arguments proved the importance of female representation in giving the female viewpoint in the federal gov.
Case served as a reminder that decisions about women were made by a federal government dominated by elderly, white men.

Question 52

Women in Politics

Answer 52

Some progress in executive - After Ford appointed a woman to cabinet, most successors did likewise - Reagan failed to do so and was widely criticised.

Geraldine Ferraro - Democrat’s 1984 VP candidate in the presidential election seemed progressive - sexist responses showed women were not close to equal political status. The Denver Post asked, ‘What if she is supposed to push the button to fire the missiles and she can’t because she’s just done her nails?’

Some progress in legislation - more women elected - 1979-80 - still only 16 Congresswomen and no female Senators verses 1991-92, with 28 Congresswomen and 2 Senators, but a real turning point came in 1992, with Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court

1969 - Black Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm declared that ‘in the political world I have been far oftener discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black’.
Idea racism was less acceptable than sexism seemed evident in the 1991 confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual harassment by black law professor Anita Hill. Hill’s testimony dismissal by a 96% male Senate revitalised women campaigners who had been relatively quiet in the conservative era.

With Democrat focus on under-representation in Congress and declaration that 1992 was the ‘Year of the Woman’, it prompted unprecedented numbers of women to stand for local, state and national office in 1992 - number of women elected doubled; 1993 Congress -47 women in the House and 7 women among the 50 Senators but still constituted dramatic under-representation.

Question 53

Impact of Women in politics

Answer 53

More women served in state legislatures and the House.
Martha Griffiths - vital part in getting Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.

Women were crucial in passing legislation that helped women, like the 1992 Child Support Recovery Act, made to ensure that delinquent fathers paid child support, and the 1988 Women’s Business Ownership Act, giving financial aid to women to help establish businesses.

1992 - Dianne Feinstein, (San Francisco’s first female mayor), and Barbara Boxer were both elected to the Senate as California’s two Senators.