My kindergarten daughter recently had a “50’s day” where they could dress up like people did in the 50’s, poodles skirts, that kind of thing. I thought it silly, especially since the 50’s are ancient history to a 5-year old, even I was born well after that and so was the teacher. But then I got thinking about the stereotypical “50’s” image and how other races and ethnicities might see it differently.
Okay, off the bat, this thread is absolutely going to filled with stereotypes by its very nature, and that’s exactly what I’m interested in.
So, I’m as white as sour cream. Mayonnaise. My ancestry all goes back to Europe as far as records go. As far as I know, they all came from the mythical country of Caucasia.
As a result of that and TV and movies, when I think of the 1950’s, I think of poodle skirts and soda jerks and teenage freedom and cars and innocence and all that. All “fun” nostalgia. I imagine this is the generic “white person” version of the 50’s.
But what about other races? How do you think of the 50’s? From what I know, it wasn’t the best time for anybody unless you were white. Again, from general stereotypes, I’m thinking something like the following.
Blacks - segregation, discrimination, “back of the bus”, separate water fountains and restrooms, etc.
Japanese and other East Asians - heck, we were less than 10 years from having imprisoned lots of US citizens just for looking like the “Japs”.
Jewish - “Jews need not apply” (for a job), other discrimination.
Hispanics and Native Americans - also lots of discrimination.
Etc.
So, I guess what I’m asking, is if you are of a non-white ethnicity, what are your memories of the 50’s? Or what impressions of them were passed down from your parents/grandparents? What do you think of when you think of the “50’s”?
Many cultural groups had their own customs of the time. Jeri Curls as an example. For some groups that were dicriminated against it was also a time of hope, lot’s of social change occuring, so it wasn’t always bad memories. Also, things like Poodle Skirts were worn by an emerging group of modern teenagers who were developing a new culture. And like other eras, the image was usually exagerrated by the media.
My memories of the 50’s are few since I was so young, but Daniel Boone Coon Skin hats were a big thing.
I think the 50s were awful for non white women and I’d never want to live in the time. In my experience, only white people look back with nostalgia on it.
Cedric the Entertainer used to have a sketch comedy show on TV, and one sketch I remember had him as a waiter at a '50s nostalgia themed restaurant – first servile and obsequious, then, when he was told “late '50s,” militant.
Straight, white, cissexual males with no obvious physical deformities, neurological issues, or psychiatric problems, mainly, and not even all of those were entirely on roses. Ask the people who got drafted and sent to Korea, or who happened to be Socialists or atheists.
On the other hand, the vast majority of people have good memories of their childhoods. What should you do when your happy childhood memories are of a time others feel was a horrific embarrassment?
I would imagine that black people from the 50s didn’t feel as much under the iron boot heel of Whitey as much as people think.
Of course, nobody who wasn’t in their shoes knows how they felt, but, people in all stations of life usually make the best of it. Minorities didn’t wake up and weep, thinking of how they were forced to sit in the back of the bus. They would wake up and go to their jobs, look for jobs, switch jobs, etc… They even actually had lives.
Less opportunities, but, it wasn’t all Mississippi Burning.
October 1958: The Crisis - Google Books
So, at least as early as 1956 this woman was in a college/university.
They had their own lives and cultures, so, I’m sure that minorities are just as nostalgic as the Aryans.
I work with a lot of older (60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s) black people, and most of their stories of the time are told with smiles and nostalgia. Lots of stories of literally picking cotton in Mississippi, catching frogs in Alabama, wearing overalls and no shoes and teasing girls and everything white people are nostalgic about.Black girls wore poodle skirts, too.
Then there are the “…and I stood at that counter at Marshall Fields for 45 minutes before a woman whispered to me that I might as well go on home, 'cause they weren’t gonna serve no black woman there,” stories. True story; I’m going to sound horribly naive here, but what shocked me most about that story was that it took place in Chicago. Forgive me; I really didn’t know we practiced segregation like that up here!
Those break my heart, and make me mad, and I feel the need to apologize for things that happened decades before I was born.
But they are far outnumbered by the good stories. Thank goodness.
Let’s keep it real. There was certainly PLENTY about the 50’s that wasn’t peaches and cream, but for most people it wasn’t an every day, keep your eyes on the prize, hold on struggle, even in the most racist, backwards enclaves of the deep south. Black people can be nostalgic too.
I’ve given this same spiel before, but I’ll mention it again.
You’d be surprised at how much nostalgia many elderly black people have for the Fifties. No, NOBODY has fond memories of lynchings, Jim Crow, Bull Connor or the KKK, but there was a lot more to black life in the South pre-1964 than many white people realize.
Yes, segregation was evil, but it had some unintended benefits for the black community in many Southern towns.
Since Jim Crow laws forced ALL Southern blacks to live in the same parts of town, black doctors and businessmen and professionals had to live in the same communities as poorer blacks. They provided leadership and positive role models for their communities. The civil rights movement was led by such educated, middle-class black professionals.
Since blacks were barred from many stores, theaters and restaurants, black entrepreneurs built their OWN thriving local businesses.
The end of segregation was both necessary and desirable, but it came at a cost: prosperous blacks moved away from their old neighborhoods, leaving behind the poorest of their old neighbors. And small black-owned businesses often collapsed once segregation ended.
NOBODY in the black community wants a return to Jim Crow, but there are MANY dilapidated ghettoes in the South, filled with boarded-up shops and burned-out building, where elderly black ladies will shake their heads and tell you sadly, “This USED to be a wonderful neighborhood.”
Here’s another angle: don’t you think there are elderly Southern black men and women who were teens in the Fifties, and who have fond memories of dancing to Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Fats Domino?
Don’t you think there are elderly black men in Detroit who remember the Fifties as a time when there were plenty of high-paying factory jobs available, and when the Motor City was a safe place with a thriving music scene?
I don’t idealize ANY era, but even black folk have some good reasons to reflect on the Fifites and think, “It wasn’t Heaven, but things were better then than they’d ever been before, and seemed to be looking up. I wish I could be as optimistic now as I was then. I wish my grandkids could look forward to the kind of secure, high-wage job I had then.”
The women’s rights movement had similar consequences. Women used to be effectively barred from many professions. But there were some fields like nursing and teaching that were considered “woman’s work”. The result was that the women who worked in these jobs were incredibly qualified. When feminism opened up other opportunities for women, there was a huge drain in talent from nursing and teaching.
