Lesson 20: the Failure of Compromise

T R A N S F O R M I N G A M E R I C A F I N A L S C R I P T

TITLE: Lesson 23 – “Life in the Fast Lane”

WRITER: Gretchen Dyer

PRODUCER: Julia Dyer

DRAFT: FINAL

DATE: December 15, 2004 Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  1

V I S U A L A U D I O

FADE IN: Introduction (1:33) Music up 1. stock footage of 80s, including NARRATOR: In the final decades of the 20th computers, pagers, stock market, rush hour at commuter station, etc. century, Americans experienced rapidly

accelerating social change.

2. archival footage of Americans at ‘80s POP SONG (The Eagles): Life in the fast work and at play, e.g., working in office, working out at gym, playing lane…. sports, bungee jumping, etc.

Surely make you lose your mind…..

Life in the fast lane…… 3. archival footage of Americans at NARRATOR: Living life in the fast lane had its work, driving in heavy traffic, charging purchases with credit rewards. But it also took a toll on a population cards, eating drive-thru fast food, etc. that grew increasingly stressed out, over-

extended, and exhausted by its own success.

‘80s SONG (cont.): Life in the fast lane….

Surely make you lose your mind….

NARRATOR: For many, the promised “good

life” remained out of reach. While some

Americans did prosper in the eighties, most were

far from rich.

SONG (cont.): Life in the fast lane….. Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  2

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, growing numbers of

poor and homeless struggled to survive, barely

registering in the national consciousness. 4. footage of gay rights parades, pro- Americans living in the 1980s and 1990s choice marches, anti-abortion rallies, anti-gay rights rallies, etc. experienced greater personal freedom than any demonstrating backlash generation before them. 5. footage of immigrants, punk New faces challenged traditional notions of what rockers, gay Americans, members of right-wing militias, etc. it meant to be an American. 6. relevant footage As Americans enjoyed new freedoms and

explored new identities, they encountered the

challenge that has confronted every generation

of Americans – how to advance equality without

infringing on liberty.

Segment One: Living in America (8:32)

Learning objective: 2. Examine the major social issues of the era, including family lifestyles, welfare reform, health care and personal security.

7. Montage: clips from Lifestyles of TV HOST ROBIN LEACH: Settle easy, open the Rich and Famous up that bottle of champagne because here

comes “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”.

Music up 8. clips of tv commercials advertising NARRATOR: A hundred years after the Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  3

luxury cars, designer clothes, excesses of the Gilded Age, popular culture once jewelry, etc. again promoted the privileges and luxuries of

being rich. 9. clips from popular TV show And the American public was eager to partake. “Dynasty”, Donald Trump, etc.

‘80s POP SONG (The O’Jays):

Money….money….money….money….

Mo-o-o-ney! 10.footage of Ronald Reagan talking PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: We’re the about America as “a place where a person can still get rich” party that wants to see an America in which

people can still get rich.

SONG (cont.):

Money….money….money….money….. 11.Intercut TV commercials, footage of NARRATOR: The culture of wealth celebrated Americans shopping in malls, charging items on credit cards. materialism and consumption, promoting a vision

of the good life that only money could buy. 12.Susan Strasser on camera SUSAN STRASSER (06:14): The aspirations

Super: Susan Strasser, University that people have to stuff…to things…to of Delaware expensive items are encouraged by the culture

13.footage of shopping malls, people and encouraged among masses of people in purchasing items with credit cards ways that they haven’t been before. What we

see in the 1980s and 1990s is the extension of

credit to many, many people and really puts Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  4

people in the position of believing that they can

have anything they want. 14.people purchasing items with credit TV COMMERCIAL: ....so bring your Visa card. cards SUSAN STRASSER (06:14): Anybody with a

Visa card can go into Neiman Marcus and buy

something. 15.Clip from Wall Street: “Greed is ACTOR (in Wall Street): Greed, for lack of a good.” better word, is good. Clip from Wall Street: “Greed is NICK GILLESPIE (04:10): One good thing that good.” we can say about a culture of greed, or a culture

of wealth, is that it motivated people. 16.Nick Gillespie on camera (04:11) The idea of wanting and of going and

Super: Nick Gillespie, Reason getting something is actually a great engine of Magazine activity, of dynamism, of change, and of growth

in an economy and among individuals. When

you see something that you desire, you figure out

ways to get it. And on the whole, what people

were going for in the ‘80s were things like bigger

houses or better education for their children,

more things that would make their lives

interesting, fun, enjoyable.

17.Music video ‘80s POP SONG (Madonna): You’ve got to

make him….express yourself… Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  5

18.Archival footage illustrating cultural NARRATOR: The ‘80s were also a period of diversity, including MTV, TV shows with black or Hispanic stars, ethnic increasing personal freedom in American life. An festivals, etc. Also 24 hours news (CNN) increasing emphasis on diversity and a thriving

pop culture all combined to give Americans

greater opportunities for individual self-

expression. 19.b-roll: Ellen Wright SONG (cont.): …..express yourself! 20.Wright family pics ELLEN WRIGHT (9366, 16:03:57): I was a child

21.Ellen Wright on camera of the ‘80s. And I certainly loved growing up in Super: Ellen Wright the ‘80s.

22.stock/archival footage of 80s pop ELLEN WRIGHT (9365, 15:08:04): I love culture: e.g., Rubik’s Cube, Prince, Tiffany, mall culture, Michael anything that came from the ‘80s. I love the Jackson music videos, Flashdance (find this on the “Decade: the 80s” Rubik’s cube, I love Prince, even though he’s still tape in the stock library) out now. I love all the music, everything. I’m a

big ‘80s fan.

23.Diane Swann-Wright on camera DIANNE SWANN-WRIGHT (12:06) What I’ve Super: Dianne Swann-Wright noticed about Ellen is that the media has really

broadened her world. It isn’t just the presence of

African-Americans in the media, but she

identifies with a lot of other people across the

world and a lot of other philosophies that I Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  6

wouldn’t even touch. 24.Ellen Wright on camera ELLEN WRIGHT (16:05:31:00): I felt like I was

free to be whoever I wanted to be within limits. I

think that there were certain things that I would

not have done. Like, I don’t think I would ever

have been able to, like shave my head or color

my hair.

25.Madonna music video ‘80s POP SONG (Madonna): We are living in

a material world…

And I am a material girl….. 26.archival footage from TV news NARRATOR: In the early 1980’s a new shows on “yuppies”, designer drugs, gourmet food, designer generation of college educated Americans clothes, BMWs, luxury apartments, etc. entered professional life. Rising incomes and

falling birth rates contributed to the development

of a new social class. “Yuppies” were young,

urban professionals – hip, successful, people

who consumed avidly. Clip from “Three’s Company” TV Three’s Company theme song: Come and show knock on our door… 27.Archival footage of women in the NARRATOR: Young people who postponed workplace, young urban singles in the city, clips from “Three’s marriage and childbearing explored a variety of Company” lifestyles for singles, while a new generation of

educated, financially independent women Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  7

experienced a freedom few women of earlier

generations had known.

‘80s POP SONG (Dolly Parton): Working 9

to 5, what a way to make a living…. 28.Peg Burns on camera PEG BURNS (18:13): I think it was an

Super: Peggy Burns-Deloria interesting moment for women. I think it was a

moment where women had seen their mothers

not pursue, necessarily, careers and not have

those options. And it was the starting point of

where you could pursue that possibility.

PHILIP DELORIA (16:16): My wife started, as I 29.Philip Deloria on camera did, as a public school teacher, as an elementary

school teacher, and then went to work for the Super: Philip Deloria Xerox Corporation and became a really star

salesperson. 30.Peg Burns on camera PEG BURNs (18:18): I was in the middle of a

cultural change and at that point, I wasn’t so 31.pics of Peg at Xerox in 1980s aware of it. I mean, I’m not that well-versed on

feminist theory and, you know, feminist rhetoric,

but I was living it.

PHILIP DELORIA (16:12): The year that Peg Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  8

and I got married I actually quit teaching and

started playing music and coaching basketball

and stringing some other stuff together. And she

actually allowed me, in a lot of ways, the freedom

to do these kinds of things.

32.Clip from Leave It to Beaver TV ANNOUNCER: Leave it to Beaver….

NARRATOR: While Americans were still 33.Archival footage of same sex families, interracial families, single watching reruns of Leave It to Beaver on parents with children, etc television, many were living in families that didn’t

reflect the traditional ideal. 34.Peg Burns on camera PEG BURNS (19:08): I kind of grew up with the

Ward and June Cleaver household. My kids

won’t say that. They’ll reflect back and it’ll be

kind of different. 35.Deloria family b-roll PHILIP DELORIA (17:01): The way that our

family functions now, I think, is we try to do a

pretty equitable kind of split. Certainly I’ve tried

to do a lot of the daycare and the shuttling and

those kinds of things. For me, it’s really

important for our kids to see - hey, you know

what, women can do everything, you know, that Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  9

men can do and a lot of times they can do it

better. And there’s no reason to think that my

daughter shouldn’t have the same kind of career.

So when my daughter says I want to be a geo-

archaeologist, I want my daughter to always say

something like that. 36.footage of gay rally and protesters PROTESTER (nats): We’re trying to tell the

wicked to repent of their wicked ways.

RALLY CROWD: Shame….shame….shame. 37.archival footage of openly gay NARRATOR: Americans had more choices than couples, drug users, etc. ever, but greater freedom sometimes led to

greater conflict. 38.Archival footage of “Just Say No” Drug use climbed in every social class during the campaign, American planes spraying drug crops; crack addicts 1980’s, as many Americans took a more casual in urban ghettoes and police arresting suspected users/dealers attitude toward recreational drugs. But for

others, illegal drugs represented a menace that

required resolute action, and the U.S.

government declared a ‘War on Drugs’.

NANCY REAGAN: ….and if you’re ever offered

drugs, just say no! 39.archival footage of police arrests, NARRATOR: Drugs were, in part, responsible overcrowded prisons, clips from violent movies such as Rambo, Die for an increase in violence in American cities. Hard, etc. Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  10

The government cracked down on violent and

non-violent offenders, increasing arrests and

introducing stiffer sentencing laws. The nation

built more prisons to house its criminals and

hired more prison guards to watch over them. 40.Archival footage of political NARRATOR: The rapid social change of the protesters on both sides of contentious issues ‘80s and ‘90s expanded the horizons of many

41.film clips of movies about violence Americans, but it also produced resistance and and drugs from 80’s – e.g., Falling Down, Boys ‘n the Hood, etc. backlash. The confusion and conflict fostered a 42.clips from major violent events of climate of uncertainty and fear from which some 80s and 90s, e.g., Oklahoma city bombing, Branch Davidian standoff wished only to retreat. 43.Charlene McAden on camera CHARLENE McADEN: I looked at the things in

Super: Charlene McAden the world that I saw happening and I told the

kids, “It’s okay if you don’t have children. I don’t

think this world is a good place to raise children”,

because of the drugs and, it seemed, the

violence and every place you looked, it was…it

seemed to me to be unhealthy for babies. And

Sherry told me that, “Mother, if every generation

felt like that, we wouldn’t have a world.” And she

said, “Don’t you think that in the past they felt the

same way? What about when the atom bomb

went off? Don’t you think that people thought Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  11

that this world wasn’t a good one to bring people

in?” And I thought, “Well, I guess you’re right.”

She said it’s to each generation to deal with what

is happening then.

Segment Two: Immigration: The Next Generation (6:36)

Learning objectives: 3. Analyze the causes and consequences of recent immigration to America.

44.drawings of pilgrims, Mayflower, Music up pictures/photos of 19th century immigrants, archival footage of 20th century immigrants NARRATOR: America has always been a land of immigrants. A century ago, most came from 45.footage of traffic at U.S./Mexican borders; immigrants arriving at U.S. Europe. But in recent decades, changes in international customs immigration law have opened the nation’s doors

to a new wave of immigrants, who once again

changed the face of America. 46.Judy Wu on camera JUDY WU (13:06:50): The 1965 Immigration

Super: Judy Wu, Ohio State Act completely transformed the Asian-American University community and I would argue, completely

47.stock footage of Asian transforms America. It really changes the last neighborhoods, e.g., NY or SF Chinatown, Vietnamese important immigration act which is the 1924 neighborhoods in Houston, etc. Immigration Act. The 1965 Immigration Act Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  12

allocates an equal number for every country in

the world – 20,000. It allows Asian-Americans to

come in on the same basis as any other country

in the world. So now they constitute about 4% of

the American population - 10 to 12 million. 48.Yung family b-roll Judy Yung (05:10): The 1965 Act said that

family reunification was one of the top 49.pics of Judy Yung’s mother, preferences. So if you had relatives in China, brothers in China you could sponsor them under the 1965 Act.

50.Judy Yung on camera (05:09) Now my mother immigrated in ’41, 1941, Super: Judy Yung before this happened, but one of the promises

that she made when she left China to come to

this country was that she would find a way to

bring her two brothers from China to the United

States when she got here. 51.footage, photos of China in 70’s, (05:10:29) So after the 1965 Act passed, my Nixon in China, etc. mother immediately began going to classes and 52.pics of Judy Yung’s brothers in America trying to learn English and get ready for passing

the citizenship test so that she can become a

U.S. citizen. So in 1972 she was able to send

her brother from Hong Kong, sponsor him to

come to the United States. And he brought his Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  13

wife and his wife had children here. And then

later when he became a citizen, he was able to

send for the other brother from China, after 1979

when that became possible. 53.footage of Hispanic neighborhoods NARRATOR: The Immigration Act of 1965 also in Texas, California propelled a dramatic rise in Latino immigration,

increasing ethnic diversity in the society as a

whole and within the immigrant communities

themselves. 54.Guadalupe San Miguel on camera GUADALUPE SAN MIGUEL (2:04:51): You

Super: Guadalupe San Miguel, cannot assume now that if you see an individual Jr., University of Houston that is of Latin American background that that

individual is Mexican, or you cannot assume that

that individual is Puerto Rican. So we need a

new term…and many people are turning to the

term Latino. When you have people, for

example, from Guatemala and El Salvador

settling down in communities that are

predominantly Mexican, you start talking about a

blending of cultures and a differentiation of Latino

culture. 55.archival footage of Chinatown, East NARRATOR: Traditionally, immigrants have L.A., etc – cut to shots of Indian immigrants in southeastern U.S., migrated to the major population centers where Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  14

Middle Eastern immigrant they joined large, established immigrant communities in Midwest communities. But in recent years, many smaller

towns and less populous states have also been

transformed by immigration. 56.Mayor John Fagut on camera on JOHN FAGOT (15:01): In the early ‘90s, IBP camera Meat Packing came to the community and with Super: John Fagot, Mayor Lexington, Nebraska that our community grew from 5,000 people to 57.b-roll Lexington, NE including 10,000 people in just a few short months. And schools, meat packing plant with that came a lot of diversity. 58.cont’d above (15:02:39) We’re in the heart of Nebraska. We

59.Lexington, NE b-roll aren’t in a big city, so very rarely did you see

different cultures or different ethnic groups. And

with the influx, we’ve had the opportunity to

realize a lot of the different cultures from all over

the world and, for me, I think it’s a very, very

positive step. 60.Eli Vasquez on camera ELI VASQUEZ (14:01): We were the first ones

Super: Eli Vasquez to move in, maybe a month after it opened, we

moved to Lexington here and that was in 1991.

It’s changed a whole lot because when we first

got here there weren’t many Hispanic people. 61.Eli Vasquez on camera ELI VASQUEZ (14:02): You kind of stood out

from everybody else, out of the crowd. As more Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  15

and more, it just started growing and we’ve seen

more type of our people come here. We relaxed

and we liked the town afterwards because it was

really quiet, a nice place to grow. 62.b-roll of elementary school class in nats Lexington, NE 63.Mayor Fagot on camera JOHN FAGOT (15:02): There were some

language barriers and it made it a little more

difficult to realize what each other expected in

the community. And so that was probably the

biggest hurdle that we had to face. 64.Mayor Fagut on camera (15:09) We have a lot of ESL classes teaching

65.Lexington, NE b-roll them English, but it’s also given our children the

opportunity to learn Spanish. And I think the way

the world is changing, North American continent

is changing, people that are bilingual are going to

be the ones that are going to be at the head of

the line. 66.Judy Yung and nephews/nieces in JUDY YUNG (nats): When Grandma and Chinatown Grandpa first moved back to San Francisco from

Menlo Park, they lived in Chinatown. And that

building over there is where your grandma and

all the rest of the family lived in 1946 until 1952 – Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  16

on the second floor of that building. 67.footage of 2nd generation Asian NARRATOR: First generation immigrants may Americans, Hispanic Americans, etc. in high schools, colleges, public find it difficult to make the transition to living in spaces the United States, torn between their ethnic

origins and their new identity as Americans. For

their children and grandchildren who are born in

the United States, ethnic identity may be less

fixed.

JUDY YUNG (nats): So this is the spot that…. 68.Judy Wu on camera JUDY WU (13:13:45): Throughout the history of

Asian-Americans there has been this struggle of

how to identify oneself, how to culturally situate

oneself. Are they Americans? Are they Asians?

I think from the dominant society, regardless of

self-constructions of identity, they’re often viewed

as foreign. 69.Judy Yung on camera JUDY YUNG (05:23:59): I was living in

70.Yung family b-roll, e.g., footage of Chinatown and going to Chinese school and Judy Yung showing nieces and nephews around Chinatown living in a home that was very ‘chinafied’. And

then yet in American school, I was being taught

what’s expected of me as an American. I was

always torn between my identities - am I an Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  17

American or am I Chinese? And I figured, okay,

I’m both. But with my nieces and nephews, the

third generation of Chinese-Americans in my

family, they have no question that they are

Americans first. They are Americans of Chinese

descent.

Segment Three: Race Matters (7:48)

Learning objective: 4. Examine the state of race relations and the ongoing debates about affirmative action in America.

71.archival pics & footage Music representing Jim Crow segregation in late 19th/early 20th century NARRATOR: The long and painful history of 72.footage of Martin Luther King and Civil Rights movement race relations in America did not end with the

Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. 73.Christopher Edley on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY: The first part of the

Super: Christopher Edley, School new civil rights agenda, frankly, is to continue the of Law, UC Berkeley work on the old agenda – the traditional anti-

discrimination agenda, because discrimination 74.–footage of blacks on college campuses, in white collar jobs still exists in many forms in many places. But the 75.intercut with footage of second part is to think about the strategies that impoverished black neighborhoods, inner city schools can create economic opportunities for upward Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  18

mobility in education, for example, in

employment, that create the possibility over time

of narrowing many of these gaps. 76.archival footage of students NARRATOR: Few issues have been more protesting against and in favor of affirmative action divisive than the one surrounding affirmative

action, a program first introduced by President

Lyndon B. Johnson. 77.archival clip of LBJ PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON: You do

not take a person who for years has been

hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up

to the starting line of a race and then say, “You

are free to compete with all the others,” and still

justly believe that you have been completely fair. 78.Christopher Edley on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (20:18): I think the

simplest way to think about affirmative action is

that it refers to a policy that involves paying

attention to race or gender or any other

immutable characteristic and using that

characteristic as a factor in decision making,

decision making about distributing burdens and

benefits, distributing resources, etc. 79.cont’d above (20:23) Colleges and universities have generally

80.footage of college campus strongly supported affirmative action because including students of various races Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  19

they see that kind of inclusivity as an ingredient

of academic excellence in their institution.

Students learn from each other, not just from the

professor, and students have to be prepared to

go out and be leaders in communities that are

increasingly diverse. 81.affirmative actions protests NARRATOR: From the beginning, affirmative

action was challenged by those who felt that it

constituted preferential treatment for minorities,

and violated constitutional principles of equality. 82.Christopher Edley on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (20:22): It’s not

costless to make decisions using race or gender

as a criteria, as a factor in decision making. The

question is are there circumstances in which that

cost is worth paying and that’s really the question

that the law frames. In cases like the affirmative

action decision involving the University of

Michigan, we’re faced with this question of when

this seems to be necessary in order to achieve

some deeply important social objective. 83.Christopher Edley, Jr. on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (21:06): At issue in

Michigan was whether diversity could provide the

compelling interest the Constitution requires in Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  20

order to do race sensitive affirmative action. And

the court ruled, yes it can, at least in higher

education. 84.Ted Spencer on camera TED SPENCER (21:07): We had to prove that

Super: Ted Spencer, University of the value of diversity was strong enough that Michigan people…that the entire population of this country

benefited from it. And so in order for us to do

that, we had to gather the support of businesses,

the academic community, the military. And what

that meant was that when we presented our case

to the court, we had perhaps the largest number

of amicus briefs, briefs in favor of our particular

point of view, of any case of this type in the

country. 85.Christopher Edley on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (21:10): What the

friend of the court briefs demonstrated to the

justices is that the practice of affirmative action,

and in particular the need for racial and ethnic

inclusion in these key gateway institutions, has

become so clear to so many leaders of society

that to strike down affirmative action nationwide

would have been truly radical. So in an

interesting sense, it’s not just the liberal impulses Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  21

of a couple of the justices, but also the

conservative impulses, the desire not to be too

radical that worked together to preserve

affirmative action. 86.Christopher Edley on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY: The second question

was whether or not, given the compelling

interest, was the specific policy adopted by

Michigan narrowly tailored – that’s the phrase,

narrowly tailored – to pursue that interest. And

there the court divided, saying that the

undergraduate plan in Michigan which used a

points system to admit students and awarded a

fixed number of points based on racial diversity,

they viewed that as being too mechanical, too

rigid. While not a quota, it smells a little bit like a

quota and that they declared was

unconstitutional. 87.Ted Spencer TED SPENCER (21:10): They suggested to us

that the law school was a great roadmap,

because in their opinion the law school did not

use points, but they had a very holistic,

individualistic review process, which included

race but also it gave students an opportunity to Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  22

talk about themselves, to talk about reasons why

diversity was important to them. 88.Tania Brown on camera TANIA BROWN (21:26:11): I think the

Super: Tania Brown university’s use of race as a factor has had an

amazingly positive experience on the academic

and social lives of the students in this

educational community. 89.cont’d above TANIA BROWN (21:25): When you have

students from a plethora of backgrounds

interacting and then you kind of leave, you know,

with something different than you walked in with. 90.Claire Morrissey on camera CLAIR MORRISSEY (02:16): I graduated with a

Super: Clair Morrissey great deal of friends from a lot of different

backgrounds and now that I’m going to graduate

school, I’m actually kind of scared that I’m not

going to be able to recreate that. I think

Michigan’s pretty unique that way. CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (20:21): Affirmative

action is, in some sense, controversial because

many people who are not directly benefited, say

for example, white men, have the sense, often

incorrectly, that they’re being denied some set of

opportunities or at least the chances of their Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  23

winning those opportunities are somehow

diminished because of the affirmative action

policy.

Ellen Wright on camera ELLEN WRIGHT (15:12:09): At the Baltimore

Super: Ellen Wright Zoo, I began working there right after I graduated

from college, about a year after I graduated

there. But there was one gentleman at the zoo,

he was a docent. We were driving back from a

program one day and one of the things he said to

me was, “The only reason why you have this job

is because of the color of your skin, because

you’re a black girl.” And it stunned me. And I

remember that being the first incident where I felt

as if the color of my skin really does maybe, you

know, it stays with me and it’s there and it’s

something that is…that people see and assume

things about me. And I think that the gentleman

who initially said that comment probably must

have felt frustrated and must have felt like, “Why

is she here, who is she?” , you know….you

know, he was pretty angry on some levels.

CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (20:14): The fights that Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  24

we see today in affirmative action all reflect a

basic tension between those who want the future

to come quickly and those who want to cling to

the status quo. That’s a continuing theme in the

civil rights struggle. It’s not going to go away

because race is very hard….very difficult

business.

Summary Analysis: Harder Than Rocket Science (2:36)

Learning objective: 5. Assess the meaning of the major social developments of this era.

91.Reprise images from program Music

NARRATOR: As the 20th century drew to a

close, notions of freedom, identity, and equality

continued to evolve, provoking conflict and crisis

as Americans struggled to define what it meant

to be free, equal and American. 92.Christopher Edley on camera CHRISTOPHER EDLEY (21:20): I’d like to say

that dealing with race is not rocket science….it’s

Super: Christopher Edley, School harder than rocket science. Rocket science is – of Law, UC Berkeley put a man on the moon….ten years, it’s done. Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  25

Race is – generations since Brown v. Board and

we’re still trying to get it right. 93.cont’d above (21:19) The color lines of which W.E.B. Dubois

spoke at the beginning of the 20th century, the

color lines are very deep and, in many respects,

more complicated with the growth of the Latino

population, with the exploding growth of the

Asian population in this country. It’s no longer a

black/white issue. It’s much more complicated

than that. 94.Judy Wu on camera JUDY WU (13:17:19): Oftentimes we think

Super: Judy Wu, Ohio State about race in black and white terms. University

(13:16) The fact that there have been such large

numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin

America since 1965, that this really can change

the composition of people in the United States.

At the same time there is a resistance to

broadening the category of America and

American to include some of those individuals. 95.Guadalupe San Miguel on camera GUADALUPE SAN MIGUEL (02:19): You have

exciting things going on in the society but those Super: Guadalupe San Miguel, exciting things are creating anxieties among Jr., University of Houston Transforming America • TA123 – FINAL • Life in the Fast Lane  12/15//04  26

people, because some people don’t know how to

react to it. Some people say, “This is not the

America I grew up in”, and want to revert back to

the way it was in the ‘50s and ‘60s. But I think

others are saying, “We need to accept this

diversity.” 96.Nick Gillespie on camera NICK GILLESPIE (05:10:18): Americans at the

Super: Nick Gillespie, Reason beginning of the 21st century not only realize that Magazine there are more ways of being in the world as an

individual, but they’re much more comfortable

with that idea, whether we’re talking about

women’s roles in the workplace and the home,

men’s roles in the workplace and the home,

alternative sexuality, ethnic identity, mixing. 97.Nick Gillespie on camera NICK GILLESPIE (5:10:52): I think one of the

great developments in the ‘80s and ‘90s was the

globalization, not simply of culture and

commerce, but also of identity. We’re all

mongrels now and we all kind of like being

mongrels. It gives us a lot of options. It gives us a

lot of choices and it allows us to kind of

reconfigure and revise ourselves over time.