Xenophobia In The 1920s

Xenophobia, an extremely common phobia, is the “fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers” (“Xenophobia”). Society should celebrate the powerful gift of diversity, yet xenophobia, intolerance, and ignorance delay the development of a community made of many cultures and ethnicities that lives in unity. The 1920s were full of significant societal transformations and progressive advances; however, many people were resistant to partake in change due to a fear of diversity. During this crucial decade, society despised the boundary-pushing women, called flappers, who yearned for equality, independence, and liberation. After World War I, a widespread belief in nativism caused America to reduce the number of immigrants

During the 1920s, women were exposed to the ideas of independence and equality, therefore causing the rise of the flappers. During WWI, men abandoned their jobs in order to fight in the war, thus allowing many women to fill the new job openings. This newfound sense of drive and passion caused “approximately 1,600,000 women [to join] the workforce between 1914 and 1918” (S. Martin). When the men returned from the war, women were not ready to give up this new sense of liberation. The flappers pushed boundaries in both their dress and their ideals. Flappers were independent women who attended college, had jobs, smoked, consumed alcohol, and explored their sexuality. These daring women changed their appearance by cutting “[their] long locks of Victorian [style hair] to shoulder length. Hemlines of dresses rose dramatically to the knee. The cosmetics industry flowered as women used make-up in large numbers” (“Flappers”, USHistory.org). Furthermore, society viewed flappers as rebels because they “engaged in the active city nightlife. They frequented jazz clubs, vaudeville shows [and], speakeasies” (“Flappers”, USHistory.org). The older generations greatly censured these forward thinking women because they were drastically different from previous generations in both appearance and principles. Women, led by the groundbreaking flappers, were beginning to break free of the constraining

One of these many dreadful crimes, occurred on “April 1, 1921.—Alexander Johnson, a negro bell boy, of Dallas, Texas, was taken out by masked men, whipped, and the letters “K. K. K.” burned on his forehead with acid. He was said to have associated with white women” (Fry). Horrifically, the Second Klan obtained large amounts of members in response to the increasing power of Non-Protestant religious groups and to defend America’s purity as adultery and divorce became more common. The Ku Klux Klan became a household name and “by 1925, it had anywhere from 2 million to 5 million members and the sympathy or support of millions more” (Rothman). Additionally, a growing sense of superiority and distaste for other cultures also contributed to the astronomical growth of the KKK. The imperious and arrogant members of the KKK were “white, Anglo-[S]axon, Christian American citizens, both male and female”, and believed, “their race and religion [were] superior to those of people of other colors and religions” (Fisher). Any ethnicity or culture that differed from the standard of the KKK, especially Catholics, immigrants, divorcees, and African Americans, were targets of hate crimes. Throughout the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan clung to their outdated and ultimately deadly beliefs while the rest of society surged on to a modern