Marcia Eymann moved to California in 1990 to take a job at the Oakland Museum of California and from her orientation she was invited to look inside the lives of U.S. Vietnam war veterans who came to California during that time. Eymann would later help develop an exhibition at the museum that would depict California’s role in the Vietnam era. This exhibition along with articles written by various sources who lived in California during this time would collectively create the book What’s Going On? The book, along with first hand experiences from various people, portrays Californians, during the Vietnam era, as a type of people who take it upon themselves, when government officials wouldn’t, to stand together against injustice.
It is debatable of exactly when the United States entered into the conflict in Vietnam, but what is certain is that in the early 60s, a majority of people wanted to “return to traditional American values” (14) and by 1967 “over 40 …show more content…
When the civil rights movement reached California, African Americans in the Bay Area and Los Angeles would make activism visible amongst the antiwar protests taking place. The Watts riot in South Central Los Angeles launched a “mass protest against police abuse” (102) and in its aftermath would bring about the phrase “Black Power,” which as Clayborne Carson, author of chapter six, said made him “aware [of] the anti-white tone of much power rhetoric” and that it was so prominent that it was hard to “remain attached to the diverging worlds of the Black Power movement and the antiwar New Left.” (105) Carson, however, ultimately concludes that he was “fortunate to have witnessed the transformation” and views California as a place where “racial boundaries… [is] a place where there is much to be learned by crossing them.” (111) This viewpoint became one of the many legacies that the Vietnam War had on
It is debatable of exactly when the United States entered into the conflict in Vietnam, but what is certain is that in the early 60s, a majority of people wanted to “return to traditional American values” (14) and by 1967 “over 40 …show more content…
When the civil rights movement reached California, African Americans in the Bay Area and Los Angeles would make activism visible amongst the antiwar protests taking place. The Watts riot in South Central Los Angeles launched a “mass protest against police abuse” (102) and in its aftermath would bring about the phrase “Black Power,” which as Clayborne Carson, author of chapter six, said made him “aware [of] the anti-white tone of much power rhetoric” and that it was so prominent that it was hard to “remain attached to the diverging worlds of the Black Power movement and the antiwar New Left.” (105) Carson, however, ultimately concludes that he was “fortunate to have witnessed the transformation” and views California as a place where “racial boundaries… [is] a place where there is much to be learned by crossing them.” (111) This viewpoint became one of the many legacies that the Vietnam War had on