What evidence does LBJ offer as proof of the widening economic gap between black and white Americans? How does he explain this gap?

During the Election of 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson proposed The Great Society to mend the economic gap between the black and white. His eyes were opened to the invisible poor by Michael Harrington's The Other America which exposed the other side of America, instead of prosperous, ideal American dream that is often portrayed throughout the world.

There was government assistance for the "deserving" but there was nothing being done about the poor. Because of Harrington's book, the injustice of the publicized and LBJ was left with nothing else to do than make some changes about it, especially to gain support throughout the election.

He actually took action and decreased the gap throughout governmental institutions such as welfare, medicare and medicaid. He knew that mainly minorities were affected by the widespread poverty throughout the United States, but with the African Americans being affected the most because of "past injustices and present prejudices".
The gap was not only economical, but throughout education, job opportunities, benefits received and public segregation and moral. There was an increasing gap in the unemployment rate between the black and the white. The African Americans weren't receiving the equality promised throughout.

The cartoon shows the slavery that they bound to for many different years. Then how they were squashed to the ground by the very confident, "deserving", whites throughout. Then the whites apologize for the racism, for making the African Americans feel unwanted, undeserving, but don't offer to lift them up because it would be "reverse racism". This cartoon is attacking the whites for being so cynical about LBJ's new Great Society policy of Affirmative Action, which gave the blacks the advantage for once over the whites. It is as though the whites are saying that it is OK for them to have pushed down and taken advantage of the blacks for so many years because they apologized, but if they were to make them equal it would be as though they were the victims because they wouldn't have the power of them anymore.

LBJ's idea of the Great Society definitely contributed to the Civil Rights Movement and created jobs and much more opportunity for the black community.

Cheerfull Robots

According to C. Wright Mills, Americans during the 1950s were Cheerful Robots. Using his excerpt, what you've read in the text, and heard in class, why is that description fitting (don't just repeat or rephrase what's in the Mills article).

After the war, many GI's were given checks. Money they had never had was handed to them to build a life. Many Americans took advantage of William Levitt's idea of suburbia and began lives in "Levittowns". The perfect American family exploded as husbands, wives, and children, preferably one son and one daughter, lived in cookie-cutter houses, with the perfect appliances inside and the perfect cars outside. All the homes were the same, there was no destination, perfecting the nickname C. Wright Mills had given Americans. The husband did his part by going to work each day while the wife attended to her domestic duties inside the home.

Keeping in mind that America was just victorious in the tragic world war, Americans worked hard to build and maintain the perfect American way. If there be any unhappiness inside or outside of the home, it was not to be shown. If the American wife was disappointed in her duties, she was simply prescribed the medication to make her happy again. Any feeling outside of contentment and bliss was highly discouraged and thought to be unpatriotic. The "Housewive Syndrome" was easily cured with the highly consumable tranquilizers like Miltown and Valium. They felt very isolated and helpless, yet it was not to be expressed.

The daily family routine of mother staying home while waving goodbye to her husband as he had his independent job, returning to a hot meal on the table was the norm of the 1950s and it definitely proves C. Wright Mills' reference of Americans as Cheerful Robots. It was the same for the majority of the country.

It was a horrible war. Millions killed worldwide, economics crashed, families torn apart, morality lost. Although FDR had tried to organize a United Nations prior to the war to prevent it from happening, it just didn't work out the way he wanted it to, more like back-fired on him. So, after the second, he found a way to work it together.
Many Americans were struggling with the fact that we were fighting racism abroad, the reason we were at war, yet we were protecting it at home. It seemed illogical to most Americans because it was. The war had lead to unifying the nation as everyone strived for a similar purpose – America to prosper and for loved ones to return home alive. As the war drew to an end, the leader of the allies tried once again to build up the United Nations, with the purpose that things could be talked out instead of fought out on the battle field.
They drew up a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It stated many absolutes about people being equal, how we were each born with the same capabilities, therefore should be given the same opportunities despite race, gender. It states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” What a great idea! The leaders of the United Nations definitely had a good idea of world peace, yet the execution is what counts.
There are many instances particularly in the United States that contradict this direct quotation for the Article. Since the foundation of America, the country has driven off slaves and “free” labor by the “less qualified”. The African Americans had fought for their freedom and suffrage from the very beginning, with little no progress, sometimes regressive. During the course of the war, the Public Law 45 Pace Amendment of 1943 was passed that said government wouldn’t respect collective bargaining from the agricultural industry or a minimum wage or maximum hours. They were once more discriminated against and not given the same rights as other “more qualified”, in the middle of wartime. Yet, the president wanted everyone to be given equal dignity and rights throughout the world.
Another example of this on the home front would be the Executive Order of 9066, which stated that the government had the right to preserve and protect areas that they were threatened by, indirectly meaning that Japanese Americans, about 80% native born Americans, were to be forced into interment, concentration camps striped of their belongs. Although the government was trying to fight for its country and do what it felt necessary to “preserve and protect areas” after the brutal attack of Pearl Harbor, it still contradicts the Human Rights declaration made at the UN to unify the world from another world war.
Although most like to disregard the hypocrisy going on within their own country, denying certain people groups rights, the United States eventually ratified the Declaration of Human Rights in order to maintain that there is no way but the American way to other countries throughout the world.