The Warmth of Other Suns Lesson Plan

How do the racial dynamics of Robert's Los Angeles differ from the racial dynamics that George and Ida Mae encounter in the the urban North?

In the North, George and Ida Mae encounter a strict yet clear racial hierarchy. The white Americans are at the top, white European immigrants are in the middle, and Black people (both migrant and northern-born) are at the bottom. In polyglot Los Angeles, the presence of many minority and immigrant groups—Mexican, Filipino, Japanese, and Chinese—created a shifting and opaque racial hierarchy. George and Ida Mae knew that a potential job would always be given to a white American or European immigrant first. In Robert's Los Angeles,...