Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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is best known as the center of the renaissance of

African American

culture and politics

in the 1920s and 1930s, to which it gave its name. In the postwar period, Harlem became

firmly entrenched as a predominantly poor African American

neighborhood,

which has

nonetheless produced important political figures such as Representative Adam Clayton

Powell,

Jr.

, Malcolm X

and David

Dinkins,

the first African American

mayor

of New

York City. East or Spanish Harlem has also become a

Latino

center of culture and

political power.

Further reading

Lewis, D. (1981)

When Harlem Was in Vogue,

New York: Knopf.

MAX PAGE

Harlem Globetrotters

African American

basketball team formed by Jewish American Abe Sapperstein in

1927. The Globetrotters began as a serious team but gradually moved into the

entertainment business, touring with an “opposition” team, but actually showcasing

moves, which included, for example, Marques Haynes’ dribbling and Meadowlark

Lemon’s half-court hook, seldom seen in the National Basketball Association. Wider

audience interest grew following a 1951 film about the team’s early days, and a 1970s

cartoon show. Now over seventy years old, under African American ownership, and with

a completely new roster of players and opponents, the Globetrotters bring their unique

style of

basketball

to all parts of the world.

ROBERT GREGG

harm reduction

addiction

Harvard University

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 516

Ivy League

Hasidim

American Hasidim (literally “pious ones”) represent highly orthodox, socially

conservative followers of mystical leaders who revolutionized Central European Judaism

in the late eighteenth century. Hasidim arrived in the US in the 1940s, fleeing Nazi

destruction and shattered communities after the war. Many chose the US over Israel

because of the latter’s secularism: the US seemed to offer a better context for their highly

structured religious

community

Hasidim have settled by the thousands in the Williamsburg area of

New York

City and

a few other urban centers. Hasidic men, highly visible with their black hats, beards, hair,

dark coats and hats, have created specialized economic niches in photography and

diamonds. They are set apart by their commitment to community and religious practice

under the guidance of a rebbe, a charismatic spiritual leader. Differences in beliefs

nonetheless divide Hasidim into sometimes conflicting courts. New York may have 25 to

30 such courts, with between 100 and 500 families; the Lubavitcher court includes

12,000–15,000 people. Nonetheless, many Hasidim share a commitment to traditional

atriarchy religious education (and avoidance of secular colleges) and communal support.

As exclusive Hasidim enclaves have grown, conflicts have emerged with neighbors.

Tensions between Hasidim and

African Americans

in Crown Heights flared in 1981

after a traffic accident in which a young Hasid killed a Guyanese boy. The suburban

Kiryas Joel district also sued its school district to prevent women bus drivers from

transporting male students, pitting religious belief against gender equality (and losing).

Hasidim have also posed dilemmas for other Jews, whom they sometimes approach as

missionaries. Others, however, have sought to incorporate American marital and

sychological counseling into their traditional frameworks. In all these ways, Hasidim

grapple with the tensions of religious community and American identities.

Further reading

Mintz, J. (1992)

Hasidic People,

Cambridge, MA: Harvard.

GARY McDONOGH

hate crimes

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Criminal offenses committed by someone because of the actual or perceived group

characteristics of another person such as

race

ethnicity

. Over the past two decades,

these crimes of discrimination have become the focus of increased media, legislative and

law-enforcement attention in the US. Over forty

states

and the federal government have

some form of hate-crime law. The most frequently protected categories (in descending

order) are race,

religion, ethnicity,

gender, sexual orientation and disability

Many state hate-crime laws have penalties that are too light or coverage that is

incomplete. For instance, most states leave gays and lesbians outside of their protections.

The application of federal

civil-rights

law to hate crime is also substantially limited by

very narrow enumerated requirements. Attempts in 1997 and 1998 to broaden federal law

failed in congressional committees.

Hate crimes may also go unreported and are often misclassified by law enforcement

when reported. Only a small fraction of hate crimes are actually prosecuted under hate-

crime statutes. There are two main types of hate-crime statutes—stand-alone civil-rights

statutes and penaltyenhancement statutes. Stand-alone civil-rights laws generally punish

discriminatory crimes that violate a victim’s civil rights on the basis of a protectedstatus

category like race. Penalty-enhancement laws increase the punishment for an underlying

crime, such as an assault, when it is committed by an offender with a discriminatory

motivation against a protected group category.

The United States

Supreme Court

unanimously upheld the constitutionality of hate-

crime penalty-enhancement statutes in the 1993 case of

Wisconsin

Mitchell

. In a case

the previous year,

RAV

St. Paul,

however, the Supreme Court invalidated a poorly

drafted municipal ordinance that punished the use of threatening symbols based on the

ideology conveyed. Cross burning and other types of threats could be criminalized, the

court held, but the law must not target the offender’s underlying belief. That court

decision also had the effect of invalidating “hate-speech” codes at public

colleges

that

punished students for expressing bigoted ideas about others.

The FBI, which has been keeping statistics since 1991, reported 8,734 hate-crime

incidents in 1996. Race accounted for 61.6 percent of attacks, followed by religious-

based attacks (15.9 percent), sexual-orientation-

ased attacks (11.6 percent) and

ethnicity-based attacks (10.7 percent).

African Americans

were targeted for 42 percent

of all hate crimes, while

Jews

were also targeted (13 percent). Some cities and states,

particularly in rural or southern areas, did not meaningfully participate in the FBI’s data-

collection effort.

Over 90 percent of hate crimes are not committed by hate-group members or hard-core

hate mongers; about half are committed by young people under the age of twenty-one.

Many who commit these crimes do so for excitement as part of a group activity with

friends. Offenders usually rely on false or exaggerated stereotypes of a victim’s group to

ustify the attack.

Unlike crimes in general, hate crimes are disproportionately directed against

individuals as opposed to property. These victimizations are much more likely to involve

injury serial attacks, groups of offenders and subsequent civil disorder than non-hate

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 518

crimes.

Further reading

Levin, J. and McDevitt, J. (1993)

Hate Crimes: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and

Bloodshed,

New York: Plenum.

Levin, B. (1999)

Hate and Justice in America,

New York: Aspen.

BRIAN LEVIN

Hawai’ian archipelago

Commonly distilled into images of an island paradise of sun, surf and hula, the Hawai’ian

archipelago in fact consists of 132 islands, atolls and reefs (6,470 square miles), which

constitute, according to many travel magazines, the world’s favorite tropical-island

destination. Only seven of its largest islands provide residence to the 50th state’s 1.2

million citizens, agriculture, industry and tourists. This geologic system represents a

complexity and diversity that is only challenged by the unique culture that inhabits it.

This “authentic” Hawai’ian culture was first established by the ancient Hawai’ians—

“people of old”—and developed through the cultural contributions of each successive

ethnic group to acculturate in Hawai’i. Nonetheless, it is often eclipsed by the

manufactured cultural images that are advertised and subsequently produced in order to

maintain the 6 million plus tourists who visit annually.

It is important that the “authentic” culture actually includes multiple components. The

first is the native Hawai’ian cultural component and an indigenous population originating

in AD400–500 from the islands of Marquesas and Tahiti. Later components arise from

the cultural amalgam developed from immigrants of many ethnic origins that date from

the late eighteenth century onwards. Although these components differ significantly in

their relative ages, their contemporary interactions are virtually inseparable due to the

cultural fusion developed through the past 220 years of intense acculturation. Hence,

some argue that since there is no single dominant group, all Hawai’ians are minorities.

This ideology permeates the state’s cultural atmosphere.

The first settlers arrived in Hawai’i around AD 400 from Marquesas. Instigated by

unknown factors, these early Polynesians followed the land-faring birds they saw flying

far from their own shores in the hopes of finding a suitable new home. Five hundred to

six hundred years later, mass migration from Tahiti brought complicated religious and

class systems into Hawai’i’s cultural realm. These settlers used a stellar navigational

system focused on the North Star, or

Hokulea,

to transport people, animals and plants

between Tahiti and

Havaiki

—the mythical homeland of the gods that later became

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Hawai’i. To bring order to a newly developing society these Hawai’ians instituted the

rigid

kapu

system that dictated behavior in each facet of life. This system was guided by

a complex hierarchy of gods, ancestral spirits,

kahuna

(priests), and

ah’i

(chiefs). Their

culture was rich with

me/e

(song),

(chant) and hula. (In ancient times, the hula had

spiritual significance and was danced only by men—a far cry from its current tourist

sensuality)

At the time of Captain Cook’s “discovery” of Hawai’i in 1778, the Hawai’ian

opulation had grown to 300,000 or more. Within the next seventy years, previously

unknown diseases (smallpox, venereal diseases, measles, etc.) brought by sailors

decreased the Hawai’ian population to only 50,000. During the same period, the foreign

opulation increased, causing foreign governments to assert their influence in matters

ertaining to land and political power. First, the British influenced the establishment of a

monarchy Then, Russians and French tried to influence the developing political structure

to support their expansionist tendencies. Finally the Americans, primarily through early

missionary efforts, influenced the course of Hawai’ian history that led to the overthrow o

the monarchy and annexation.

By the 1870s, the sugar industry grew to dominate the economy Its ever-increasing

labor demand caused the importation of labor from around the world. These laborers

came as indentured servants or in similar bonded conditions. They came mostly from the

East (Japan, Okinawa, China, The Philippines), but also from European countries,

including Germany Norway Spain and Portugal (Azores and Madeira Islands). Their

absorption into mainstream society varied according to differing cultural practices

regarding intermarriage and the strength of community ties with their countries of origin.

However, as the laborers became aware of the hardships of contract labor and the

ossibilities off the plantation, many sought to leave the industry once their contracts

were fulfilled. In response to the growing discontent among these laborers, the Republic

of Hawai’i in 1890 passed legislation under which Asians, particularly Chinese, who left

agricultural work had to return to their country of origin. While some did so voluntarily

most preferred to continue reaping the relatively higher economic benefits in Hawai’i.

Hence, this stipulation froze the contract laborers’ situation and led to increased

intermarriage or the importation of spouses, mainly brides, from “home.”

The Hawai’ian monarchy which started with Kamehameha I in the eighteenth century

constituted Hawai’i’s government until its illegal overthrow in 1893. This government

developed through the ancient governance of ali’i and Kamehameha I’s forceful

consolidation of the chiefdoms of Kauai and Ni’ihau, Maui’ Hawai’i, Oahu, Molokai and

Lanai. However, with the increase in the number of “outsiders,” conflicting beliefs

regarding cultural practices were introduced. Such practices were adamantly denounced

y the influential missionary presence and countered by cultural revitalists such as

Lunalilo (Hawai’i’s last king). In 1900 Hawai’i became a US territory

In the twentieth century early migrants were joined by immigrants from Korea,

Vietnam, Puerto Rico and other Polynesian communities, as well as by more Caucasians

(by boat) from the US mainland.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 520

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the

Second World War. The war led to an increased Caucasian American population due to

the expanding military presence on Oahu. This, in turn, became a watershed for tourist

and

Sunbelt

development, a Hawai’ian dream for both mainlanders and foreigners

(especially Japanese) who visit every year. With the increasing speed and availability o

air travel, Hawai’i was ever more incorporated into the US, becoming a state in 1959.

Tourism has far surpassed the declining agricultural foundations of an older island, yet

has raised conflicts about land use, respect for traditions, environmental planning—

Hawai’i’s volcanoes, valleys and waters are important resources in themselves and

shelter countless unique species—and authenticity. Guided by active state recruitment,

which, since the 1980s, has looked beyond the main island to development of Maui and

other destinations, tourism has prompted mainland and foreign investment but has also

made the island vulnerable to economic downturns like the Asian economic crisis.

Hawai’i’s contemporary culture is thus complicated by

mass-media

renditions o

“tourist island,” whether Betty Grable’s

Song of the Island

(1942), Elvis

Presley’s

Blue

awai

(1961), the long-running

television

series

Hawaii Five-0

(CBS, 1968–80), or the

incessant commodification of tourist promotions. The conflict of imagery and local

complexity proves especially visible in urban centers like Honolulu (365,272) or tourist

clusters such as Kailua-Kona. Nonetheless, the cultural contributions of multiple ethnic

groups, accumulated during the past 220 years, continue to define distinctive histories,

religions, arts, foods, clothing, etc.—a mix that comprises contemporary Hawai’ian

culture and perhaps a vision of a more truly global and multicultural US.

Further reading

Daws, G. (1968)

Shoal of Time,

Toronto: MacMillan.

Trask, H. (1999)

From A Native Daughter,

Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

ARATI CLARRY

Hawkes, John

b. 1925; d. 1998

Ironic and erudite, Hawkes’ elaborate writings attempt to radically re-fashion fictional

structures. A restrained writing style, combined with an interest in the erotic and violent

spaces of the modern landscape, produce an eerie, often Gothic, atmosphere in his work.

Although generally much admired by writers and critics who support the experimental

conceits of avant-garde or

postmodern

literature, unsympathetic readers find his novels

and short stories dry and often overly formal. A hint of his style and concerns can be

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gleaned from a provocative 1965 statement that plot, character, setting and theme were

the true enemies of fiction. Hawkes’ novel

The Blood Oranges

(1971) was the basis for a

1997 film of the same name.

MARK BREWIN

Hawks, Howard

b. 1896; d. 1977

Director, producer, script writer and storyteller. Beginning with silent films, Hawks

developed a lengthy varied and successful career marked by strong vision and

relationships that complicate our expectations of many genres. An understated auteur,

Hawk’s movies are often milestones in retrospect, as recognized in a 1974 cumulative

achievement Oscar. His works often develop American values of camaraderie, patriotism

and male heroism as well as complicated male/female relationships (and their sexual

overtones), showcasing

Hollywood

stars like Katharine

Hepburn

(

Bringing up Baby,

1938), Humphrey

Bogart

(

To Have and To Have Not,

1944), Marilyn

Monroe

(

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,

1953) and John

Wayne

(

Rio Bravo,

1959). Hawks showed

facility across genres—gangster films, comedy melodrama,

westerns

and even

science

fiction

(

The Thing,

1951)—creating an enduring and beloved cinematic legacy.

CINDY WONG

Head Start

kindergarten and Head Start; War on Poverty

health and disease

The American twentieth century began with a sense of optimism in health, as in other

aspects of life. Epidemics and pandemics like the 1916

polio

epidemic or the 1918 flu

andemic reminded Americans of the uncertainty of life, but became domestic war zones

where applied bio-science waged battle against microbes, viruses, bacteria and other

pathogenic enemies. Through hygiene, vaccination, drugs and improved

healthcare,

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 522

whole host of infectious diseases disappeared. Medical advances during the Second

World War—like the spreading use of penicillin—the ongoing professionalization o

hospitals and medical care and the spread of health insurance pointed to the possibilities

of a richer, healthier, productive nation. In the postwar period, Americans seemed well-

fed (especially by comparison with war-ravaged areas), less threatened by disease and

oriented to the new and supposedly healthier settings of

suburbia

Ideas of health and disease were also related to healthcare. In the first half of the

twentieth century physicians appeared as both healthcare givers and practicing scientists.

“The Flexner Report on Medical Education” (1910) provided the standards for medical

training in the United States that shaped the professionalization of American medicine,

ut also aided in the coloring of the profession as white and the gendering of the

profession as male. With the establishment of the

American Medical Association

and

the increasing role insurance companies played in the definitions of wellness, a

capitalistic logic and “Fordist” image of health produced a poetics of health and wellness

defined in terms of work, labor and productivity These images, activities and associations

were to have significant consequences on American healthcare provisions, practices and

perceptions.

By the early twenty-first century however, health and disease remain constant issues

for discussions. Ironically success on the battlefield against infectious diseases resulted in

the transition to a disease profile of chronic degenerative diseases. Infant mortality at

irth, often due to infectious diseases, decreased, while life expectancy increased. Life

expectancy at birth for Americans climbed from 53.6 years for males and 54.3 years for

females in 1920 to 66.6 years for males and 73.1 years for females in 1960. For those

orn in 1990, it has reached 73.5 years for males and 78.9 years for females. These

changes in the American demographic profile, coupled with declining fertility rates, have

re-shaped the age profile of American society Greater numbers of older people living

longer lives place this group at risk for many degenerative diseases. Changes in lifestyle

and health behavior have been associated with leading causes of

death

among older

Americans, which include metabolic and cardiovascular disorders,

cancer

and strokes.

The increasing prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases and the inability o

American medicine to combat these health problems in the manner of the heroic battles

against infectious diseases have led to new definitions of wellness and health that often

target the behaviors and health habits of the afflicted. “Blaming the victim” has become a

moral discourse on disease and wellness that shifts the responsibility of healthcare from

the physician to the patient. Individuals have become dangerous to their own health by

not controlling their behavior or avoiding “risks” of illness and disease. An emphasis on

fitness, healthy

food

and lifestyles (avoiding

alcohol

and tobacco) and mental well-

eing

have become important concerns for a wealthy but aging, baby boomer

middle class

. At

the same time, ideology and practice diverge in a wealthy society—while highly toned

bodies may appear in

advertising

and

mass media,

obesity is a widespread problem

starting in childhood.

Stress

and other mental and emotional conditions of “modern” life

are also taken as both staples and problems.

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The clear and present danger of the increasing rates of chronic diseases, along with the

increasing cost and expense of healthcare, have re-shaped the provisioning of healthcare

in the early twenty-first century and have revitalized debates focused on cost and access

to healthcare in the absence of systematic universal coverage. Large bureaucratic

institutions and the emergence of managed healthcare have led to a disillusionment

among Americans in the competency of healthcare. The inability of the physician as

practicing scientist forever employing improved therapeutic technologies to “cure” the

major health problems faced by Americans, in concert with the rise of psycho-social

diagnoses, has created a mistrust of medicine. With the need to understand healthcare and

the increased availability of knowledge, expertise and medicine for the lay person in the

opular sector of health, a vibrant medical pluralism, which includes the dominant

paradigm of biomedicine, but also “complementary,” “additional” alternatives, shapes the

landscape of early twenty-first-century health in the United States.

Moreover, the health transition presumed to accompany progress and modernity from a

disease profile of infectious to chronic disease has created new concerns. Technological

improvements in medicine, for example, the development of anti-

iotic medicines, in

turn, have created “super germs” resistant to treatment. Emerging and reemerging

infectious diseases index global connections among peoples and environments.

“Outbreaks” of cholera, for example, once again have appeared in American

cities

ewly transported conditions or even reports from abroad, such as the discovery of Ebola

fever, are projected as threats in mass media. HIV/

AIDS,

perhaps the most publicized o

all infectious diseases for Americans and all other world populations, remains a

complicated social and cultural condition, as well as a prominent medical syndrome that

has defied any easy vaccination or cure.

It is also clear that health conditions and access to healthcare do not apply to all people

equally The arrival of Europeans in North America would start a devastating chain o

disease and mortality for indigenous populations, especially those in areas of initial

contact. Diseases were spread through other kinds of exchanges, and, at times,

deliberately through infected trade goods. The institution of slavery was itself built upon

human biology and health. Malaria-resistant West-African populations, which possessed

the genetic trait sickle cells, were able to work in malaria-ridden colonies on plantations

where native Indians had perished, mostly due to disease.

With nineteenth-century industrialization, factories also became sites of illness and

accidents, while crowded tenements and incomplete infrastructures created havens for

epidemics. This division of

class

and health (linked to other divisions of

race

and space)

has continued to the present. In 1995 black infant mortality was almost three times that o

white infants (15.1 per 1,000 versus 6.3 per 1,000). Poverty, lack of education and lack o

services also contribute to early and continuing problems often concentrated in

impoverished inner-city

neighborhoods

. Life expectancy patterns of obesity

hypertension and various forms of psychopathology also illustrate the social production

of illness and disease. For example, depression has been found to be more common in the

United States in women and lower socioeconomic classes, and higher rates of depression

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 524

are found in urban areas as well. This also suggests an important gendering of health in

the US, where conditions associated with women have not necessarily been treated as

seriously or even taken into account in terms of difference in dosage and side effects.

Several factors are significant in the social production of wellness and disease. First,

there are the ways in which social relations themselves produce forms and distributions

of wellness and disease in American society along racial, class, age and gender

differences. For example, gender relations, of age, class and ethnicity in association with

social values in America placed on the attainment of certain kinds and images o

bodies—thin, youthful bodies—in this century has led to alarming increases in the

revalence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. These health conditions related to eating

disorders, and obsessive and compulsive behaviors have for the most part plagued young,

white, middle-class women, and represent the nexus of a cultural aesthetic that associates

thinness, success, sexuality and control with social forms—gender relations—and

practices—eating, diet, exercise and other bodily functions.

Second, differential access to both regular proactive care and special interventions,

which may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, depends on many factors, especially

insurance, for which social structure matters. While

homeless

people in the United States

may experience the same health problems that other Americans do, they lack support

from a variety of networks. Hence, limited access to medical provisions only works to

exacerbate sickness episodes. Medical pluralism in the United States is historically the

product of differential access to healthcare due to class, race, gender and age differences.

A third factor, the role that the American healthcare system plays in the production o

wellness and disease had, until recently nearly always been considered in light of the

former. Latrogenic illness and disease caused by the health practitioner and a system o

healthcare, whether lead poisoning due to the use of traditional medicines in the case o

the use of azarcón or

greta

to treat empacho in

Latino

communities in the United States,

or the appropriation of human birth as a health problem dealt with in hospital settings by

hysicians, has become a central feature in the increasing medicalization of American

life. Perhaps nowhere else has this social process been more evident than in the area o

mental health. From alcoholism to depression, from premenstrual syndrome to attention

deficit disorder, the psychological history of human life has received close scrutiny in

research and in therapy.

The popular sector of health has grown exponentially and is easily that matrix o

information—personal, mediated, expert, lay—where most people experience disease and

wellness, make healthcare decisions and evaluate those decisions before making others.

Schools have played a strong role in conveying health knowledge and regulation. In the

late 1990s, both

newspapers

and

television

news devote regular space to health issues—

local television, for example, has made medical reporters and features a norm.

Magazines, both general and specialized (e.g.

Men’s Health

), also promote this dialogue.

Fictional depictions of disease have been staples of melodrama for centuries, and remain

the stuff of

Hollywood

as well as television. More complex worlds of cause and cure, as

well, have underpinned ongoing doctor shows, from

Dr Kïldare

and

Marcus Welby, MD

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