Aurielle Barnett Ms.

Kumpf Social Studies 7th Grade April 30 2013 The Red Scare is a point in time where many people are afraid of communism spreading into America. Therefore, many people became anti-communist. The term Red Scare is from the soviet flag which is red. Scare in this term represents the fear of communism spreading into America. Then came Senator Joseph McCarthy whose actions started McCarthyism. Senator McCarthy was out to get communists, but his ways of finding accused communists werent so reliable. He used intimidation and gossip to find suspects of communism. When accusing people of being communist and spies for the Soviet Union, he usually had little to no evidence to support his claim (hopefully Ms. Mona isnt reading this). Most of the people accused of being communist didnt get fair trials and were blacklisted. This was called McCarthyism. Our skit in class was about students accused of being part of their schools rivalry basketball team. It consisted of a trial with accusers and the crowd doing most of the talking. The accused didnt really have the chance to speak at all. Our skit was very similar to the two topics: the red scare and McCarthyism. First of all, in the school most people hated the rivalry basketball team and despised anyone in it or helping them. This is like the Red Scare because many people feared communism and opposed anyone working for the Soviet Union. In our skit, people who were accused of working for the rivalry basketball team hardly had a chance to talk or prove their innocence. When given the smallest opportunity to talk, most of the accused were interrupted by the angry crowd. So overall they

didnt get fair trials. This relates to McCarthyism because Joseph McCarthy accused people of being communist. He did this with little evidence, no fair trial, and blacklisted them. Joseph McCarthy caused many people to lose their careers and totally changed their lifestyles. In the skit the trial to me was unfair. It was unfair because the people were accused of working with the rivalry basket ball team with little to no evidence. If there was any good evidence it was from gossip which is never reliable. Plus, the accusers didnt have the chance to prove themselves innocent. Most of the time they were interrupted by the crowd. The crowd didnt help either by shouting whatever they felt necessary at the trail randomly. One thing that was kind of unusual about the skit was that at the end of the trial the accused were sent to the principals office. In the real red scare the guilty were sometimes arrested and blacklisted. Plus there wasnt much media influence. My role in the skit was to be a person accused. During the skit I felt scared about my fate because no one seemed to care what I said or believed me. Plus I was a bit confused because everything was very chaotic. If I was an accuser I would probably feel a bit high, strong and stubborn. Maybe I would even powerful from most people agreeing to what I had to say with little reason. If I was just watching the trial truthfully I wouldnt think it was fair but would be too scared to speak up. I would worry what would happen to me if I spoke up. Would I be accused of being communist? I would probably have to go with whatever the crowd did, lay low, and blend in.