Page 2 The Progressive Era was a well-known time in American history bringing both social and political reform to the United States. Immigration at that moment was at an all time high with many immigrants coming in from non-English speaking countries. With the new wave of immigrants coming into the United States, Chinese immigrants were in search for a more improved lifestyle because after all, the United States was the land of opportunity. As time progressed, the opportunity for Chinese immigrants slowly diminished through various different implications and acts being passed which would impact their everyday lives vastly, specifically in the American judicial system. In Case # 1848, Song Lee, a Chinese immigrant, is accused of raping Margaret …show more content…
White people believed that the labor force should be composed primarily of Whites. As the fight for labor intensified in the West, the government decided that it was time to take action not only as a result of what was going on in the West but also because the Chinese were fraudulently entering the United States. Unfortunately for the Chinese, the action that was taken by the government favored the White population. The government passed two acts that would limit the actions taken by the Chinese. President Arthur passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. This act was the first of its kind in American history where congress decided to fully section off a certain race on the grounds of the Chinese endangering the well being and order of other localities. When passed, the act was dated to stand for ten years. When the ten years were up, Congress passed another act to follow up on the Chinese Exclusion Act, known as the Geary Act. Not only was the Geary Act a follow up but it also added other restrictions upon the Chinese minority. For the Chinese people already residing within the borders of the United States, this was terrible news. Not only were they being shunned from the rest of society, but this also became a deciding and influential factor for Chinese immigrants to be committed of crimes much similar to the unjust accusations Song Lee …show more content…
Since the Chinese people were frowned upon by the American society and judicial system, they retreated and formed a community known as “Chinatowns”. The reason why the Chinese decided it was best for them to seclude and withdraw themselves from being assimilated within regular society is that they found other Chinese people who held the same religious, political and social values as them, allowing them to feel more comfortable with their new surroundings. At the same time, many of the new Chinese immigrants felt very lonely and were easily susceptible to many psychological problems such as depression, stress, frustration and loneliness. In correlation with the troublesome lifestyle the Chinese were coping with in the United States and the cognitive problems that could have arose, it can be said that Song Lee committed this crime out of coping with a problem. He had no children and was not married so one can assume that he was lonely and decided to pay this girl to hang out with him which in return led to something more serious as the level of comfort between the two
One particular ethnic group that suffered severe discrimination was the Chinese people. They first came to America for several reasons. One of them was the gold rush in California in 1849, in which they were included in a group of immigrants called the “Forty-Niners” (179). From gold mining, they switched to other jobs with resulted in the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments. People felt that Chinese people were taking the jobs away from them, because Chinese people worked for much smaller salaries that businesses preferred. This mindset gave way to the creation of The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, which prohibits more Chinese immigrants from coming to America. In addition, the act states “no State or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship”. Like the Naturalization Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to hinder Chinese people from becoming citizens so that America could remain homogenously white (186). It also aimed to stop Chinese people from establishing a bigger community in the country in hopes of eliminating the threat of competition to their white counterparts (186). Like African-Americans, Chinese people were considered racially inferior and have struggled to prove that they were worthy to be called true Americans, rather than
They could be beaten up, robbed, forced out of town, or put out of business. In fact, even anti-Chinese legislation is common. Laws targeting Chinese immigration and culture are simply too many to count. The violent and discriminatory treatment of Chinese immigrants in 19th century America makes manifest a lack of social progress in an era often celebrated for expansion and physical growth. The first Chinese immigrants to arrive in America came in the early 1800s.
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
Socially, those immigrants, especially Asian immigrants, were frequently the target of raids, boycotts, and scapegoats by the white mainstream. Legally, through formal denial of citizenship of Asians through Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese Internment Camp during the World War II, Ozawa v. United States (1922) and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), the Asian American communities were ripped out of their possessions and properties. The message of the government and Supreme Court was clear: membership to the U.S. was available for those who are both scientifically and commonsensically ‘white’ (What is an American?). One dimensionally, the decisions impacted the definition of whiteness, and fixed the racial relation of the U.S. to be between whites and African Americans; furthermore, the decision racialized Asians as unauthorized, inassimilable, and
According to Lee, Erika, and Reason (2016), “The Chinese Exclusion Act ...barred Chinese laborers for a period of 10 years and allowed entry only to certain exempt classes (students, teachers, travelers, merchants, and diplomats” (p. 4). The Chinese immigrants were excluded from certain rules and laws like Blacks and other minority groups. Also, they were not permitted to request citizenship or settle in the United States. For decades, the Chinese laborers did not have legal rights to enter into the United States until the decision was overturned. Lee, Erika, and Reason noted, “Chinese activist turned their attention to opening up additional immigration categories within the confines of the restrictions…some 300,000 Chinese were admitted into the United States as returning residents and citizens” (p. 4). The activists fought for the rights of the Chinese people to overturn the decision for leaving and entering as pleased to the United
The United States’ government instilled a closed door policy with the creation of many immigration laws in an effort to make America a melting pot of similar ethnicities. However, the prejudice of American society that was enforced by immigration policy forced immigrants to form their own communities for the purpose of survival and protection, turning America into a mosaic of different cultures. The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and Naturalization Act of 1870 both created a false image of acceptance for immigrants while simultaneously restricting immigration. The United States’ government only began clearly restricting immigration with the Page Act of 1875 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Chinese exclusion act of 1882). This act was made to undermine the Chinese people and to force an end to immigration from China. The act would later set a precedent for future laws to exclude “Mongolian races” which would include the Japanese people. It was during this time that white workers would frequently take violent actions against the Chinese immigrants to secure white supremacy in “white jobs”. This act was justified by white, nativist, worker-unions of this time that felt the “Yellow Peril” was stealing their jobs in railroad construction.
When the Chinese Exclusion Act was signed into law in May 1882, it was followed by a rapidly decreasing amount of new immigrants to the United States. Regardless of problems that the United States attempted to solve with the Act, violent massacre and persecution of Chinese people in the United States continued. Because of this, many Chinese immigrants that did stay in America continued on for years to receive prejudice and racism in the labor market and cultural society. This then continued to force many Chinese immigrants further and further down the path of segregation and into the protection of Chinatowns and poverty, counteracting the great American idea of the “melting pot.”
The Chinese immigrant experience has traveled through times of hardships, under the English man. They have struggled to keep themselves alive through racism, work, and acceptance. Although many have come to Canada for their lives’ and their children’s to be successful, and safe. It could not be just given until adversity gave them the life they hoped to one day life for. In the starting time of 1858, the Chinese community had started coming to different parts of Canada considering the push and pull factors that had led them here. Because of the lack of workers in the British Columbia region, the Chinese were able to receive jobs in gold mining. Most Chinese were told to build roads, clear areas, and construct highways, but were paid little because of racism. The Chinese today are considered one of the most successful races in Canada because of the push and pull factors that they had come across, the racism that declined them and the community of the Chinese at the present time.
Regarded as unassimilable, Asian immigrants were systematically discriminated by way of American immigration policies. The earliest policy enforced that overtly excluded groups of individuals based on racial categorization was passed in 1882. This was known as the Chinese Exclusion Act. As the years went by, hostile sentiments towards Asians fostered and eventually manifested themselves in the Immigration Act of 1924. In response to these discriminating policies, prospective immigrants sought alternate routes to America, often involving the channel of human smuggling. Despite the presence of human smuggling prior to the late 20th century, heightened awareness of this exploit resulted from the media sensation around the Golden Venture ship,
In chapter thirty five, author Shelley Sang-Hee Lee explains that “Immigration is an important part of our understanding of U.S. social experience” (Hee 128). Asian immigrants bring their diverse culture, language and custom from various Asian countries. They help improve American economic development. Also, they play an important role in American society. The first Asian immigration flow is the Chinese Immigration in the mid-19th century to work in the gold mines and railroads. The Asian immigrant population grew rapidly between 1890 and 1910 (Hee 130). The increasing of population of Asian immigrants have brought a lot of problems. Many of them were facing the issue of ethnicity, discrimination, and the process of assimilation. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers and proscribed foreign-born Chinese from naturalized citizenship and the Asian Exclusion Act League in 1907 which limited the entry of Asian immigrants have reshaped the demographic of Asian immigrants in the U.S (Hing 45). With the rise of anti-Asian movements, many Asian immigrants were rejected from entering America or deported to their homeland. In the early history of immigration in America, the issue of deportation is an important part of the Asian American experience in the
The Chinese Exclusion Act has a lot to do with racism. First off, it was the first law that restricted immigrants from coming to the U.S. There were many other laws that restricted immigration, but those came after the Chinese Exclusion Act. Many people were racist to the Chinese before the Act because of the Gold Rush and their religion.
The earliest form of racial discrimination against Asian Americans was encountered during the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush attracted Chinese immigrants who came to California to fill the high demand for laborers. However, as more and more Chinese immigrated to California and the lower-paying labor jobs were filled, the Chinese began filling higher-paying positions typically held by Whites. As a result, an anti-Chinese Movement was formed followed by the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prevented any additional Chinese immigration into the United States. Essentially, Chinese were discriminated against by the Whites due to fear of the Chinese taking over their jobs. After World War II, the federal government ended the 1882 ban on Chinese immigration and gave citizenship to Chinese Americans born abroad (Charles and Guryan 507).
The United States of America was founded on the idea that anyone could leave their destitution and ‘make it’ in America. This idea came to be called the American Dream; a phrase that was written into being around 1850. Not thirty years later, however, an entire immigrant group would be barred from entering the country, and that bar would last for sixty-one years. The Chinese Exclusion Act was put into law by President Chester Arthur in 1882 and repealed in 1943. During that period, all Chinese laborers were barred from immigrating to the United States. The Chinese Exclusion Act stagnated the growth of Chinese Culture in the United States and led to the racial stigma that fueled racism against Japan in the Second World War.
...xperienced harsh discrimination and even legal exclusion from our country. They were blamed for the lack of job opportunities and low pay of jobs and received extremely unfair treatment that labeled them as an inferior race. However, the inter-ethnic tension blinded us from seeing how the immigrants were contributing to our country in positive ways. They not only created economic and social gains for us, but also opened our minds to a whole new way of life and prepared us for the multicultural years to come. With all of the help and modernization that they contributed to our country, the racism and discrimination that the Chinese immigrants received day-in and day-out was not rightly justified or deserved.