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…
Conway, a schoolgirl who at the time of the crime was 15 years old. Song Lee is being accused of 3 specific charges. Those 3 charges are rape in the second degree, assault in the second degree and abduction of Margaret Conway. Based solely on the fact of being Chinese, Song Lee is already at a disadvantage in defending himself and is in fact found guilty of the charges. His trial is a testament of what was actually going on within the United States both politically and socially during that time period with Chinese people being looked upon as foreign invaders. As mentioned before, Chinese people were not very liked by the American population for many different reasons. The main reason for the hostility towards the Chinese was due largely to increasing presence of competitive labor, which instilled animosity amongst many Americans. White people came to the conclusion that this competition of labor should not even exist because Page 3 they are immigrants.
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…
faced. Throughout the case, there are many things that are said or done to show how Chinese people are viewed in the criminal justice system during that time period. The Chinese were wrongfully recognized as being very “deceitful” and were looked upon as being “natural liars”. In the trial transcript, there are certain things being said by the prosecutor to show that they really do not take what Song Lee is saying as the truth. For example, there are numerous times Page 4 throughout the case, especially when Song Lee is being questioned and the prosecutor asked him to either repeat or reaffirm what he had already said. This shines light upon authenticating the belief of Chinese people developing the stereotype of being good liars and con artists. When Margaret Conway is being questioned, she is not required to reconfirm anything she already said and is not asked to repeat anything either. The difference between the questioning of Song Lee and Margaret Conway is totally adverse and opposite of one another. Also during the trial, Song Lee is addressed just as the “Chinaman” and not by his actual name, which shows that he is not being treated respectfully but rather generically as just another “Chinaman”. In the trial there is also other evidence that suggests how Chinese people were looked upon during the 1900’s in correlation with what was going on at that time. During the duration of the trial, Song Lee is not even questioned in the beginning to be able to defend himself from the allegations. The prosecutor decided that it was best to question the victim and the witnesses that saw the crime happen first. Being noted that a majority of the jury is white, it could be said that this trial was almost set up as if his fate was decided from the beginning. During the trail there are many times where the victim is allowed to tell her story of what happened, the witnesses are allowed to say what they saw but the person actually being committed of the crime is not allowed to say anything. Considering that the jury is composed primarily of white people, as mentioned before, white people did not like Chinese coming into their country and taking their jobs and resources. The prosecutor knew exactly how the jury would react to a person of Page 5 Chinese descent being committed of rape without allowing him a fair trial given the history in the past. In defense of Margaret Conway and to give better insight on an important factor that could have also contributed to the verdict, there were some negative generalizations of the Chinese community that the Chinese built for themselves.
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
rose. The Chinese came to America holding onto the hope of making a better life for themselves and creating an environment suitable for their families. Instead what they received in return was hatred and discrimination from the White majority. The hatred grew so much that the Page 6 government stepped in to further pile on additional acts and laws that made it even more troublesome for them to make a living and it affected everyone including Song Lee. Song Lee was eventually found guilty of charges he was accused of but an in-depth examination of the trial and given the history between the Whites and Chinese; it is safe to say that the trial was set up almost as a kangaroo court. He was not given a fair trial because he did not properly get to project his argument. All the attention was diverted away from him and focused on the crime being committed on the victim and the jury being White further reduced his chances. The image the Chinese built for themselves lingered within the judicial system giving the prosecutor an unfair advantage in the trial of Song Lee, which in return led to his guilty verdict
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
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
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
With the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the first significant restrictive immigration law in United States history was instituted that would provided a framework to be used to racialize other threatening, excludable aliens. Furthermore, this marked the first time that groups of immigrants were excluded based on their race and nationality. At the time, America could be identified as being an Anglo-Saxon dominated nation where native-born citizens had the ultimate say in government and societal issues. The influx of Chinese immigrants in the 19th century posed a problem for many of these nativists. The Chinese immigrants were coming to America at an astounding rate and willing to work for less money, thereby, endangering American values and civilization. Additionally, they were deemed as a threat to the white supremacy in the West. In order to bring this racial threat to light, many Anti-Chinese activists’ compared the new immigrants to African Americans in that both were believed to be inherently inferior savages only suitable for degrading labor in which they were often employed (Lee 34). However, the strongest argument against the Chinese focused on them being unwilling and incapable of assimilating into society. In the ...
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.
Americans “thought [the] Chinese had some kind of superpower since they worked for such low wages and lived in small crowded areas” (“The Chinese Experience in 19th Century America”). The Chinese just wanted to have a better life since that was the reason they came to America and they were just working hard to achieve their American Dream of living a better life than the one in their country. They did not mind working hard for what they wanted and they did, but they were just thought of as different and as exorcists for doing this. There were Yellow Peril novels written about how the Chinese wanted to take over the American government so they could put in place their own culture. On the other hand there were groups of people who did feel the Chinese were welcomed. At the very beginning, “The Chinese were welcome in California in the mid 1800’s because there was a lot of work and not enough workers, but Chinese people had to live separately from Americans. When the economic conditions got worse, discrimination against the Chinese increased” (The History of Chinese Immigration to the United States). Yes the Chinese were welcomed at first, but the Nativists only used them for a little and wanted the Chinese gone. Once they saw things getting worse within the country and started calling them exorcist and demonic because they worked really hard and put up The Chinese Exclusion act so they
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
"Transcript of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)." Our Documents. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. .
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 framers of the Constitution were laying the foundation for the United States, their intention was to establish a powerful new nation on the basis of freedom and equality. With the emancipation of black slaves and mass immigrations by Irish, Germans, Jews, and other groups in the mid- to late-19th century, the idea of the American Dream was beginning to be popularized. As a country founded on the idea of freedom and equality, the United States opened its doors to immigrants seeking a better life. At the same time, tension between many white native-born citizens and emancipated black slaves after the Civil War left many xenophobic and racist attitudes amongst the citizens. The American idea of freedom and equality for those seeking the American Dream was soon betrayed by the legislation excluding the Chinese people from immigration to America from the years 1882 to 1943. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a pivotal law rooted in a history of American racism and violent prejudices towards the Chinese based on the labor market, a fear of cultural takeover, and social differences.
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.
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
In the history of the United States of America, immigration has always been involving racial discrimination, especially towards the Chinese people. From the time when Gold Rush started in the West Coast, the Chinese immigrants were experiencing both physical and verbal offenses from Americans. As the Jean Kwok writes in the book Girl In Translation, the narrator Kimberly and other main characters living as Chinese immigrants indeed profoundly experience all kinds of inconspicuous discrimination in both of their educational path and their careers even though the political policies that directly discriminated the Chinese people have already been alleviated.
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).
...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.