Chinese Laborers Against Racial Discrimination

The United States has had tension with Asian immigrants since the first wave of migration in the 1840’s, and in 1882 the United States declared a Chinese Exclusion which was to keep all Chinese from migrating into the United States. For the Chinese already in the U.S this created worry and tension. With the Chinese people no longer being welcome the freedom for the Chinese inside which was already not much was even more condensed. The little equality that they had was taken away and they were excluded, and looked down upon everywhere they went. They had trouble living and socially because of the prejudice they were facing. An example of the Chinese struggle before the exclusion act would be the Chinese Lynching that took place in 1871. In Los Angeles a mob captured men and in this case a 12 year old boy and hung them all at a Spanish hacienda because of the citizens strong discrimination against

Unlike what were imagined by many immigrants, although American was ideally a potential land with many potential and promises of freedom and a good life can be compensate for hard-work, the country actually did not treated all of the immigrants fairly. The descendants of the first generation immigrants viewed newcomers as a competitive in the work field, and grow even stronger discrimination feel toward them especially for those who look physically different like the Chinese and the Japanese. The Chinese were especially being heavily discriminated by the American society, there were many big and small acts and agreements passed by the government to target the Chinese such as: the Chinese Exclusion Act and Angle Island to eliminate the Chinese immigrants, the China town were built to keep Chinese away from interacting with the White community, and the many different Agreements to prevent Chinese labor in a different working fields. . One of the evidence that the Chinese were treated badly is the People v Hall 1854, when a why men were charged not guilty after he killed a Chinese because

Since many laborers were immigrants, they frequently spoke different languages and harbored racial and cultural biases. Many only planned to stay in America long enough to earn enough money to return to their homelands

Finally, there was much arguing about the immigrants that were allowed in, and the types of immigrants that were allowed in. This controversy laid within the foreign policies of America and its surrounding nations. In a highly xenophobic society, Americans were extremely racist, especially against the Japanese. For the longest time, Japanese were not allowed in the work force of America, let alone America. The new laws that were created did

The Chinese exclusion act was a movement that prohibited Chinese immigration; people used it as a discrimination against Chinese people. In one year Chinese immigration dropped from 40,000 to 23. This shows how people where violent and discriminant to Chinese fellows.

Racially constituted labor was commonly seen during the early 20th century. Because of the implementation of labor disparity between races, “capricious restrictions that made economic parity with whites virtually impossible” (Sides, 2006). Although there have been attempts at labor equality, racial groups were oppressed and marginalized by white hierarchy. Deliberately assigning specific races to lower labor markets resulted in hindered work mobility for all minorities.

Millions of immigrants over the previous centuries have shaped the United States of America into what it is today. America is known as a “melting pot”, a multicultural country that welcomes and is home to an array of every ethnic and cultural background imaginable. We are a place of opportunity, offering homes and jobs and new economic gains to anyone who should want it. However, America was not always such a “come one, come all” kind of country. The large numbers of immigrants that came during the nineteenth century angered many of the American natives and lead to them to blame the lack of jobs and low wages on the immigrants, especially the Asian communities. This resentment lead to the discrimination and legal exclusion of immigrants,

One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

There were multiple reasons why the Chinese experienced discrimination, most reasons coming from the fact that the Americans felt threatened by the presence of these foreign people they have never had experience with before. The Chinese stole jobs by working for cheap, they had an extremely different culture than the westerners, and the Americans did not like them; this made them targets of discrimination. As stated in the Chinese Exclusion Act, "...the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States be, and the same hereby,suspened" (DOC 1). This quote shows an example of one of the unfair laws made against the Chinese because they were disliked by the Americans. The Chinese Exclusion Act made them easier to be cruel towards.

In 1892, the government required all new immigrants to undergo a physical examination. If they had a certain diseases, they were either faced quarantine, a time isolation to prevent spread of a disease or they were deported. The Chinese immigrants  tended to live in their own ethnic communities and this helped them avoid conflicts with non-Asian neighbors. Although, the union blamed Chinese immigrants for high unemployment and low wages in California. Others claimed that Chinese were not worthy of being Americans and some claimed that Asians were inferior to white Americans. These claims from the unions had Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The act prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country. In 1906, the Japanese government found out that Japanese kids were being segregated from white kids, in which they protested to the United State President Theodore Roosevelt. As a result, President Roosevelt and the Japanese government reached an agreement called the Gentlemen's Agreement. This compromise had San Francisco agreed to not segregate Japanese kids and Japan to stop issuing passports to laborers. In 1902, the Newlands National Reclamation Act was established to promote the irrigation of southwestern lands. New farmland meant new jobs in the Southwest.  In this case, Mexican Laborers were hired to work on farms, ranches, and mines. The new opportunities  were referred as a “pull”

The Chinese Exclusion Act was established in 1882, in which the first time United States prevent a group of immigrants with nationality (Lee 4), marked United States’ from welcoming nation to an enclosed and discriminative nation, has monumental impact on each Chinese immigrants and culture of the entire American Chinese community (6). The poor conditions and lack of opportunities in the 19th century China and the Chinese’s hope of accumulating wealth to support their families in China fostered the huge influx of Chinese immigrants to United States. The discovery of gold in California also fuelled many Chinese’s dream of fast wealth (112). Due to the need for mass labour stemming from industrialization and high productivity of Chinese labours, employers would enthusiastically hire Chinese labour, which in turn sparked the increasing competition with the local workers and a growing anti-Chinese sentiment (114).

My topic is about the railroad Chinese workers that worked on the central pacific railroad. The Pacific Railroad Act was passed in 1866. This act created the Union Pacific that started in Omaha, Nebraska heading west and the Central Pacific starting in Sacramento, California heading east. The railroad was built to connect California to the Union. But to make the railroad you need workers. The Union had set flayers needing 5,000 workers but only about 600 showed up for the job. The Chinese were hired to work on the railroad after the Union saw that they needed more workers. The Chinese workers did the most dangerous jobs working with explosives and working under harsh weather. Despite this they were paid the least compared to the other workers.

Most whites were discriminating these people because they were a person called a “White supremacist”. In both time periods, the Japanese/others and the Blacks were denied respect and civil rights because of something they can't help. The Japanese, although they assimilated the Americans culture, they were locked up and held in incarceration camps. In the same way that blacks were denied respect and rights that the whites had even though they to grew up in America. The women were even more at a disadvantage because they were banned from jobs and school so they would stay at home and tend to the family. Both the Japanese and the Blacks both were disenfranchised by being denied respect but also for different reasons.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was used to keep Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. This law also denied the Chinese of naturalization and required Chinese laborers already legally present in the U.S. who later wish to re-enter to obtain “certificates of return.” In the West, many Americans suffered from unemployment and declining wages that were caused by the new Chinese laborers. While this act prevented Chinese laborers from entering the United States, there were specific exemptions that were allowed to enter such as merchants, teachers, students, and officials.

In America, the Japanese were treated as, “aliens of enemy nationality.” This was partly because of their attack on Pearl Harbor. In Germany, the Jews were treated as, “inferior creatures.” This was due to the dictatorship and racism of Adolf Hitler. Both in America and Germany, these two groups were sent to concentration camps and isolated from