Contagious Divides Louis Wirth Summary

Waxman, Sarah. "The History of New York City's Chinatown." The History of New York City's

He supports his claim by saying, “The panhandler at one corner is related to the pamphleteer at the next who is related to the banker who is kin to the Chinese old man wearing an MIT sweatshirt” (199). The author states that America is a country of freedom and unity where everyone is welcomed and therefore, should not raise the questions of racism because every citizen is American despite the differences in the background but should be treated

Those who do not have the money only have two choices, to leave or to die. Being persecuted and treated like trash by whites, who take away their money and belongings, destroy their businesses and harmony was common. But the worse of all was that no authority stops the abuse against Chinese. None of the officer’s listened to the accusations of the Chinese’s against whites. All crimes remained unpunished, allowing aggressors to freely repeat the same hate to Chinese again and again without a limit. “Your supreme court…Chinese shall not bring action or given testimony against white men.”

After the increased suppression of international slave trade during the mid nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants were frowned upon in America due to the fact that they were depicted as a threat to the U.S economy. As a result, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed and banished a vast majority of Chinese people in America. Based on the documents provided, it can be concluded that the Chinese Exclusion Act, despite being morally incorrect, was an inefficient ordinance that caused an abundance of controversy in America. Based on document A, during this time frame, there was a great amount of racist feelings towards the Chinese. This is shown in a play called “The Chinese Must Go” by Henry Grimm, which depicts the Chinese in a negative

In the U.S. Chicanos have been victims to rationalization and discrimination for years. Chicanos have categorized as an inferior race based on factors such as color, roots and language barriers. The racialization of Chicanos however has not been in isolation rather it has occurred in relation to other races as described by Natalia Molina. Chicanos and the Chinese for example have for years been racialized in relation to each other. As Natalia Molina coins the term racial scrips, she show how ideas used to marginalize one group at one time, is once again used to marginalize another group in a similar way. This way two groups are oppressed in the same manner and one group’s racialization can contribute to another’s group racialization. In a similar

The United States retains a history of attempted racial cleansing. From indigenous tribes to the slavery, the country has repeatedly been polarized between white and everything that is not. Such tensions started the Civil War, and racism is naturally on the forefront of virtually all political discussion. A crucial portion of history, however, is often overlooked. Public schools exclude the mistreatment of Chinese immigrants from their curriculums. At best, they receive a small unit to summarize over a century’s worth of atrocities. An entire history is shrouded in darkness, leaving the majority of the population in blissful ignorance.

In the story of Forbidden Workers - Illegal Chinese Immigrants in New York, we are given a look at American Society from the perspective of an illegal immigrant who is taken advantage of because of their status and the vulnerable position that they are put in because of it. Peter Kwong provides a broad, but subjective, analysis of American life, labor laws, and other key points in immigration. However, while the message Kwong conveys with this interesting and informational work, it is hindered by his bias which comes out blatantly throughout, limiting the book that would have earned a recommendation for the American Psychological Association (ASA) award for the International Migration category, but instead deserving an honorable mention.

When thousands of Chinese migrated to California after the gold rush the presence caused concern and debate from other Californians. This discussion, popularly called the “Chinese Question,” featured in many of the contemporary accounts of the time. In the American Memory Project’s “California: As I Saw It” online collection, which preserves books written in California from 1849-1900, this topic is debated, especially in conjunction with the Chinese Exclusion Act. The nine authors selected offer varying analyses on Chinese discrimination and this culminating act. Some give racist explanations, but the majority point towards the perceived economic competition between

Around the civil rights era of the 1960’s, there were several court decisions and legislative orders that extended due process and equal protection for the Asian American, which helped pushed the forward as valuable members of American society. By the end of the civil rights movement, white Americans were able to lean on the Asian culture because they did not attempt to endanger the status quo. The white Americans saw them as the model minority that held on to traditional values and morals. This stereotype and concept of progressing in the current system allowed the government to deflect the necessary assistance form the structural issues, in the economic and social establishments that influenced the African and Latino Americans independently from the Asians(Yen,200). As of recently Asian American is the most likely of any dominant racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods. With amazing educational credentials such as sixty-one percent of adults twenty-five to sixty-four coming to the U.S. from Asia have at least a bachelor’s degree, they are set to be most highly educated immigrants in U.S.

In the Anderson reading on Chinatown focus on the racial category the Chinese constructed settled in the British settler society from the 1880s to the 1920s. Most Chinese were from southern china and bought their customs and habit with them. They rule their own politics and does not follow the laws or institutions from the western. Chinatown has been viewed as either a ghettoized, minority or ethnic community. When Chinese settled in certain area and people had a raid against the Chinese forcing them to move out of the urban area to the suburbs. The immoral of Chinatown conflated the space and place as backward or uncivilized with gambling, opium addicts, prostitutes, white girl slaves, stealing, overcrowding living space, and unsanitary.

In the novel “American Born Chinese ” by Gene Luen Yang Racism there racism occurring also everywhere in books, in the news, people's talk about it, and though people lives.

This book examines the treatment of the Chinese migrant population from 1852 to the present. It studies the hostile treatment of most locals towards the Chinese, especially during the period of 1852-1904. The authors contend that the white Americans had seen the Chinese as racial inferiors, backward, heathen, and as threats to their jobs. The authors highlight the racist laws that were put in place by the U.S. government in an attempt to expel them. An example would be the Foreign Miners’ Tax that was enacted in 1852, directed at the Chinese Miners. Individual mining counties had also passed laws that sought to restrict the Chinese from the mines. Between the 1870s and 1880s, when an economic downturn struck the west, things became more serious.

In the 19th century, many people thought that China could not be assimilated and therefore unacceptable. Therefore, they were eventually excluded from the United States in 1882 (Zong & Batalova, 2017). According to the theory of symbolic interactionism, the basic motive behind China's immigration operations is to work. Although they play an indispensable role in the development of the western United States, the Chinese have suffered serious exploitation. They are discriminated against in pay and are forced to work in bad circumstances. White workers regard them as economic competitors and racial underdogs, thereby stimulating the adoption of discriminatory laws and implementing extensive violence against the Chinese (Zong & Batalova, 2017). This has brought sadness and unacceptable experience to Chinese immigrants at that time. Under the racist slogan, "The Chinese must go!" There has been an anti-China campaign. This hostility has prevented the Chinese from becoming Americans. It forced them to flee to Chinatown, where they found security and support. In these slums, they managed to overcome the meager existence, but they were isolated from other people and could not be integrated into mainstream society, even though it may be quite difficult. This shows that white society at that time led to social change for the sake of resource competition, that is, the theory of social conflict. Especially in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, under the influence of structural functionalism, the U.S. economy tended toward workers with valuable skills (Zong & Batalova, 2017). Therefore, Chinese immigrants were initially welcomed. They became an important part of the labor force that laid the foundation for the economic development of the western United States. Chinese people can be found throughout the region,

The first text is an excerpt of Michael Moore’s novel Stupid White Men, which criticizes white American’s superiority in all the aspects of social life compared to black Americans from the angle of a white people; while the second article is an expert of Brothers and Keepers written by John E. Wideman, which focuses the social segregation between not only different races but also different power levels. Although slightly different, both of the two articles reveal the intense social imbalance, including serious racial discrimination, the deep-rooted prejudice and African-American’s limited rights.

This paper explores the false promises that the Chinese were given by the Americans during the mass migration between the time of 1880 and 1965. The promise of wealth, education, and equality lead to a massive migrations to the United States. Excited and restless to start anew, many left their homeland for a better tomorrow. This lead to the immigration of people from all around the globe, each group with different backgrounds, skin color, and culture were all heading towards the same direction. Among these groups were the Chinese who played a significant role in the Asian American community in American. With the mass migration everyone was not given the opportunity to be treated equally. The injustice between the law and the people will leave