Essay Racism Has Always Existed in America

Besides, in congress debates, people talked about racism and discriminatory prejudice against Chinese and African American. One senator said this, “the Caucasian race has a right, considering its superiority of intellectual force and mental vigor, to look down upon every other branch of the human family…we are the superior race today.” The Chinese Exclusion Act began being harsher and harsher. Chinese immigrants who have right to return were also forced to go back to China in 1889 by the Scott Act. Later on, other Asians were also prohibited from entering the United States. This is the first law of prohibition of race-based restrictions. After 1882, Chinese visitors who want admission to America had to take strict screening process so that they could prove that they met the requirements for entering. In 1892, the Geary Act was enacted. The Act has three requirements. One is to extend the ban on Chinese immigrants for ten years. Two is to create a presumption that persons of Chinese descent were residing in the United States unlawfully. Three is a requirement for labor to acquire a certificate confirming their legal status.

Throughout history in America there has always been the idea of racism. When Americans think of racism, they usually think of slavery and that racism is no longer a problem in America. However, this is not the case. Racism is still very apparent in America. It is true that since the end of slavery, the U.S. has made great strides towards becoming a less racist country. In reality, racism will never be extinct. In today’s society, all American citizens of all races have the same rights as one another, yet there is still racism. Racism can be linked directly to stereotypical mindsets of certain groups of people. It is human nature to make conclusions about other people, this is what leads to racism. Today’s racism is not limited to whites

The Chinese Experience records the history of the Chinese in the United States. The three-part documentary shows how the first arrivals from China, their descendants, and recent immigrants have “become American.” It is a story about identity and belonging that is relative to all Americans. The documentary is divided into three programs, each with a focus on a particular time in history. Program 1 describes the first arrivals from China, beginning in the early 1800’s and ending in 1882, the year Congress passed the first Chinese exclusion act. Program 2, which details the years of exclusion and the way they shaped and distorted Chinese American

The long standing problem in the United States from this era to present day is discrimination. Immigrants came from all over and were welcomed into the American way of life, but when the put into play Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which banned the immigration of Chinese labor for ten years. This was the first time in history that any person was denied access to the United States. During this time even know they freed the slaves white landowners still had always interacted to segregation. Black Codes was a law that was

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.”

Instead, they stayed in America for good. The Chinese immigrants now wished to assimilate their own culture and ideas with the American ideas. Americans, mostly Nativists, were extremely bothered by this because the Americans did not want the Chinese to bring their alien culture to America (Document 1). Other groups, who resented other races from assimilating, organized classes so the immigrants can learn the American language and way. They said immigrants should become citizens by learning the “American language.” They thought if the people that come to America and don’t learn the way of the Americans, then this country will soon be just like the old country, the country which they have already left (Document 3). Resentment over immigration still arose within the United States.

Many immigrants came into the United States during the nineteenth century; some of them being Chinese. They came here through Angel Island to find better lives than in China, but it did not work out that way for most. These people faced much discrimination in this new country, such as working cheap jobs and being treated unfairly, but eventually they began trying to conquer these unfair acts towards them.

Racism goes a long way down the American history. It came as a result of slavery which began in 1619 when African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, which was an American colony in the North, to help in producing crops such as tobacco. Slavery was then a common practice in all American colonies through the 17th and 18th centuries, where African slaves helped in building the economic foundations of the now American nation. Slavery was then spread to the South in 1793, with the new invention of the cotton gin. About halfway through the 19th century, there was immense westward expansion in America, together with the spreading abolition movement in the North,

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).

Chinese immigrants came to the United States during the time of the building of the transcontinental railroad that was completed in 1869. The two tracks met at Promontory, Utah, and was finished mostly by the Chinese immigrants. The whites felt threatened by how willing the Chinese workers were to work for a small amount of wage and they know how that would depress the economy. This shows a rise in nativism and wanted the Chinese immigrants out indefinitely. In Document 3, there is an exaggeration of how the whites expressed themselves towards the Chinese by calling them “slaves” since they are doing cheap labor.

“E Pluribus Unum”, “Out of Many, One”; Originally used to suggest that out of many colonies or states shall emerge a single unified nation, but over the years it has become the melting pot of the many people, races, religions, cultures and ancestries that have come together to form a unified whole, and even though America prides itself on being this melting pot racism is still alive and well today. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, the country that calls to so many; calling to them with the promise of freedom and prosperity, to live their lives as they see fit. As stated in the National Anthem, America is "the land of the free and the home of the brave." America is the country where dreams can come true. So if America has

Imagine. It’s a dark February night in Miami. You step out to your local convenience store to grab a couple of snacks. On your way home, you realize someone is following you. After you confront the person, a scuffle breaks out, and it results in your parents having to bury you at a cemetery. This was the unfortunate story of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Martin was killed walking home from the local convenience store only armed with a bag of skittles and an iced tea. After being followed George Zimmerman, a local neighbourhood watch volunteer, Martin decided to confront Zimmerman. The end result leaving Trayvon Martin dead and George Zimmerman a free man. The story of Trayvon Martin proves the point that racism will is still alive and

"The legacy of past racism directed at blacks in the United States is more like a bacillus that we have failed to destroy, a live germ that not only continues to make some of us ill but retains the capacity to generate new strains of a disease for which we have no certain cure." - Stanford Historian George Frederickson.

In the mid 19th century, America was viewed as a hotspot for freedom and wealth. When the noise of the gold rush flooded the world, immigrants started to see America more appetizing than ever. The Chinese saw America as a place to have a fresh start and as a place of refuge because of it’s generosity, so they immigrated to the west in great numbers. There was a large Chinese population in Virginia and all along the Pacific coast. Writers Mark Twain and Maxine Hong Kingston both wrote in great detail about the Chinese Immigrants. They went into detail about the immigrants and how they came over and why. Although Twain and Kingston both wrote about the immigrants in a positive light, Twain was sympathetic of the immigrants and Kingston focused more on their image and her ancestors.

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.