Today is the observance of Martin Luther King's birthday (his actual birthday is January 15th).
I always take some time off on this day to remember that this man started a movement which made it possible for me to be where I am today.
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Nationality and Immigration Act 0f 1965, there still existed in America many laws which specifically targeted the Chinese population. There were laws which imposed a tax on being Chinese, or for running a laundry without a horse or carriage (which were most Chinese laundromats in Chinatown) or forbade the laundromat from operating if it was constructed of wood (which most Chinese shops were at that time).
The first Chinese were brought over as immigrant workers to work the gold mines and build the transcontinental railroad during the 1850s. Many Chinese died during this period as a result of the working conditions. In 1868, Congress modifies the 14th amendment, which states that anyone who was born in the United States is a citizen, to include people of Africa and their descendents. Asians were excluded from this right, and would remain excluded until 1952.
Discrimination and prejudice still ran rampant during that period, with many laws made to target the Chinese: the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which forbade the wives of Chinese laborers to enter the United States, and suspended the emigration of Chinese for 10 years. In 1892, emigration is once again suspended, and Chinese are forced to obtain a "certificate of residence". In 1904, the ban on Chinese immigration is suspended in definitely. From 1880 to 1920, the Chinese population in the United States drops from 105,465 to 61,639.
In 1913, California passes the Asian Land Law, which prohibits those not eligible for citizenship from from owning land. In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act is repealed, and the immigration quota is set at 105. In 1952, the McCarran-Walter Act ends the Asian immigration ban and extends naturalization rights to all races, but continues with the 2% resident population quota. (Basically, the limit of how many would be allowed to enter the country was 2% of the current U.S. population of your ethnic group)
California also changed the state institution to include "No corporation shall employ, directly or indirectly, an Chinese or Mongolian. No Chinese shall be employed on any state, county, municipal or other public work, except as punishment for crime." Also in California, Asians could not attend public schools -- a separate school system existed for them.
In 1965, the United States sets the quota at 20,000 per country, with a preference for skilled workers. This finally allows for the immigration of larger numbers of Asians into the United States.
Social change doesn't happen overnight. It is a gradual process, one that does have to take some rather large leaps if change is ever to happen -- otherwise, it just becomes accepted as a way of life. It took over a hundred years for Chinese to become citizens of this country -- during this time, the status quo was you were Asian, and you didn't have rights.
Asians do have rights now, but we can't forget that such rights are easy to lose, and hard to regain. Immigration these days is even stricter in the post 9-11 world, and many programs for assistance no longer consider Asians a minority group.
Even these days, it is not uncommon for me to encounter people who comment to me "you speak very good English", a result of the stereotype which Hollywood and the media have perpetuated that Asians are foreigners in this country. When I hear something like this, it makes me realize that we still have a long road ahead of us before we truly do live in a country blind to race or color.
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