ANTI-RACISM DAILY

May 8, 2024

Learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act.

TAKE ACTION

• if you or someone you know experiences an anti-Asian attack, report it at stopaapihate.org.

• Raise awareness and learn more by following the hashtag #StopAAPIHate on social media.

• Watch The Chinese Exclusion Act, a documentary outlining the history of the legislation and its impact.

GET EDUCATED

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, marking the first significant restriction on free immigration in the U.S. This law prohibited all Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. for ten years and denied them the opportunity to become American citizens. It also applied to the entry and re-entry of Chinese nationals. Let’s look at the role of this legislation in addressing anti-Asian hate and its impact on anti-Asian racism today.

The 1849 Gold Rush attracted Chinese migrants to the U.S. West Coast. Immigrants moved here and took low-paying jobs, and they also started restaurants, loan companies, and laundries. Although Americans initially welcomed cheap labor, members of the working class became fearful that more immigrants would eventually take their jobs away. This prompted a sharp, racist response to Chinese and other Asian immigrants. 

In San Francisco, a rally for labor rights turned violent when the white mob decided to attack San Francisco’s Chinatown. Over that evening and the following day, thousands of people descended on the community. Police officers armed white residents with guns to quell the protests, only to fuel the violence. Four Chinese people were killed, dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed, and over $100,000 in property was damaged. Later that year, San Franciscan Denis Kearney formed the Workingmen’s Party of California, a labor organization whose rallying cry was: “The Chinese must go!"  (SF Gate). But this attack against the Chinese community was unfolding across the U.S., not just in San Francisco. In 1871, a violent attack on Chinese people in Los Angeles resulted in the deaths of 18 people (Los Angeles Public Library). Elsewhere, Chinese people were being driven out of neighborhoods.

State officials were quick to dismiss Chinese communities in their response to growing hostility. Senator John Franklin Miller from California expressed the view that Chinese culture was fundamentally distinct from American culture, implying that Chinese immigrants would be unable to integrate into American society. During his speech in Congress, he questioned, “If we continue to permit the introduction of this strange people, with their peculiar civilization, until they form a considerable part of our population, what is to be the effect upon the American people and Anglo-Saxon civilization?” (Bill of Rights).

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

This hate was also directed at Chinese immigrants who were limited in where they could live, eventually carving out little spaces for themselves in neighborhoods that were quickly referred to as “Chinatowns.” White people blamed Chinese workers for the growth of syphilis, leprosy, and smallpox. Though poverty, not race, correlates with the spread of diseases, Canada created a Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration in 1884. It concluded that "Chinese quarters are the filthiest and most disgusting places in Victoria, overcrowded hotbeds of disease and vice, disseminating fever and polluting the air all around.” However, they knew this wasn’t accurate (The Conversation). Although unfounded, stories like these fuel the anti-Asian bias surrounding diseases to this day (Columbia Journalism Review).

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, marking the first significant restriction on free immigration in the U.S. This law prohibited all Chinese immigrants from entering the U.S. for ten years and denied them the opportunity to become American citizens. It also applied to the entry and re-entry of Chinese nationals. Canada followed with its own Chinese Immigration Act in 1885.

The Exclusion Act not only prevented many Chinese from coming to the U.S. but also fueled further widespread mistreatment and anti-Chinese violence, causing deaths, injuries, and displacement among Chinese immigrants.

Originally meant to last a decade, the Exclusion Act was repeatedly renewed and made stricter, remaining in effect for about 80 years. In 1943, the U.S. relaxed the strict ban on Chinese immigrants, but it wasn't until the 1965 Immigration Act that significant Chinese immigration resumed. This historical oppression mirrors the challenges other immigrant groups face today, fighting against discriminatory laws and practices.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a landmark law that established a precedent for federal restrictions on immigration, specifically targeting a single ethnic group—Chinese immigrants—setting a tone of institutionalized racism that would affect immigration policies and minority treatment for years to come.

• Economic competition and racial prejudice led to significant anti-Chinese sentiment, resulting in violent acts against Chinese communities in the late 19th century, highlighting the impact of xenophobia and job insecurity on societal attitudes towards immigrants.

• Misinformation and stereotypes about disease and hygiene, often associated with poverty-stricken areas where Chinese immigrants lived, contributed to the stigma and discrimination against Asian communities, a pattern of scapegoating that has persisted through to contemporary times during health crises.