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The history of anti-Asian racism in the US | The United States has a long history of systemic discrimination against people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Here are some of the ways members of the AAPI community have faced racism over the centuries and how history is repeating itself in many ways today. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)
The history of anti-Asian racism in the US
| The United States has a long history of systemic discrimination against people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Here are some of the ways members of the AAPI community have faced racism over the centuries and how history is repeating itself in many ways today. (Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press)
Racism in the American West | Characterized by the California Gold Rush and lawlessness, the often-glamourized American West of the 19th century was actually rife with racial tension between white people and the Chinese immigrants who built the railroads. For example, in 1854, the California Supreme Court ruled that Chinese and Chinese-American people could not testify against a white person in court, overturning a murder conviction in the process after a white person “was convicted of murder upon the testimony of Chinese witnesses,” according to court documents. (J.B. Starkweather/California State Library)
The Chinese Massacre of 1871 | These racial tensions resulted in “one of the largest mass lynchings in American history,” according to National Geographic. In the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871, a mob of more than 500 white and Hispanic rioters murdered 17 Chinese people and burned the city’s Chinatown to the ground. Although eight of the rioters were initially found guilty of manslaughter, their convictions were overturned on a technicality. (Duncan1890/Getty Images)
The Page Act of 1875 | Just a few years later, President Ulysses Grant signed the Page Act into law in 1875, which ended the practice of open borders that the U.S. had maintained since 1867 and outlawed the importation of women for sex without their consent. While this might seem noble in theory, but in practice, the Page Act was primarily used to restrict immigration of Chinese women. According to a Harvard Gazette article, this was a precursor to the dehumanization and fetishization of Asian women in America. (P. Frenzeny/Library of Congress)
The Page Act of 1875 | Just a few years later, President Ulysses Grant signed the Page Act into law in 1875, which ended the practice of open borders that the U.S. had maintained since 1867 and outlawed the importation of women for sex without their consent. While this might seem noble in theory, but in practice, the Page Act was primarily used to restrict immigration of Chinese women. According to a Harvard Gazette article, this was a precursor to the dehumanization and fetishization of Asian women in America. (P. Frenzeny/Library of Congress)
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 | The wave of anti-Asian sentiment in the 19th century reached its peak when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country. According to the Office of the Historian, objections to Chinese immigration generally resulted from economic tensions, but instead of addressing the root of those problems, supporters scapegoated Chinese workers, citing “moral standards of American society” or “concern about the integrity of American racial composition” as arguments for limiting Chinese immigration. (National Archives)
The Great Honolulu Chinatown Fire of 1900 | Like many poor, neglected immigrant neighborhoods, the Chinatown of 1899 Honolulu was crowded and unsanitary. So when a Chinese immigrant died in the neighborhood of the bubonic plague, local health officials jumped into action — with devastating results. The Board of Health set a series of “controlled fires” to stop the plague, but in January 1900, the fire burned out of control for 17 days, destroying 38 acres and 4,000 homes, mostly of Chinese and Japanese residents, leaving them homeless. Business and government leaders did not acknowledge the poor conditions of the neighborhood were caused by poverty and, like the coronavirus-related panic of today, racialized the disease. (Hawaii State Archives)
The 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act | The systemic discrimination of the previous century snowballed in the 20th century, starting with the Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act. Capitalizing on the fear surrounding World War I, the act curbed immigration by implementing national quotas and a literacy test for all immigrants regardless of origin. It also outright barred all immigrants from Asian countries, excluding the Philippines and Japan. (Vancouver Public Library)
The 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act | The systemic discrimination of the previous century snowballed in the 20th century, starting with the Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act. Capitalizing on the fear surrounding World War I, the act curbed immigration by implementing national quotas and a literacy test for all immigrants regardless of origin. It also outright barred all immigrants from Asian countries, excluding the Philippines and Japan. (Vancouver Public Library)
Internment of Japanese-Americans | After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces finally brought the U.S. into World War II, the U.S. government acted on xenophobic fears, villainizing its own citizens. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942, which authorized the removal of any person of Japanese heritage away from the military zones of the West Coast. Over the next six months, 122,000 people, many of them second- and third-generation Americans, were forcibly removed from their homes to guarded detention centers, all without charges. The U.S. government officially apologized in 1988 and made reparations, but the instance remains an example of how “Asian Americans have been regularly scapegoated during periods of national duress.” according to the Harvard Gazette. (Dorothea Lange/PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
The Rescission Act of 1946 | After being ceded to the U.S. after the 1898 Spanish-American War, the Philippines and its military forces were under American control and Filipinos were considered U.S. citizens. After the U.S. entered World War II, tens of thousands of Filipino soldiers enlisted and fought alongside their fellow Americans. Though they were initially promised the same veterans' benefits as members of the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. reneged on this promise through the Rescission Act of 1946, which said that wartime service in the Philippines did not qualify as military service.This allowed the U.S. to withhold $200 million in benefits to Filipino veterans. It wasn't until 2009 that the U.S. offered to finally repay this long-overdue debt. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The Rescission Act of 1946 | After being ceded to the U.S. after the 1898 Spanish-American War, the Philippines and its military forces were under American control and Filipinos were considered U.S. citizens. After the U.S. entered World War II, tens of thousands of Filipino soldiers enlisted and fought alongside their fellow Americans. Though they were initially promised the same veterans’ benefits as members of the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. reneged on this promise through the Rescission Act of 1946, which said that wartime service in the Philippines did not qualify as military service.This allowed the U.S. to withhold $200 million in benefits to Filipino veterans. It wasn’t until 2009 that the U.S. offered to finally repay this long-overdue debt. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Rise of ‘model minority’ in the 1960s | After the 1965 Hart-Celler Act abolished the quota system and lifted restrictions on immigration, intellectuals got busy speculating about what would happen when immigration numbers went up. The term “model minority” was coined in 1966 by a sociologist in The New York Times Magazine. In “Success story: Japanese American style”, William Petersen claimed that the relative success of Japanese Americans allowed them to overcome the discrimination faced by other minorities. Petersen’s assertion and the numerous articles that followed it minimized the injustice and racism experienced by Asian Americans.
The 1982 murder of Vincent Chin | In the 1980s, the U.S. auto industry was suffering due to an oil crisis and competition from fuel-efficient Japanese cars. In 1982, two men, one of whom had just lost his job at Chrysler, beat Vincent Chin to death in Detroit. Although Chin was Chinese American, the men apparently thought he was Japanese. The murder only made national headlines after the men were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to a $3,000 fine with zero prison time for the crime. Kin Yee, president of the Detroit Chinese Welfare Council, said the sentences amounted to “a license to kill for $3,000, provided you have a steady job or are a student and the victim is Chinese,” according to The New York Times. Chin’s death helped galvanize the Asian community and unite pan-Asian activists to fight for their common interests. (Detroit Free Press/MCT)
Post-9/11 racism surge | Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims, Sikhs and people of Arab and South Asian descent soared. Both federal and local law enforcement racially profiled thousands of Arab, Muslim and South Asian men, secretly interrogating, arresting and detaining them without any evidence they were connected to the attacks. “Anti-Sharia law” bills also began to be proposed across the country, which have little practical impact, but effectively legalize Islamophobia, according to the Center for Public Integrity. This push has continued in the decades since. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, from 2014 to 2019, 22 pieces of anti-Muslim legislation aimed at combating the “influence of Sharia law” passed. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
The 'Muslim ban' of 2017 | Days after his inauguration, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769, which cited national security as the reason for banning nationals from seven majority-Muslim countries from immigrating or traveling to the U.S. Despite the ensuing controversy, protests and claims of racism, people from 13 countries still remain barred from coming to the U.S. in 2021. As a result, the number of Muslim refugees to the U.S. has decreased significantly since an all-time high in 2016, according to Pew. The ban also stoked Islamophobia toward Muslim Americans. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The ‘Muslim ban’ of 2017 | Days after his inauguration, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769, which cited national security as the reason for banning nationals from seven majority-Muslim countries from immigrating or traveling to the U.S. Despite the ensuing controversy, protests and claims of racism, people from 13 countries still remain barred from coming to the U.S. in 2021. As a result, the number of Muslim refugees to the U.S. has decreased significantly since an all-time high in 2016, according to Pew. The ban also stoked Islamophobia toward Muslim Americans. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Donald Trump and the ‘Chinese virus’ | Early reports said the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China, a fact that Donald Trump used to deflect responsibility in the early months of the pandemic. While experts declared the spread of the virus a global problem, Trump’s insistence on attaching a nationality to the crisis stoked further fear. A December 2020 study linked the media’s and Trump’s usage of the term “Chinese virus” with increased anti-Asian sentiment. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)
2021 Atlanta spa shootings | In March 2021, eight people — seven of them women and six of Asian descent — were murdered in a shooting spree by a white man. Though the killer told police that he did not target the victims because of their race, many experts and advocates across the country described the Atlanta spa shootings a hate crime. The murders fit into a recent pattern of increased hatred and violence against Asian Americans. Almost 50% of Asians in America have experienced racist incidents since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to Pew. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
2021 Atlanta spa shootings | In March 2021, eight people — seven of them women and six of Asian descent — were murdered in a shooting spree by a white man. Though the killer told police that he did not target the victims because of their race, many experts and advocates across the country described the Atlanta spa shootings a hate crime. The murders fit into a recent pattern of increased hatred and violence against Asian Americans. Almost 50% of Asians in America have experienced racist incidents since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to Pew. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)