Thursday, December 16, 2021

Apology for Anti-Chinese Racism

 San Jose in California has officially apologised to Chinese immigrants and their descendants for the role the city played in "systemic and institutional racism, xenophobia, and discrimination".

In May 1887 Chinatown with its dozens of stores and restaurants was burned to the ground, displacing about 1,400 residents, after the city council had declared the neighborhood a public nuisance.

In May, the town of Antioch, California became the first to apologise for its treatment of early Chinese immigrants, who dug secret tunnels to commute home from work because they were barred from walking city streets after sunset.

Chinese immigrants first arrived in the US in large numbers during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. After many also to work on building the railroad or to take up other difficult industrial and agricultural jobs for low wages.

Chinese immigrants faced intense racial discrimination in America. They were required to pay special taxes, banned from owning properties and land, and blamed for stealing jobs and driving down wages.

The anti-Chinese sentiment later escalated into assaults, arson and murder.

More than 150 anti-Chinese riots took place through the American West during the 1870s and 1880s. One of the worst examples was in the Los Angeles Chinatown in 1871, when 19 Chinese people - 10% of the small Chinese population of the city at the time - were killed by a mob.


The anti-Chinese racism culminated in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which virtually prohibited the immigration of Chinese labourers. 


San Jose apologises for past racial discrimination against Chinese community - BBC News


Also see


SOCIALISM OR YOUR MONEY BACK: Brief History of Anti-Chinese Racism

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