Even when Sei Fujii graduated with honors from USC law and ultimately denied both citizenship and a law license because he was Asian. Even in 1923 when Bhagat Singh Thind argued against the United States for his naturalization and effectively proved that race was a social construct. This would remain until 1943.Īnd at every turn when we tried to claim ownership, we were shot down. In 1882, the Chinese exclusion act came into effect and became the basis for US immigration law. But the United States government wouldn’t have it. Many of us came here for a chance at a new life and we found ways to make home here. Photo credit: Underwood Archives, Getty Imagesīut we trudged onwards. Inauguration of Transcontinental Railroad Chinese workers weren’t allowed in the image. In 1875 the first restrictive federal immigration act was to stop immigration of “unfree laborers and immoral women” but effectively targeted the Chinese population, especially the women.Īnd in 1869, during America’s great feat of the Transcontinental Railroad, Chinese workers weren’t allowed in the picture celebrating the end of their work. In 1850 Chinese contract workers in California dealt with the Foreign Miner Tax, which was in actuality only for the Chinese although there were also European foreign workers. Louis World Fair was the Philipine Reservation, or a “living exhibit”, a human zoo with over 1,000 Filipinos for Americans to pat themselves on the back for conquest and racial civilization.Įven when Asians immigrated and started working, they ran into roadblocks specifically built to stop them. In 1904 the most popular exhibit at the St. In 1834, Afong Moy from Guangdong was brought to New York City by two white traders to be exhibited as part of a marketing strategy for Chinese goods.
Dehumanizing Asians as novelty and laborĪsians were always seen as novelty and foreigners in America. And this is further enforced by looking at the history of Asians in America.
Because the matter of fact is, America is a country built on the genocide of Native Americans, slavery, and prioritizing the interests of the rich white man. While the sentiment is nice, it’s wrong and leads to a false understanding of America. Because although we have made advancements in politics and representation, it doesn’t change the fact that Asian women are still fetishized and that some people see Asian faces like mine and think danger and virus, rather than human and friend.Īnd yet some are saying that anti-Asian racism is not American. Photo credit: REUTERS/Shannon StapletonĪs someone who has studied Asian American history, all these events are even more suffocating because it means that nothing has changed since the first Asians came to North America. People embrace by a makeshift memorial outside the Gold Spa following the deadly shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. And still, the news is hesitating to call it a hate crime and the killer himself admitted to murdering the women while denying that he was racist. They were the age of 이모s/aunties, the age of my mom’s friends. This time, six Asian women were killed by a white man who shouted that he’d kill all the Asians before shooting.
I remember reading about a young Korean woman being attacked in New York City and feeling a chill run down my spine because I, too, am a young Korean woman.īut this feels different. I’ve been stressed over anti-Asian racism before, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. The day after the Atlanta shooting was a bizarre cycle of grief (sometimes as I was cooking or reading), numbness (that I tried to nap off but to no avail), and my brain oddly looping an annoying anime TikTok song. This article contains depictions of violence which may be disturbing to readers.
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