The Asian Exclusion

A sermon Offered by Rev. Tim Kutzmark
Sunday, January 14, 2007 • Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading

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This sermon grew out of three things: ignorance, information, and inspiration.

In the beginning, there was the ignorance, which I confess was my own.  Until recently, I thought I knew the basics about our country’s history of racism, about how this country joined racial prejudice with white privilege to limit the lives of people of color.  But there was a whole history of race that I knew little about.  I was ignorant of this country’s systematic and economically calculated oppression against people of Asian descent.  I had known about the internment camps for the Japanese during World War II, but that was an isolated, shameful incident, right? 

See, I grew up with the idea and image of America as a melting pot, where people of all colors and origins mixed together into a kind of patriotic multi-cultural stew.  Of course, African-Americans weren’t included in that voluntary melting pot, brought over as slaves to feed our economy.  But everyone else could be part of the American dream, couldn’t they?

But a few years ago, I read the following words written by Harvard scholar Diana Eck:

“The late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century image of America as a nation of immigrants simply did not include . . . immigrants from Asia.  The torch-bearing arm of the Statue of Liberty was raised in New York harbor toward the Atlantic, not the Pacific . . . It was assumed that the peoples of the melting pot were European.” (Diana Eck, Encountering God, p. 34)

Admitting my ignorance about what she had written, I sought some information.  What I found shocked me.  I wish to share a little of that forgotten history of race with you this Martin Luther King Sunday.

We could say the legal history of racism in this country began when the United States Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1790.  This law stipulated that only “free white persons” could become citizens of this country.  After the Civil War, this restriction was lifted for blacks.  But it wasn’t until 1952, fifty-five years ago, that the invitation to citizenship was extended to Asian immigrants. 

But although denied the opportunity for citizenship until 1952, waves of male Asian immigrants to this country had been commonplace for over a hundred years.  If we don’t count the Native Americans who were of Asian migration descent—the first large immigration from Asia began just prior to the Civil War.

Picture it: The American West in the late 1840’s was alive with the cacophony of a growing nation.  We’ve all seen the Westerns that showed the boomtowns springing up, crowded saloon brawls, dance hall girls, and the excitement of the gold rush!  But how did these growing pains and boomtowns lure immigrants from China to the Western US?  There are two things that brought them here: gold and white man’s greed.

A few Chinese came because of the gold rush.  Word that you could make your fortune in the gold fields spread all the way to China, and some men came seeking easy wealth. (Remember, I said ‘men’—and I'll get to that in a minute.)

But the majority came because the American West was in desperate need of cheap labor.  The Western frontier and California were thriving.  But there weren’t enough people to work the menial jobs that were needed to build this growing edge of the nation.  Furthermore, the white male workforce that had been working was abandoning industry and agricultural jobs in favor of the gold fields.  So many men thought they could make a fast fortune for themselves looking for gold, rather than working at manual labor for others.  There was no one to take on the jobs the white men left behind.  There was still slavery in the country, but thankfully it hadn’t extended into the West, so you couldn’t force black labor.  How was this new Western economy to be sustained? In addition, remember that the Transcontinental Railroad was being built, and cheap labor was needed for that demanding and dangerous work.  A famine had just struck China, so there was a ready population willing to leave their homeland and work in order to survive. So industry and business and government recruited cheap labor from Southern China.

Within a few years of their arrival, the government took action to limit the economic and legal freedom of this new Chinese workforce.  First, in 1852, California imposed a Foreign Miner’s Tax, collecting this expensive tax only from every foreign (Asian) miner.  The reason was to discourage Chinese from mining gold and keep them working in jobs where they were needed, also leaving the gold for the white miners.  Seeking to further keep the Chinese a serving class, in 1854, a law was passed forbidding the Chinese to testify in court against whites.  This deprived them of legal protection of any kind, including legal protection against unsafe or unjust work conditions, or wage complaints.  It also left them with no protection in the court system against acts of violence, which were becoming commonplace.  No one could be prosecuted for any violent act against an Asian if only Asian witnesses were willing to testify.

During this period, the government also enacted a policy to prevent the immigration of Asian women.  Men were needed for cheap labor; the women, even wives, were barred.  The reason was this: although the Naturalization Act of 1790 prevented any Asian immigrants from becoming a citizen, the Fourteenth Amendment declared that any child born on U.S. soil would be a citizen of the United States.  If a child was born to a Chinese immigrant, the child would automatically become Asian American, something that horrified many.  Further, if their child was now a US citizen, the Chinese parents could not be sent back to China if their labor was not needed.  If there were no Chinese women here, there would be no babies, and thus, no Chinese-American citizens.

The racial tensions exploded in the autumn of 1875. At the base of the unrest was the uncertain and unstable economy in the West following the Civil War.  This led to high unemployment, especially among veterans.  Suddenly, unemployed whites were seeking the menial jobs that the Chinese had been imported to fill. Cries of “they’re taking away our jobs!” rang out.

A Butte, Montana newspaper editorial screamed: “The Chinaman’s life is not our life, his religion is not our religion.  His habits, superstitions, and modes of life are disgusting.  He is a parasite, floating across the Pacific and thence penetrating into the interior towns and cities, there to settle down for a brief space and absorb the substance of those with whom he comes into competition.  His one object is to make all the money he can.”  (Eck, p. 35)

A letter from an unemployed white maid, printed in an Idaho newspaper on March 31, 1877, asks: “What are the chances for getting employment in your city? The Chinese barbarians have captured Boise and will soon rule the whites. I would like to know if this is a free and independent country? “ (Idaho Avalanche (Silver City), March 31, 1877, as quoted in Yu, Li-hua, Chinese Immigrants in Idaho, PhD dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1991., p. 130.)

This hysteria spread, and “Chinese communities were harassed, attacked, or expelled.  This happened in 34 towns in California, three in Oregon, and four in Nevada.  Property . . . worth millions of dollars was damaged or destroyed.”

“On September 2, 1875, 150 armed white men attacked the Chinese community in Rock Springs, Wyoming, resulting in 28 deaths, 15 wounded, and the expulsion of all the Chinese residents.  After the Rock Springs riot, anti-Chinese violence quickly spread; on October 24, Seattle’s Chinatown was burned; on November 3, a mob of 300 expelled the Chinese in Tacoma, WA before moving on to force similar expulsions in smaller towns. The Washington [State] governor requested federal assistance to restore law and order and on November 7 President Grover Cleveland sent the U.S. military . . . to suppress the riots.” (source: http://immigrants.harpweek.com/ChineseAmericans/2KeyIssues/theAntiChineseHysteria.htm)

Grover Cleveland, the President of the United States, “reached the conclusion that the anti-Chinese prejudice was so deeply entrenched in the West, and the Chinese and American cultures were so different, that the Chinese would never be assimilated.”  His solution?  “It was the government’s duty . . . to prevent the immigration of more Chinese.” (Ibid.)

“In 1882, the United States Congress passed the first Chinese exclusion act.  It specifically prohibited the entry of skilled and unskilled laborers from China” and reaffirmed that those who were already here “were barred from becoming citizens and their wives were forever ineligible for entry.  Only 37 members of the House of Representatives opposed it.” (Eck, p. 34)

Within forty years, the anti-Chinese legislation was expanded to include all Asians, including Japanese and Koreans.  In 1913, California passed a law denying the right to own any property to anyone who was not a citizen.  No Asian could thus own any property in the entire state of California.

The winds of change finally began blowing when Congress passed a new Immigration Law in 1952, although immigration quotas were maintained, allowing only 105 immigrants per year per Asian nation.  That same year, Congress ended all racial bars to citizenship, and any Asian already in the country could become a citizen.

In 1965, Lyndon Johnson eliminated most restrictions into the country, but gave preference to immigrants with skills needed in the United States.  Economics still ruled the day.

Scholar Cheryl Harris sums up this history quite well, stating: "white identity conferred  . . .  economically valuable benefits, " white identity was "central to national identity." (Harris, "Whiteness as Property," from Critical Race Theory, pgs. 280, 285.)

All this begs the question: “Why does this matter to us, today?” “Isn’t this just history?”  “Haven’t we’ve moved beyond it in the last forty years?”   I’ll answer with something noted African-American scholar Cornel West wrote:  It matters because “race matters.”

• It matters because we have members and friends and children in this congregation who are of Asian descent; because we have children from Asia and other countries who have been adopted by members of this congregation; because we have multi-race couples in this congregation.
  
  
• It matters because there are ten active Hate Groups in the State of Massachusetts, including neo-Nazi groups in nearby Peabody and Haverhill.
  
  
• It matters because on July 1, just seven months ago, fliers from the neo-Nazi National Alliance were thrown on driveways in nearby Lexington.
  
  
• It matters because ten months ago, swastikas were painted on a Jewish Community Center in Stoughton.
  
  
• It matters because eight months ago, in Jamul, CA, anti-Mexican graffiti was scrawled on a Mexican restaurant that was then set afire.
  
  
• It matters because on August 22, in Yonkers, NY two 17 year old boys were charged with second-degree murder after they allegedly beat a 32- year-old Mexican man to death, targeting him because of his ethnicity.
  
  
• It matters because on July 3 in Lewiston, ME, a thirty-three year old man was charged with desecration of a place of worship after he allegedly tossed a frozen pig's head into a mosque during evening prayers.
  
  
• It matters because on average 21 hate crimes a day are reported to the FBI.
  
  
• It matters because although The Pentagon claims it has a "zero tolerance" policy for racist extremism in the military, military officials have failed to discharge an airman who posted an Internet message calling for the deaths of Jews and non-whites. (source, Southern Poverty Law Center)
  
  
• It matters because just 14 days ago, Toys R Us attempted with withdraw a $25,000 cash prize to the first baby born in the New Year on the ground she was born to Chinese immigrant parents who were not yet citizens of this country.
  
  
• It matters because race still matters.
  
  
• It matters because in our inner cities our children of color are dying.
  
  
• It matters because, today, people of color—people of Middle Eastern heritage—have been rounded up, held for questioning, imprisoned, or deported without recourse or representation.
  
  
• It matters because the politics of race saturate our government, our legal system and our prisons.
  
  
• It matters because only four years ago, the Governor of Illinois, a supporter of the death penalty, cleared his state’s death row after determining that race influenced access to competent legal representation and race influenced the likelihood of a prosecutor seeking and getting the death penalty.  The decision wasn’t about whether the death penalty was right or wrong, it was about how race distorts its use.
  
  
• It matters because the President of the United States asked the Justice Department to draft a brief opposing affirmative action programs.
  
  
• It matters because we have a service industry in this country staffed primarily by people of color primarily serving white middle class and upper class America.  We still have a servant class in this country paid the most minimal of wages.
  
  
• It matters because a gap remains between the living standards of white workers and people of color.  The average black wage is 75 percent of the average white wage; the average Latino wage is 71 percent of the average white wage.  Black median net worth is about $6.000, and Latino median net worth is about $8,000, compared to $88,000 for whites. (The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama, p. 242-43)
  
  
• It matters because our country’s leaders are again looking at ways to import foreign workers to fill low wage menial jobs—denying them access to citizenship, but using their bodies to build and maintain our lifestyle.
  
  
• It matters because we say Unitarian Universalism is a faith that believes in the worth and dignity of each individual, that upholds the use of democratic process, and seeks to build a community of justice.
  
  
• It matters because this is why Martin Luther King died, martyred for his dream—our dream—of transforming “the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of sisterhood and brotherhood.”

With this dream, this inspiration, Dr, King believed we would be able “to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that all will be free one day.”

“This,” he dreamed, “will be the day when all of [this nation’s] children will be able to sing with a new meaning:

My country, ‘tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountain-side
Let freedom ring.

May it be so.  Blessed Be.  Amen.

©Copyright 2007 Rev. Timothy A. Kutzmark
All rights reserved.