California Assemblyman Paul Fong (D – Mountain View) is seeking federal reparations for the discrimination suffered by Chinese immigrants coming to the United States in the 19th and early 20th century.
From the San Jose Mercury News:
Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Mountain View, wants us to remember that when the Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbor in 1886, welcoming immigrants from around the world to America, there should have been a sign posted in front that said: “Everyone except Chinese.”
Just four years earlier, at the urging of Californians, Congress had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, for the first time barring entry to a group of immigrants strictly based on their national origin.
“Chinese people were singled out,” he said. “They couldn’t be citizens, they couldn’t hold jobs. They couldn’t own property.”
The law was repealed in 1943, and in most parts of the country it was forgotten. Growing up in the Midwest, I vaguely remember reading in my U.S. history book about “yellow peril” but knew little about the suffering of Chinese immigrants and their families. Of course, that same history book didn’t mention the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, either.
But