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 [...]]]> 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The law was repealed in 1943, and in most parts of the country it was forgotten.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 Fong wants us to remember. And he wants us to apologize.

Fong has it right, this is a chapter in US history that too often gets overlooked.  The massive disruptions in the 19th century caused many Chinese to seek their fortunes overseas.  Chinese immigrants built railroads, worked on mines, started businesses, and formed communities throughout the world, including in the North American west.  They also suffered discrimination, were subjected to violent attacks and lynchings, and faced a number of laws designed to restrict immigration and force Chinese and other Asians into residential and occupational ghettos.

Along with the African slavery, the wars of extermination carried out against the Native Americans, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the treatment of Chinese-Americans during the formative years of the United States needs to be addressed, and I applaud Paul Fong for his efforts.

The cliché is true; he makes us proud to be Americans. That feeling was particularly strong for me because of a recent conversation I had in Beijing with a number of Chinese academics and fairly high-ranking party officials. The conversation quickly turned to American politics, and it [...]]]> Anne-Marie Slaughter writing at the Huffington Post on Senator Obama:

The cliché is true; he makes us proud to be Americans. That feeling was particularly strong for me because of a recent conversation I had in Beijing with a number of Chinese academics and fairly high-ranking party officials. The conversation quickly turned to American politics, and it became apparent that most of the people around the table expected McCain to win. When I probed as to why, the response was essentially that America would not really elect a black man. How I longed, and long, to prove them wrong, to prove that America is not defined by its past failures but by its continuing ability to overcome them. That capacity and desire for continuing renewal is precisely what Obama is tapping into.

I empathize with Ms. Slaughter’s conversational plight. I have had conversations like this–not just with Chinese friends but also with acquaintances from other countries as well–who share a similar skepticism as to the ability of the American public to look past race.  It’s sad too to think that such skepticism is not wholly without merit.  Such are the scars of racism in the United States.

It’s also worth noting that some of the reaction Ms. Slaughter encountered in Beijing may well have been a projection of Chinese elite attitudes towards minority groups in their own country…I’m not sure if we will have an African-American in the White House next year, but I’ll bet the farm the United States will see an African-American president before the CCP names a Tibetan or a Uighur as General Secretary.