California goes further in its discrimination against…
1882 CE
California goes further in its discrimination against the Chinese, one the Chinese Exclusion Act is finally passed in 1882, by passing various laws that will later held to be unconstitutional.
After the act is passed most Chinese families are faced with a dilemma: stay in the United States alone or go back to China to reunite with their families.
Newspapers around the country and especially in California start to discredit and blame the Chinese for most things, e.g., white unemployment.
The police also discriminate against the Chinese by using the slightest opportunity to arrest them.
Although there is widespread dislike for the Chinese, some capitalists and entrepreneurs resist their exclusion based on economic factors.
The first significant Chinese immigration to America had begun with the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855, and had continued with subsequent large labor projects, such as the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad.
During the early stages of the gold rush, when surface gold was plentiful, the Chinese were tolerated, if not well received.
As gold became harder to find and competition increased, so did animosity toward the Chinese and other foreigners.
After being forcibly driven from the mines, most Chinese have settled in enclaves in cities, mainly San Francisco, and taken up low-end wage labor such as restaurant work and laundering just to earn enough to live.
With the post Civil War economy in decline by the 1870s, anti-Chinese animosity has become politicized by labor leader Denis Kearney and his Workingman's Partyas well as by California Governor John Bigler, both of whom had blamed Chinese "coolies" for depressed wage levels.
Anti-Chinese agitation by “native” white American laborers had culminated in the 1877 anti-Chinese riots in San Francisco.
These riots culminate in the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which aims to reduce Chinese immigration to the United States by limiting immigration to males and reducing numbers of immigrants allowed in the city.
The law will not be repealed until 1943 with the Magnuson Act.
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