Here’s a quick video based on my new book, looking at the toxic Yellow peril hysteria sweeping through the United States. However, this is not new and is just a rehashing of the Sinophobia from the 19th century. After the Opium Wars — in which the USA was an active participant — the British and the Americans exploited Chinese workers, who were sent to America, Australia (British colony at that time) and elsewhere. In the U.S., Chinese faced all kinds of racist and discriminatory laws for many decades until 1882 when the Chinese Exclusion Act specifically banned all Chinese immigrants. This appalling law lasted until 1943 when the U.S. wanted China’s help in defeating Japan; also, the U.S. wanted to install its puppet Chiang Kai-shek as the leader of China. So, the law was modified to allow whopping … 105 Chinese … per year to come to the U.S.!
Yellow Peril Emerges Again After 150 Years (video)
Tag: transcontinental railroad
A ‘History of Exclusion, of Erasure, of Invisibility.’ Why the Asian-American Story Is Missing From Many U.S. Classrooms
Scholars agree that one of the reasons a full history of Asian Americans has not been incorporated into core U.S. History curricula in K-12 schools is because it doesn’t portray America in a positive light.
“K-12 American history texts reinforce the narrative that Asian immigrants and refugees are fortunate to have been ‘helped’ and ‘saved’ by the U.S.,” Jean Wu, who has taught Asian American Studies for more than 50 years and is a senior lecturer emerita at Tufts University, said in an email to TIME. “The story does not begin with U.S. imperialist wars that were waged to take Asian wealth and resources and the resulting violence, rupture and displacement in relation to Asian lives. Few realize that there is an Asian diaspora here in the U.S. because the U.S. went to Asia first.”