"Throughout history, both the U.S. government and history have sought to exploit chinese labor-either as raw muscle or as brain power-but resisted accepting the Chinese as fellow Americans"
~Iris Chang, The Chinese in America
~Iris Chang, The Chinese in America
The aspects of this era, like the mistreatment of the Chinese railroad workers or the Anti-Coolie Act, taught the American future how to treat the Chinese. Following the Exclusion Act of 1882, abusive immigration officers on Angel Island and more exclusionary laws built the legacy of hostility towards the Chinese. This hostility still exists today, surviving in derogatory terms like “chink” and “Chinaman.” This bitter legacy of racism exists throughout American history and started with the pre-Chinese Exclusion era
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