AAS 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Geary Act, Scott Act (1888)
Document Summary
Anti-asian movement : waves of immigration is linked to anti-asian sentiment and exclusion. Economic : chinese degradation of labor (coolie labor cheap labor). Moral/religious : different practices than americans that seemed unchangeable. Social/political : racial differences, exaggerated by representation of chinatown. Prejudice : yellow peril the fear that the chinese would take over and destroy the west, overall, the number of chinese immigrants was small . Overall, about 150,000 chinese immigrants total before exclusion compared to 25 million non-chinese. Economic discrimination : laws aimed at chinese in certain jobs. Prohibited using poles slung across the shoulder (1870). Laundries with animal-drawn carts assessed a fee, and laundries without carts assessed a fee (1873). Could not operate a laundry in a wooden building in san francisco without a permit from a board of supervisors (1880). Inability to naturalize = cannot vote: courts ruled against naturalization in in re ah yup (1878).
