Ethnic Groups and Discrimination
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- Category: History: Asian
- Date Submitted: 04/19/2010 06:51 PM
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Ethnic Groups and Discrimination
Asian Americans originally came to the United States as immigrants. Many of the asian citizens were seeking a better life for themselves and saw America as a land of opportunity. According to Richard T. Schaefer Racial and Ethnic Groups (2006), more than over 200,000 Chinese immigrants came to the United States thinking they would find gold and job opportunities of the West; with warfare, drought, and overcrowding in China many people decided to take their chances in the United States. My parents are Hmong and came to America during the late 1970’s trying to escape the oppression of communism in Southeast Asia, because of their alliance with the United States in the Vietnam War. Like many other Asian Americans my parents were seeking a new life, one with more opportunities.
Migrating to a new country, a new world and culture, many asian citizens faced hostility because their customs and beliefs were so different and non-European. Even before the Chinese had started immigrating into the United States there was already a huge stereotype of them and their customs; American traders, European diplomats, and Protestant missionaries often told others about the exotic and sinister aspects of China (Richard T. Schaefer, 2006). Prejudice towards the Chinese did not just end there; the Chinese also faced segregation and racism. Organized labor feared that the Chinese would be used as strikebreakers but when Chinese workers finally unionized they were not recognized by major labor organizations (Richard T. Schaefer, 2006). Major labor organizations instead opposed any effort to assist Chinese workers.
There are many forms of discrimination, some easier to identify than others. An institutional discrimination, one of the biggest discrimination towards the Chinese that even became a law was the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted and immigration of Chinese was outlawed for a total of about 60...
Asian Americans originally came to the United States as immigrants. Many of the asian citizens were seeking a better life for themselves and saw America as a land of opportunity. According to Richard T. Schaefer Racial and Ethnic Groups (2006), more than over 200,000 Chinese immigrants came to the United States thinking they would find gold and job opportunities of the West; with warfare, drought, and overcrowding in China many people decided to take their chances in the United States. My parents are Hmong and came to America during the late 1970’s trying to escape the oppression of communism in Southeast Asia, because of their alliance with the United States in the Vietnam War. Like many other Asian Americans my parents were seeking a new life, one with more opportunities.
Migrating to a new country, a new world and culture, many asian citizens faced hostility because their customs and beliefs were so different and non-European. Even before the Chinese had started immigrating into the United States there was already a huge stereotype of them and their customs; American traders, European diplomats, and Protestant missionaries often told others about the exotic and sinister aspects of China (Richard T. Schaefer, 2006). Prejudice towards the Chinese did not just end there; the Chinese also faced segregation and racism. Organized labor feared that the Chinese would be used as strikebreakers but when Chinese workers finally unionized they were not recognized by major labor organizations (Richard T. Schaefer, 2006). Major labor organizations instead opposed any effort to assist Chinese workers.
There are many forms of discrimination, some easier to identify than others. An institutional discrimination, one of the biggest discrimination towards the Chinese that even became a law was the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted and immigration of Chinese was outlawed for a total of about 60...