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Calif. Lawmaker Seeks Apology for Chinese

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Steve Lawrence, AP, June 17, 2009

California’s Chinese immigrants helped build ships, levees, irrigation systems and the transcontinental railroad. They worked in farm fields and mines and helped develop the abalone and shrimp industries.

For their efforts, they were rewarded with special taxes, forced out of towns and denied the rights to own property, marry whites and attend public schools. They also were subjected to violence and intimidation and denied equal protection by the courts. In 1882, they were made the targets of the nation’s first law limiting immigration based on race or nationality, the Chinese Exclusion Act.

State Assemblyman Paul Fong, a Cupertino Democrat whose maternal grandfather was subjected to immigration restrictions, thinks it’s time the state and the federal governments formally apologize for mistreatment of the Chinese.

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The Chinese started coming to California in large numbers during the Gold Rush, hoping to strike it rich and return home. Many stayed and more came, working in the mines or taking other jobs, including helping build the transcontinental railroad.

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Fong has introduced a resolution in the Assembly that cites the contributions made by the Chinese and expresses California’s deep regrets for the discrimination. The measure is scheduled to be considered next week by the Assembly Judiciary Committee, the first step in winning approval from the Legislature.

Fong said he also plans to seek an apology from the federal government and some form of reparation, such as a contribution to maintain the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. The center housed Chinese immigrants between 1910 and 1940 as they tried to prove they were eligible to enter the U.S.

{snip}

Apologies for government mistreatment and reparations have been rare in Congress. In 1988, Congress apologized for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and offered $20,000 payments to survivors. It also issued an apology in 1993 to native Hawaiians for the unlawful overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

{snip}

The resolution is ACR42.

Original article

(Posted on June 17, 2009)

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Comments

1 — Jupiter wrote at 6:41 PM on June 17:

Chinese immigrants in the nineteenth century were imported scab workers used to undermine Native Born White Workers. Chinese immigrants in California and Boston formed racial-ethnic labor networks that kept jobs that otherwise go to Native Born White workers at a higher wage. One excellent source of information about this intestingly comes from Ronald Takaki’s book-strangers from another shore- about asian immigrants in America.

Asians in America-along with hispanics in America-are waging a vicous race war against Native Born White Amerians. If non-whites become a majority in the US military and police forces across the Nation and if the judges and prosecutors become majority asian, Native Born White Americans will face vicious racial discrmination. Anyone who thinks that miority status for Native Born White Americans menas the end of affirmqtive action is profoundly delusional

2 — Historama wrote at 6:53 PM on June 17:

This is totally ridiculous, but unfortunately predictable given the feminization of our political system. It’s an embarrassment that this individual is being taken seriously by the media/courts.

Honestly, this level of impudence is unprecedented historically. Does he have any idea what he is really asking? The Japanese in Japan certainly don’t feel any guilt about their behavior in the Second World War, let alone make ‘formal apologies’ about it. The Chinese certainly don’t want Germanics like myself to start pouring into their country today; they would never regard someone who is Germanic to be ‘just like them’. Oh sure, they’ll sugar-coat things to make their own prejudices seem logical in this day and age, but the bottom line is that they’re behaving just as every group behaves. Every group looks after itself. Apparently, this man thinks America should operate according to some sort of unnatural standard.

3 — Jupiter wrote at 7:57 PM on June 17:

Asians in America should be forced to pay reparations to ordinary Native Born White Americans for their active participation in the destruction of who kows how many centuries of Native Born White Engineering experience-this includes the destruction of future Native Born White Engineering expereince. Asian “Americans” have sent thousands of Native Born White American families into a state of extreme economic terror.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of self-defense. I urge everyone to read Socialist and labor leader Samuel Gompers testimony on Chinese scab labor. Gompers didn’t pull any punches. What is the probability that numbersusa.com will ever put Samuel Gompers testimony up on its web site:0

The truth must be told and it is this:post-1965 asians in America are waging a vicious race war against Native Born White Americans. Native Born White Americans are under no obligation to out up with this.

4 — Matt wrote at 9:06 PM on June 17:

This guy should be careful what he wishes for. In Canada in the 1980s, the federal government bent over backwards to offer compensation and retribution to those persons of Japanese descent who had been interred in camps during WW II. Many of these Japanese people were fishermen, and their fishing boats were confiscated. But they were handsomely compensated in the 1980s, along with the usual liberal white groveling as to how such a deplorable situation could never happen again.

Then in the 1990s, a more prominent grievance group arose - aboriginals! They demanded exclusive fishing rights off Canada’s west coast. All non-aboriginals were forced to sit on land and steam with indignation and anger. And that included non-whites, such as Japanese. I remember the newspaper quoting one man of Japanese descent who was flabbergasted that the federal government would apologize and compensate so profusely just a short while ago, then turn around and once again beach them and deprive them of their livelihood. And nobody listens to persons of Japanese descent these days in Canada. Why bother, when aboriginals are a louder, more ‘deserving’ victim group? So to these persons of Chinese descent in California, I say ‘buyer beware’! They may get some compensation now, but Hispanics will inevitably trump them as the majority grievance group (if that’s not already the case).

Of course, since California is already less than half white, this Chinese demand for compensation may never come to fruition. After all, other non-whites really aren’t going to give them and their complaints the time of day.

5 — ice wrote at 9:19 PM on June 17:

I want reparations for my people from the government for bringing in people who are destroying my culture, tradition, language and social construct.

We don’t have to wait for it. It’s going on right now, and evidence and proof can be found everywhere.

6 — Istvan wrote at 9:33 PM on June 17:

The chinese exclusion act was neccessary and should be reinstituted.

7 — SKIP wrote at 10:24 PM on June 17:

It also issued an apology in 1993 to native Hawaiians for the unlawful overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Never mind the future “Islamic Republic of Hawaii” we know where they’re headed after enacting an “Islam” day.

8 — Anonymous wrote at 10:32 PM on June 17:

“California’s Chinese immigrants helped build ships, levees, irrigation systems and the transcontinental railroad”

Their contribution doesn’t make them special. So did a lot of Scots, Irish, English, and others, who did the majority of the work.

China owes all whites for giving it the technology that runs its economy, that enabled it to go to space, and for introducing it to modern medicine and dentistry. China benefits from Western engineers working in China (their maglev bullet train wouldn’t exist otherwise). The white temporary guest workers are expected to leave when the job is over.

Upon the withdrawl of Britain from Hong Kong, whites were treated as unwanted aliens, and given little thanks for all they’d done for China in the past century.

9 — fred wrote at 10:49 PM on June 17:

I understand that there is currently massive Chinese investment in Africa right now. So this is an excellent opportunity for China to set a good example for the rest of the world. They should begin my taking all the refugees from Somalia, Sudan & Zimbabwe and fully integrating them into their society.

10 — Anonymous wrote at 10:58 PM on June 17:

I wonder what percentage of the railroads were actually constructed by the Chinese? Were they as essential as we’re taught in the history books?

11 — Madison Grant wrote at 12:32 AM on June 18:

“The Chinese started coming to California in large numbers during the Gold Rush, hoping to strike it rich and return home.”

Then why are they upset about their ancestors being repatriated to China if they were planning to “return home” anyway?

12 — Jupiter wrote at 7:25 AM on June 18:

It should read:The Chinese Exclusion Act was an act of self-defense for Native Born White Americans in the 19th century,

13 — Nick the Aussie wrote at 8:42 AM on June 18:

Paul Fong should apologise to white Americans for creating division. My Mother was born in China to Russian parents. They were treated like 2nd class citizens because they were displaced, the chinese have never been bastions of human rights yet Fong has the stupidity to jump on the bandwagon and cry “victim”. The chinese confiscated my family’s house and possessions, is he going to help me get my stolen possessions back? Chinese cause the same problems here in Australia, they are a divisive bunch of lowlifes.

14 — Hapalong Cassidy wrote at 9:16 AM on June 18:

It wasn’t just the U.S. where this happened. Mexico passed Chinese exclusion acts as well. In fact, the city of Mexicali was once majority Chinese until the Mexicans saw them as a threat. There are Asian minorities in Mexico, but they are far more marginalized than they are in the U.S. This is why I think the Asian-American community is making a big mistake by throwing in their lot with the Blacks and Hispanics (i.e. identity politics, special treatment, playing the race card). The Blacks and Hispanics are far more resentful of them than the Whites are. I suspect this is because they are successful. They give light to the lie that all of minorities’ problems are caused by White discrimination. Anyway, once Hispanics and Blacks outnumber Whites, the Asians will have it just as bad as, if not worse than the Whites will.

15 — Anonymous wrote at 10:37 AM on June 18:

“I want reparations for my people from the government for bringing in people who are destroying my culture, tradition, language and social construct”

Agreed. I want some sort of compensation for having to take my kids out of the same school I went to as a child because they can’t understand a word of what is almost a majority of the other students (predominantly Chinese and other Asian) are saying - and that would only be a start.

16 — Anonymous wrote at 11:27 AM on June 18:

Your timing is perfect, pal. Ask for reparations during the worst recession in modern times from a state that is bankrupt many times over. Don’t you just love our ‘model minority’?

17 — Bill Corr wrote at 2:31 PM on June 18:

Paul Fong wants camera time and the plaudits of his own constituency and some favorable attention in the wider Chinese world. It is certain that his grandstanding has been reported in China, Taiwan and Singapore.

In the long run, it is a great mistake for an increasingly-successful minority like Chinese-Americans to make a fuss about past sufferings and whine like victims and losers; it is probable that there are more 20-year-olds of Chinese ancestry studying for degreees than there are behind bars or dealing drugs.

My guess is that Paul Fong knows well enough that the success of Chinese-Americans is bitterly resented by blacks and Hispanics but something like a death wish impels him to push that unpleasant fact aside and go for short-term applause from his own tribe.

18 — Anonymous wrote at 10:40 PM on June 18:

Its a shakedown folks.

19 — Schoolteacher wrote at 1:35 PM on June 19:

10 Anonymous: During the building of the first transcontinental railroad, the western portion, from California to Utah, was built by the Central Pacific Rail Road, using Chinese workers to do the digging and blasting of the roadbed and to lay the tracks. Chinese were favored because you could deal with one English speaking man and get a whole crew who followed his orders. After 1869, I suppose that some of them went on to work for other railroads, since they now had the skills, but I don’t know that anyone besides the C.P.R.R. hired so many of them. Actually, since the Central Pacific was the last major railroad to use hand drills (like John Henry) and gunpowder instead of steam drills and nitroglycerine to break rock, many of the Chinese’ new skills were immediately obsolete, and their lower labor costs were offset by more highly skilled White men. Many of the “Celestials” took the gold (Chinese worked for less, but they refused to accept payment in paper.) they had so frugally saved and started little businesses, particularly services that Whites tended to consider servile or feminine, like washing clothes or cooking.

20 — Anonymous wrote at 5:26 AM on June 20:

“I wonder what percentage of the railroads were actually constructed by the Chinese? Were they as essential as we’re taught in the history books?”

Around 30 per cent of the length of the roads in the West, I recall. Especially the stretches that required a great amount of drilling. The Irish were the main contributors though, building 50 per cent of railways, and almost 3 quarters in the East.

Nick the Aussie: I take it your parents fled from the Bolsheviks, and then when Communism came to China, fled here (to Oz, yeah we live in the same place)? Count yourself lucky, my great grandfather, a nationalist Chinese General was executed after he was captured making a stand at Guangzhou.

21 — Elrey Jones wrote at 11:09 PM on June 22:

The Asians are the most racist people on earth and their homogenous societies are living proof. Asians undermine our national character and only look out for themselves. How many Asian restaurants hire whites? Almost none. And when they get the majority they systematically exclude us. I respect them and understand their racist attitudes as I share their racist attitudes also. However, I do so looking out for whitey. It is better that Asians stay out of our country. They only weaken our nation. Also I’m very concerned about the mass murdering they have been doing lately in our country. Keep them out. We are far better off without them.


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