Jim Crow Laws: Impact On Asian Americans

Asian Americans have a long history of facing racism in the United States. While Jim Crow laws were largely anti-Black laws and practices in the South, Asian Americans also experienced segregation and discrimination during this time. They were not considered white and thus faced obstacles such as school segregation, antimiscegenation laws, and discriminatory business practices. Asian Americans were also subject to racist laws outside of the Jim Crow era, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred immigration based on race, and the Page Act, which effectively ended the immigration of Chinese women. While the experiences of Asian Americans during the Jim Crow era are often overlooked, they faced similar challenges to African Americans in their fight for civil and human rights.

Asian Americans were subject to school segregation

In 1884, Joseph and Mary Tape, a middle-class Chinese American couple, attempted to enrol their daughter, Mamie, at the all-white Spring Valley Primary School in San Francisco. Principal Jennie Hurley refused to admit her, citing the existing school board policy against admitting Chinese children. The Tapes filed a lawsuit on behalf of their daughter, and won. The California State Supreme Court ruled that state law required public education to be open to "all children".

However, the San Francisco school board successfully pushed for the quick passage of a new state law authorizing separate schools for "children of Chinese and Mongolian descent". This led to the opening of a Chinese Primary School in Chinatown, which Mamie Tape attended along with other children who had previously attended mission schools.

In the early 20th century, American officials in the Philippines, then a US colony, denigrated Filipinos for their supposedly unclean and uncivilized bodies. This justified continued colonial rule. Later, in 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the incarceration of people suspected of being enemies in internment camps. The majority of those incarcerated were of Japanese descent, many of whom were naturalized citizens.

While Asian Americans have experienced upward mobility and increased representation in recent decades, they continue to face racism and discrimination. During the COVID-19 crisis, there was a rise in anti-Asian racist actions, and sociologist Carrianne Leung highlights the everyday racism faced by Chinese and Filipina healthcare workers.

They were barred from citizenship and faced deportation

Asian Americans have a long history of exclusion and racism in the United States. In the late 19th century, xenophobic propaganda portrayed Chinese immigrants as "unclean" and "uncivilized", leading to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This was the first law in the United States that explicitly barred immigration based on race, preventing Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens and owning land.

The Chinese Exclusion Act set a precedent for racist immigration policies and contributed to the perception of Asian Americans as "unfit for citizenship". Following the Chinese Exclusion Act, other Asian nationalities, including Japanese, Korean, and Indian immigrants, faced similar discrimination and exclusion. By 1924, with the exception of Filipino "nationals", all Asian immigrants were fully excluded by law, denied citizenship and naturalization rights, and prevented from marrying Caucasians or owning land.

The United States' history of discriminatory immigration policies and institutionalized racism has had a significant impact on the civil rights and opportunities available to Asian Americans. Even after the partial repeal of some exclusionary laws following World War II, Asian Americans continued to face barriers to citizenship and naturalization until the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended the previous racist national origin quotas.

It is important to note that the fight for civil rights among Asian Americans has often run parallel to and intersected with the struggles of African Americans. Asian Americans have faced obstacles similar to those experienced by African Americans, including school segregation, antimiscegenation laws, and discriminatory business practices. Despite these challenges, Asian Americans have organized legal battles, challenged existing definitions of rights and justice, and made significant contributions to the civil rights movement in the United States.

Asian Americans were subject to antimiscegenation laws

In 1861, Nevada became the first state to pass a law specifically barring marriages between whites and Asians. Over the course of the next century, until the 1967 Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, an additional 14 states came to ban marriages between whites and Asians. The first states to pass anti-miscegenation statutes against Asians were located primarily in the West, but over the next hundred years, states in the Midwest, South, and East also enacted such laws. The passage of state anti-miscegenation laws against Asian ethnic groups was both a response to increased immigration from Asia and a reflection of persistent concerns regarding racial purity and the nature of American citizenship.

In many states, anti-miscegenation laws also criminalized cohabitation and sex between whites and non-whites. For example, in 1935, Maryland banned marriages between black people and Filipinos. While anti-miscegenation laws are often regarded as a Southern phenomenon, most states of the Western United States and the Great Plains also enacted them.

They faced discriminatory business practices

Asian Americans have faced a long history of racism in the United States. In the Jim Crow South, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Indian Americans were subjected to discriminatory business practices, school segregation, and antimiscegenation laws. Asian Americans were not considered white, and as they tried to establish themselves in the South, they were repeatedly thwarted by institutionalised racism.

In the early 20th century, Chinese and Japanese communities began to form, and Asian Americans began to organise carefully constructed legal battles, often taking their cases to state and federal supreme courts. One example of discriminatory business practices was the battle Indian hotel owners fought against business discrimination in the 1980s and 1990s.

Asian Americans have also been considered a threat to the nation's whites-only immigration policy, with xenophobic propaganda spreading about their "uncleanliness" and "uncivilised bodies". This led to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred immigration based solely on race. Asian Americans were also targeted by Executive Order 9066, which incarcerated people under suspicion as enemies in internment camps during World War II. While this order also affected German and Italian Americans, the majority of those incarcerated were of Japanese descent, including many who were naturalised citizens.

Even in the 21st century, Asian Americans continue to face racism, as seen during the 2003 SARS outbreak and the COVID-19 crisis, where they were blamed and targeted for the spread of the viruses. Despite some improvements in representation and social status, Asian Americans still face unique challenges and discrimination in business and other areas of life in the United States.

Asian Americans were portrayed as a yellow peril

Asian Americans have historically been the target of racism in the United States. In the late 19th century, they were labelled as a "yellow peril" by white nativists, who spread xenophobic propaganda about their supposed uncleanliness. This racist ideology, which originated in the 19th century, depicts the peoples of East and Southeast Asia as an "existential danger to the Western world".

The "yellow peril" trope was a common feature of 19th-century adventure fiction, with Dr. Fu Manchu as the representative villain. The character was created in the likeness of a villain in the novel "The Yellow Danger", by M.P. Shiel. Fu Manchu is a Chinese gangster and mad scientist who intends to conquer the world. He is the leader of a pan-Asian coalition, uniting various Asian nationalities against Western imperialism. The "yellow peril" stereotype was also applied to the Japanese during World War II, when Japan claimed to be fighting against globalist capitalism and for the liberation of Asian peoples.

The "yellow peril" ideology was used to justify the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States, the first law in the country to bar immigration solely based on race. This act was preceded by xenophobic propaganda about Chinese uncleanliness in San Francisco. The law initially placed a 10-year moratorium on all Chinese migration.

The "yellow peril" stereotype was also applied to Filipinos in the early 20th century, when American officials in the Philippines, then a US colony, denigrated Filipinos for their supposedly unclean and uncivilized bodies. This justified continued US colonial rule in the islands.

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