Raymond Leslie Buell Quotes
A Japanese alien, even if he has lived here for forty years, cannot become a citizen if he wants to. But a Japanese child born here becomes one whether he wishes to or not. Obviously, it is absurd to deny citizenship to Japanese aliens on the ground of race when we force it upon their children.
Raymond Leslie Buell, 1896 -1946, Political Scientist, President of the Foreign Policy Association of the United States, “Again the Yellow Peril”, Foreign Affairs, December 1923
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Surprisingly to most people, American Indians born in the United States were not automatically citizens until this law was passed making them so.
Various elements of the 14th amendment were being debated. Language referred to “citizens” but many of the abolitionists and reconstructionists were concerned that the slavery forces in the Southern states would not provide protections to the Negro and the grounds that the were not citizens. As long as the states could define who was and was not a citizen, any of the equal protection clauses of the proposed 14TH Amendment could be evaded. Senator Howard then proposed this language which was accepted and became part of the Amendment. In modern times this particular clause was more relevant to the debate about immigration than to civil rights but originally the clause was included to make sure that Blacks would be citizens.
This report was submitted to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who accepted the recommendation and signed Executive Order 9066. The Japanese on the West Coast were then rounded up and interned by DeWitt in what was one of the lowest and disgraceful points in American history. A national apology was made 34 years later. See {635792}.
This was the first restriction on immigration and citizenship, and was at the time uniquely directed against Chinese.
This statement shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, was remarkably prescient. The last sentence was exactly what happened although at the time some criticized him for being too paranoid about racial matters.
I was born here. My children were born here. What the hell do I have to do to be called an American?
A Boston newspaper referred to Kennedy as "an Irishman." Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was an ugly, anti-Irish dimension to the national scene that was every bit as ugly as the other ethnic hatreds like anti-Semitism. The Irish like the early Jews had six strikes against them. They were foreigners. They were not Christian Protestants, they were poor, they did not know the American culture, they spoke English with a distinct accent, and they were the lowest of the lower classes. Even rich Irish like Kennedy were looked down upon and when his son ran for President he had to overcome a still significant block of anti-Irish Americans.
While the Western nations were doubtless guilty of blatant racism and anti-Asian discrimination, the Japanese protest was tainted with a substantial degree of hypocrisy. At the Versailles Peace Treaty negotiations the Japanese argued strenuously for equal treatment of Japanese by the West but did not favor extension of the equality principle to Koreans, Chinese, Thais, Chomoros, and other Asian peoples. Japan itself, led by its Emperor, considered other Asian people racially and culturally inferior. Thus they were the inherent leaders of Asia and all Asian people.
Curtis resigned from the court over the majority opinion.
The highest court in New York. At the time only U. S. citizens could own land. Since the majority of the population were farmers, this was a critical limitation with a major inducement to citizenship. Today, that motivation is no more, and critics of our immigration policy are concerned that there is no longer the desire and commitment to be American but just to make money from the American economy with a cultural and political allegiance elsewhere,
The 14th Amendment made the Black slaves and their families all citizens as most people know, but it had two other important aspects. It prohibited the individual states from deciding who who was and was not a citizen of the country and the state. In addition, it guaranteed that anyone born in the United States was a citizen regardless of the status of his parents—citizens or not, illegal immigrants or legal.
1st Viscount Shibusawa. Not only was there gross discrimination—mostly in the Western States—against the Japanese, but they were subjected to physical harassment and violence.
