Chinese Exclusion Quotes
This discriminatory act was one of the lowest points of American history. Essentially, many native Americans saw the large scale immigration of Chinese as a threat to their jobs and livelihoods. This has been the fear of large scale immigration of poor people throughout our history. The progeny of the immigrants of yesterday have always feared the immigrants of today would usurp their jobs and lower their standard of living.
In 1885 Canada defined a legal person:
This was the first restriction on immigration and citizenship, and was at the time uniquely directed against Chinese.
Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. This usually progressive organization advocated the 8 hour work day and control of child labor but when it came to competitors for their members jobs, they became a leading racist and anti-Chinese immigration voice in America. The irony of this quotation was that most of the labor constituency that the Knights represented had been immigrants or were the children of immigrants who earlier had frightened American workers and whose ethnicity had been opposed—Irish and Italians.
