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A Timeline for Anti-Asian hate
Every five to ten years of Asian immigration to the United States beginning in the 1850s there were at least 3-10 noted cases of race riots or massacres committed against Asian immigrant communities throughout the United States. The timeline is a discussion of exploitation, hate, but also one of intergenerational resistance.
- 1565-1815: Magellan Trade-Manila Galleon, Filipina and Pacific Islanders used as slaves and as sex slaves for Manila Galleon and other Spanish enterprises in Asia, Filipinas/os used as slaves for silver mines in New Spain and South America, Filipinos used in many cases as expendable-indentured-hired sailors, farmers, translators/cultural brokers, and military in Spanish Empire.
- 1721: Slavery and encomienda system “ends” in Spain’s colonies but continues on due to violent adherence of racial caste system, limpieza de sangre and economic and political power structures that uphold it (Church/barangay/colonial government/military). Slavery continues in the Philippines until 1920s, used by both American military officers, higher up Tagalog class, and Sulu region.
- 1790 Naturalization Act, citizenship to any alien with two year residence white and free men only
- 1852-1877: Chinese arrival to Hawaii for sugar plantation labor, to replace the Hawaiian Native populations who had suffered tremendously from rape and disease and land displacement
- 1852 Foreigners Miner Tax $3 for Chinese miners to be able to mine
- 1854: People v Hall, Chinese are not allowed to testify against white American citizens
- 1850s-1860s: Coolie Trade Act formulated, preventing Chinese and South Asian Indian labor from entering the United States, seen as “Coolie” labor (Indentured servitude, but worse because of the added use of race and color)
- 1870: Naturalization Act, allowed for people of African descent in America to have American citizenship, but denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants
- 1875: Page Act, prohibited the immigration of Chinese women deemed as women of ill repute
- 1882, 1892: Chinese Exclusion Act (only Chinese merchants, diplomats, students could travel freely)
- 1905, 1910, 1960s Angel Island used as a immigration and detention center
- 1906 The San Francisco Board of Education segregates Japanese students, but withdraws at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt and protests by the Japanese government.
- 1907, Gentlemen’s Agreement between the United States and Japan that Japan would stop issuing passports for new laborers.
- 1917 Immigration Act: Asiatic-Pacific Barred Zone, no Asian immigrants allowed to immigrate from this geographic region deemed “Asia”
- 1922-1923: Takao Ozawa v. United States 1922 United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind 1923– defined particular Asians as non-white, therefore ineligible for citizenship
- 1922 Cable Act: American women lose their citizenship if they marry a foreigner and will then have the citizenship of their husband’s
- 1924, United States Immigration Act of 1924 (Oriental Exclusion Act) banned most immigration from Asia. The quota for most Asian countries is zero.
- 1933-1935 Anti-Miscegenation Laws California and Washington, Filipinos officially declared Malay and not allowed to marry “whites” 1933, Filipinos are ruled ineligible for citizenship barring immigration. Roldan v. Los Angeles County found that existing California anti-miscegenation laws did not bar Filipino-white marriages, but the state quickly moved to amend the law and made it so that Filipinos could no longer marry White people. Filipinos are legally defined as Malay, not Mongoloid which meant broadly “Asian” back in the day. But Malay was used to explain that they were not white. Therefore ineligible for citizenship.
- 1941-1945, WORLD WAR II, war in the Pacific theatre earlier by 1930s in East Asia.
- 1941 Executive Order 9066- internment of Japanese Americans begins
- 1945-1948 War Brides Act increases the community settlements of Filipino Americans
- 1950-1953, Korean War
- 1965 Immigration Act, Hart Celler Act, National Origins quotas deemed unconstitutional, refugee status (discriminated against national origins), family reunification, brain drain, opposite intended effect – more immigration waves from “Asian and developing nations”
- 1955-1975, Vietnam War, Secret War, Refugees from Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, China and resettle in USA from 1970s-1980s
- 1968, the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a coalition of the Black Students Union, the Latin American Students Organization, the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) the Filipino-American Students Organization, the Asian American Political Alliance, and El Renacimiento, a Mexican-American student organization, formed at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to call for campus reform.
- 1982: Murder of Vincent Chin who was believed to be Japanese and saw as a threat to the American industrial and car manufacturing jobs that were going oversees and were associated with the competition with Japanese car manufacturing.
- 1980s, 1987, Model Minority Myth Emerges Time Magazine
- 1991, 1992 Rodney King and LA Riots
- 2001, racial discrimination against West Asian Americans, South Asian Indians, Filipinos labeled as potential terrorists because of national origins “association” with “terrorism”
- President Biden signs Executive Order in January 2021 to acknowledge the increase in Anti-Asian discrimination in America due to COVID
- March 18, 2021 Congressional hearing on stronger bill to track, monitor, and end anti-Asian hate because previous voting on a bill to protect Asian Americans was met with a significant vote count that did not approve of the bill.
Put your money where your mouth is.
History and Education-Outreach-Research-Policy and Advocacy organizations you can support monetarily or participate in are:
- FIERCE, https://leadfilipino.org/fierce-coalition-2/
- Pinayista, https://www.pinayista.org/
- PAWIS (Pilipino Association of Workers and Migrants), https://www.facebook.com/pawissv/
- Gabriela, https://www.onebillionrising.org/41139/gabriela-national-alliance-of-filipino-women-south[…]nesia-thailand-vietnam-singapore-malaysia-cambodia-laos/
- Bulosan Center of Filipinx Studies, https://bulosancenter.ucdavis.edu/
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