Historical Report on Race

Historical Report on Race

Dear Friend,

I hope that this letter finds you, and you as my friend will have a better understand of my convictions and how hard it really is for me to live in this country as an Asian American. My experiences as an Asian American in US History have been very hard to succeed in this world. First let me start by saying, I came to the US to provide a better life for my family and myself. Many of my people came to America with the Gold Rush of 1849. Many White people welcomed us because we were “cheap labor”, and we were often labored as “Yellow Peril”. . Many of the legislatures and courts pressured and bared us Asian Americans from certain work. In 1882 the federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which ended the flow of new immigrants from China. (Macionis,2012). With the Chinese Exclusion Act taking place it made it even tougher, all of the immigrants that where here where mostly men. The racial hostility prevented Asian men from marrying non Asian women, beginning in 1920 California and other states made laws banning interracial marriage outright (Macionis, 2012). Many Asian Americans settled in urban neighborhoods so we could help one another out. We began to self employ ourselves. Opening business such as restaurants and laundry mats, because so many employers where not willing to hire us for good wages (Macionis, 2012).

World War II brought very important change for the Asian American, when Japan attacked Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor base. Many American people looked at us and wondered what side we would take during the conflict. Many of my friends are Japanese Americans, and they remained very loyal to the United States; but because of fear and racial hostility President Franklin Roosevelt issued an Exeucticve Order 9066, to forcibly relocate all people of Japanese ancestry to military camps in remote areas away from the coast. This forced over 100,000 Japanese Americans to sell their business that they built from the...