The Chinese Exclusion Act
                                                                                                                    
Director: Ric Burns/ Yu Li-shin
Year: 2017
Rating: 7.0
Of course, it is a given that the USA is the greatest country to ever exist and that we are the most exceptional of all people. Ok. There are a few blots in our history like exterminating Native Americans, slavery, Jim Crow, forcing the Japanese into concentration camps but not Italians or Germans, dropping nukes on the Japanese but not the Axis and bombing the hell out of SE Asia for as it turned out a fantasy of Communist dominoes. All coincidentally I am sure, racist in nature. White fear or hatred of the Other. But no need to worry that your children will learn about this history. Thanks to Trump our history is being re-written to focus on the good things; baseball and apple pie. Trump even had the courage to put up a sign outside the Smithsonian warning good Americans not to believe the woke information inside. And Hegseth being the great American he is has erased any mention of women and minorities on the Pentagon website. But one part of history that they will never erase is the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. That is because it is their guiding star. They have basically de facto created their own Exclusion Act. Only white South Africans get a pass these days and now they are hunting down the 300,000 Haitians who after 15 years of family and jobs are to be sent back. Because they are black.



Beginning in the 1850s a number of Chinese immigrated to America because of the Gold Rush. Back in those days there was no such thing as illegal immigration. Everyone was welcome. Later thousands of Chinese were invited to come to work on the transcontinental railroad. When that was finished, many of the Chinese workers settled in California and created Chinatowns. This angered the whites and they massacred the Chinese in various towns and the state government began passing laws that were very restrictive of the Chinese in hopes that they would go back to China. They didn't. They hung on. Fought it in courts.



But in 1882 the federal government passed the Exclusion Act aimed only at Chinese that banned any immigration and did not allow Chinese already in the country, but who were not yet citizens from becoming US citizens. This act was renewed every ten years. At one point they ruled that Chinese had to have photo ID with them at all times or be deported. At another time, the government challenged the 14th Amendment by stating that Chinese born here were not citizens. The Supreme Court ruled that they were. In 1917 the law was expanded to include all Asians. The Chinese Exclusion Act wasn't done away with until 1943 because China was now our ally and it wasn't a good look.



But even then, only 110 Chinese were allowed in every year. Strict restrictions were put on all non-Northern European nations. Starting to sound familiar? It wasn't until JFK that race and nation were not used to determine immigration. This is a fine documentary running about 3 hours. When it was made in 2017, the filmmakers probably had no idea how relevant this tragic history still is. Let's face it; every nation has at some point in its history done great things and done evil things. The USA is no different. Because we are human and humanity often sucks.