“Yellow Peril” is a racist term that depicted the peoples of
East and Southeast Asia as an existential threat to the Western world.
In the U.S., the racist and cultural stereotypes of the Yellow
Peril originated in the 19th century, when Chinese workers, who legally entered
the U.S., inadvertently provoked a racist backlash because of their work ethic and
willingness to work for lower wages than did the local white populations.
Construction of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. began in 1863—in the middle of the Civil War. The completion of that challenging endeavor was celebrated with the driving of the “golden spike” on May 10, 1869, an event captured in this much-publicized photograph:
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| Photo by Andrew J. Russell |
What is missing in the image is even one Chinese worker,
although some 15,000 Chinese laborers helped build the western part of that railroad
(see this informative July
2019 article from The Guardian)—and 1,200 died in the process.
In the following decade, resentment against Chinese laborers
in the U.S. bloated, especially in California, and President Arthur signed the
Chinese Exclusion Act on May 6, 1882. Seeking to stem the Yellow Peril, that
Act prohibited the immigration of any more Chinese laborers.
Exploitation of Immigrants
There has long been exploitation of immigrants by capitalists.
The treatment of the Chinese railroad laborers is one of the first clear
examples. Even after 1882, though, throngs of European immigrants came to this
country to work in hard jobs with minimal pay and harsh living conditions.
Some bestselling novels depicted the exploitation of such
immigrants. For example, Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle featured
the plight of immigrants in the Chicago stockyards and meat-packing industry.
The hard lot of European immigrants working in the Michigan copper
mines in 1913-14 are depicted in Mary Doria Russell’s captivating novel The
Women of Copper Country (2019). (This was the first and the best of the
twelve novels I have read so far this year.)
And while John Steinbeck’s
powerful novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is mostly about domestic
migrants, the “Okies” who went to California in the 1930s, in the 19th
chapter he wrote the following about the capitalists engaged in
agribusiness:
Now farming became industry . . . . They imported slaves, although they did not call them slaves: Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos. . . . [The businessmen said,] They don’t need much. They wouldn’t know what to do with good wages. Why, look how they live. Why, look what they eat. And if they get funny—deport them.
Fear of Immigrants Again
And now in 2022 there is considerable opposition to—and
latent fear of—immigrants coming across the southern border of the United
States.
Granted, the present opposition is ostensibly because such
immigrants are “illegal,” but many are coming for the same reason so many
Europeans came in the past: the hope for a better standard of living—and until
1924 there was little legal restriction except for Chinese laborers.
The current immigration debate in the U.S. (and many European
countries) is between the liberal globalists and the conservative/populist nationalists.
The former want a liberal immigration policy partly out of compassion for the
needy and partly to promote a multi-cultural, interdependent world.
On the other hand, the nationalists want to protect the
well-being of the people of their own country, but often with callous disregard
for the needs of those desperate to find safer places to live and a place with
better economic conditions.
There are certainly many in this country who strongly side
with the nationalists, and Donald Trump’s appeal to them was one of the reasons
he was elected President in 2016.*
But as a Christian, I can’t help but side with those showing
the most compassion for the immigrants. After all, in Matthew 25:35 Jesus said,
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”**
_____
* In October 2019, PBS aired Zero
Tolerance, a documentary about how Steve Bannon used the
immigration issue to help get Trump the nomination for the presidency in 2016
and how Trump used that as part of his MAGA appeal that resulted in his election.
** The Greek word translated here as
“stranger” is ξένος (xenos), from which the English word xenophobia
(=fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners) comes.
The present hatred for immigrants is fueled by the perceived threat to Anglo-only male rule over this society. The fear over becoming a White minority is the fuel behind the drive to kill any form of democracy in this society. Hence, the "White persecution" drivel that we will hear more and more. These forces for authoritarianism can't allow for unionization, women's rights, immigration, or any other force that threatens a teetering, but ever obsessed with power, demographic.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Mike. It was good to hear from you again.
DeleteI think you are certainly right. The anti-(Chinese) immigrant sentiment of the 1870s as well as the anti-immigrant sentiment of the past decade seem clearly rooted in the ideology of White supremacy. As many have said, and as I alluded to in my June 5, 2016, blog post, Trump's MAGA slogan was interpreted by many--and perhaps intended by him--to mean "make Whites great again."
Further, the anti-democratic (as well as anti-Democratic) fervor currently seen in this country is primarily the activity of Whites, most of whom are males, trying to protect and preserve their demographic, as you pointed out.
Thinking Friend Eric Dollard, as usual, makes thoughtful comments:
ReplyDelete"I support the treatment of immigrants with compassion and acceptance. The tragedy is that there are so many immigrants, who are fleeing war, violence, and extreme poverty in their home countries. There is little question that anti-immigrant sentiment is fueled by racism. There was never a European Exclusion Act, although many Anglo-Saxon Americans wanted to exclude Jews, the Irish, and Eastern Europeans, perhaps because the Irish and many Eastern Europeans were Roman Catholics.
"The countries of Europe, especially Poland, have opened their arms to Ukrainian refugees, who look like the majority of other Europeans. But African immigrants, many of whom are Muslims, do not generally look like Europeans, so they are resented.
"Immigration for the U S is a difficult problem because the border patrol and immigration services are severely understaffed and underfunded. In this environment, abuses are inevitable and treating immigrants with compassion is almost impossible. The first step, then, is to adequately fund and staff the immigration service and to ensure that immigrants are treated respectfully. I see little prospect for this, however."
Eric, as you correctly point out, there weren't laws passed particularly targeting immigrants such as the Chinese laborers were targeted by the 1882 Exclusion Act, but there was considerable prejudice against and mistreatment of the legal immigrants--many of them from Europe as you mentioned--who came to the U.S. in the last part of the 19th century and first decades of the 20th century. Much of that was, indeed, because of their religion (Catholicism and Judaism).
DeleteXenophobia seems to be a sub-clause of an unwritten (but habitually read) article of the American Constitution. Fear of foreigners as a knee-jerk reaction and a heart-felt requirement: for their supposed, stereotyped, low morals and racial inferiority (think Chinese, Japanese, South Asians, Arabs, Irish Catholics, German Catholics and Protestants, Scots-Irish Presbyterians, and, oh, those pesky Baptists) -- all of these and more found plenty of opponents when they hit American shores. But woe to people with dark skins! Are we headed for another 1920s hardening of attitudes and the sundering of Christ-like belief? Perhaps we are already there.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there are the plutocratic opportunists, who, for all the good they do, all too often built capital empires on the backs of the poor and numerous available for labor. That good includes the opportunity of work and survival, surely.
I noticed JD Vance just got a nomination "up Nawth" -- let us not forget the poor and working-class folk of northwestern European origins who have managed to maintain the lower spots for eight or nine generations, and who are painfully accustomed to be overlooked.
I grew up in Steinbeck country; guess what we read in school back then! I am the grandson of Great Depression era migrant-laborers and ranch hands, fruit-pickers and hardscrabble farmers. Their depression-era lives closely resembled their own and their ancestors' lives for generations, (though not quite as hard-bitten as Steinbeck's Joads in The Grapes of Wrath) but when they finally settled in California after traversing and working its inland valleys, oh, how life improved! World War II economies helped.
I refer to the supposed "'Rednecks" and "white trash", among other names people up the feeding chain used to reference them, before being "Redneck" became a thing of pride. I am grateful for the greater opportunities the USA, my family, and Christian higher education gave me, among them the insight that our culture is fraught with its lack of love for the poor, the different, the stranger, and that lack of love is dangerously grounded in fear.
This one thing may help: to urge others to acknowledge the fear and desperation the immigrant has, and the courage to seek refuge for themselves and their own. That is the beginning not of sympathy or even empathy, but of justice toward the sojourner, the refugee. I taught a course on American Immigration at my college and marvelled at the children and grandchildren of immigrants whose brilliance and drive made all the difference in a diverse classroom. What a privilege!
Thanks, Jerry, for sharing part of your story--and it so happens that I started this morning on my next blog post which is going to be largely about Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." I appreciate what you said about that in your comments today, and I hope you will share more with us about that after I make my May 10 post.
DeleteRegarding the overcoming of all the difficulties and enjoying better living conditions, in the last few days my wife and I have watched (so far) the first three episodes of PBS's 2020 documentary titled "Asian Americans." It depicts well how many of them through hard work, determination, and education have carved out productive lives in the U.S. I am glad that was true for you also!
Here are more good words from Jerry:
Delete"On these matters, about which it is brutally hard to be consistent sometimes, I am learning (I’m not all there yet) to find a 'Christ-perspective' on the value of persons, no matter their personal characteristics and origins. I believe that a pluralistic, secular (fully committed to caring for and sustaining community at all levels) AND Christian approach is most worthy as an objective, that the gospel of Jesus Christ not only does not recognize but refutes our myriad distinctions and judgments about and on persons and draws us toward the possibilities for community, even communion, with anyone human. That’s not just an idealist position but the call of the gospel, possible only through the strength of Holy Spirit and fidelity to the Lord. Yes, 'God help us!'”
"The story of our treatment of immigrants makes me weep." (From Thinking Friend Glenn Hinson in Kentucky)
ReplyDeleteAnd here are pertinent comments from local Thinking Friend Marilyn Peot:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for dealing with the immigrant problem. You revealed some situations I wasn't aware of.
I have a question: How do we actually connect with this horrendous dismissal of others?
"I find at this time of my life when rallies and creating programs are no longer my 'ministry' I find the power of prayer is my contribution. Just this morning I came across this quote:
Hearing of a Christ who is ours, all people become ours!
Christ invites us to serve the just and the sinful.
Those who pray bear responsibility for the world....prayer sets us at the center point where the pain of our brothers and sisters converges...
It sets us at the heart of the world's suffering. In prayer, distance disappears and new veins of communication open up.
The Christ is the all-embracing Christ....he invites us to be with him, that he, through us, may be with them. (p. 154 in "Impact of God" by Iain Matthew)
"Thanks for continuing your exposure of historic problems--it's surely a call to consider our own personal contribution to bring change."
Thanks, Marilyn, for your comments--and for sharing the meaningful quote.
DeleteSince, like you, I am past 80, I regret not being able to participate in public rallies etc. as I long did (on a limited scale), but we can still speak out to friends and others by various means--and yes, we can pray.
Somwhere in Leviticus it says the stranger among you shall be treated the same as the citizen. Charles Kiker
ReplyDeleteThanks for calling this to our attention, Charles.
Delete"When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:33-4, Common English Bible).
Yesterday, "Christian Post" posted the following informative article related to immigration reform:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.christianpost.com/news/over-200-faith-leaders-lobby-congress-to-pass-immigration-reform.html
Compounding the immigration crisis is the fact that USAmerican foreign policy has done much to create the crisis. On top of that, we have often enforced policies against birth control and abortion that have just made matters worse in the countries from which the refugees come. Of course, our failures on global warming have not helped either!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your pertinent comments, Craig. You have pointed out problems that are often overlooked when the immigration issue is discussed. Also, in addition to the foreign policy of the U.S. which has exacerbated the problem, so has the presence of the industrialists / capitalists seeking/making profits in the countries many of the immigrants are from.
DeleteHere is part of an email received yesterday from Thinking Friend John Tim Carr in California:
ReplyDelete"I like the verse you use in your blog that sort of sums it up for me: Matt.25:35. We should have more compassion for whoever wants to enter our country."
It disappoints me that our country and Congress are so divided that we have not been able to pass meaningful immigration reform for decades while this issue continues to get kicked down the road from one administration to the next so that anyone involved lives in fear and uncertainty. Like a couple other posts, my leaning is more scriptural than political. I think the New Testament is clear on who our neighbor is and how we should treat them. While I support enforcement at the borders to ensure we know who is coming into the Country -- I don't think that should be military enforcement and I'm not even sure it should be to select out the best and brightest in our self interest. I admit that may end up causing strain on our health care, education and other systems, but I think we greatly underplay the contribution immigrants make in our society and I believe we are ultimately better and stronger as a country when we are welcoming people of all backgrounds instead of living in fear that they will take what is ours.
ReplyDeleteI have spent a fair amount of time in El Salvador and I don't think we own up to the interconnectedness of our economies and peoples and the impact of our decisions and capitalist systems on these other parts of the world -- and think even beyond immigration, we should be doing more to help support the institutions in these countries to provide better opportunity at home.
Jim Koger