Early patterns of immigration
The commonality between each group of Asian demographics immigrating to the US
Many were fleeing from the effects of imperialism in their home country and immigrating to the US in order to fill the need for cheap labor there. (I.e British imperialism in case of China/India, Japanese imperialism in the case of Korea)
Advocates of Korean independence from Japanese Colonial Rule drew their inspiration for their diasporic nationalism from this place
The Korean independence movement based itself heavily around Wilsonian internationalism, as proposed by President Woodrow Wilson which included tenets of self determination and open diplomacy, but also capitalism
The definition of nativism
Nativism in the US in the late 19th century was a political ideology that campaigned for protecting the interests of American-born white citizens over those of immigrants. This ideology would inspire many anti-immigration laws for decades to come.
One of the first protest from a group of AAPI workers in the US was surrounding this industry
In 1867, some two thousand Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad high in the Sierras struck for better wages and working conditions.
The reason so many Asian immigrants came to Hawaii in the late 19th/ early 20th century.
The US annexed Hawaii in 1898 and occupied the land, making its agriculture into an industry. Therefore, they needed people who would work hard and dangerous jobs for low wages in this new industry and turned to Asian immigrants to fill that gap.
The Ghadar party united Indian immigration populations in the US for this reason through this method
The Ghadar party formed in 1913 advocated for a collective struggle regardless of class and race within Indian American immigrant communities against British imperialism in India through community organization and party building.
The definition of liberal assimilationism
Liberal assimilationism was the position that whiteness represented the ultimate position of power and thus racial minorities should gain racial equality by collaborating with and arguing for the extension of the privileges of whiteness. This tactic was used by the Japanese American Citizens League to vy for Japanese American political power.
Who Carlos Bulosan was
Carlos Bulosan was a Filipino labor rights activist along the Pacific Coast of the United States, and wrote about his experiences to show a wider public what kind of lives Filipino American laborers were leading. Most famous is his semi-autobiographical novel, "America is in the Heart," detailing his experiences.
The commonality between each group of Asian demographics being banned from immigrating to the US
The main demographics of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Filipino immigrants were all welcomed to be exploited for cheap labor, and then banned from entering once they started to grow in numbers and become a more significant voice in US society.
What native Hawaiians did in the 1897 to protest the annexation of Hawaii
In 1897, as a white oligarchy made plans to allow the United States to annex Hawai'i, native Hawaiians organized a massive petition drive to protest. Ninety-five percent of the native population signed the petition, causing the annexation treaty to fail in the U.S. Senate.
The Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1870 served this purpose
The Naturalization Act of 1790 extended citizenship to white people only, and the 1870 one extended this to Black people as well, with the intention of alienating other racial minorities who could now only try to petition for citizenship under the racial categories of "white" and "Black."
What Japanese American activists do to protest the incarceration of Japanese Americans into internment camps upon the US' entrance into WW2
The Japanese American political organization, the Young Democrats wrote a letter protesting the expulsion of Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast in early 1942, and submitted it to various newspapers.
What the 1924 Immigration Act did
It virtually ended Asian immigration into the US through national origins quotas with the support of anti-immigration US nativist groups (such as the Asiatic Exclusion League founded in 1905). Additionally, it follows a continuation of laws barring Asian immigration such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907, and the 1917 Immigration Act.
Two Chinese revolutionary and reformist movements that grew in the United States.
The Xingzhonghui (Revive China Society) founded by Sun Yat-sen to overthrow Qing dynasty rule in favor of establishing a Chinese republic, and the Baohuanghui (Chinese Empire Reform Association) were both founded and rose to prominence amongst Chinese Americans in the US and Hawaii
Asians during this time period codified the idea of “whiteness” among European immigrants through this way
White workers, starting with the introduction of Chinese immigrants as railroad workers in the mid-1800s, saw Asian immigrants as labor competition and formed a strong anti-Asian stance. Doing so gave discriminated white European immigrants a chance to rally under the social category of “whiteness” and be privileged by it.
Two examples of multiethnic solidarity between AAPI and other BIPOC communities
Some examples: In 1903, the Japanese-Mexican Labor Association (JMLA) was formed by Japanese and Mexican sugar beet workers in Oxnard, California. In 1920, Japanese and Filipino Americans at a Hawaiian sugar plantation striked for better wages and working/living conditions.