History
When as the Chinese Exclusion Act passed?
1882
What is Orientalism?
The way Western societies have stereotyped and represented Asia and the Middle East as exotic, backward, or inferior, often to justify domination or control
What are the two frameworks that Gualtieri says judges used to interpret the racial requirements for U.S. citizenship?
1. Common Knowledge
2. Congressional Intent
Who does Moon-Ho Jung use as a case study to illustrate how European colonialism and Christianity shaped global systems of coolie labor?
Tye Kim Orr
What are the two narratives of “whiteness” that Lee Bebout identifies?
Savior narrative: “White goodness” or “white saviorism” portrays whites as benevolent helpers or protectors of others, from volunteerism to military intervention.
Victim narrative: “White victimhood” frames whites as harmed by forces like affirmative action, immigration, or demographic change
What are the 2 pseudo-sciences that emerged to "prove" that race is biological?
1. Eugenics
2. Social Darwinism
According to Lauren Berlant, citizenship isn't just about legal status, but also as a
Cultural status
For Catherine Ceniza Choy, what role does violence play as an analytical framework on Asian American history?
Instead of focusing solely on the brutality of history, she also highlights intergenerational grief and how communities respond to that violence
What's the significance of Wong Kim Ark's case against the Supreme Court?
It established birthright citizenship
According to Erika Lee, how did the Chinese Exclusion Act have a global impact?
It shaped migration, labor, and racial policies in other countries (like Canada and Mexico), influencing global patterns of Asian migration
What did the 1862 Coolie Trade Act do?
It prohibited the US involvement in the coolie trade
What was the Yellow Peril?
A period of time during the 1800s and early 1900s where Asians were viewed as a threat to Western civilization, culture, labor markets, and national identity
Erika Lee notes the most common view of immigration to the U.S. is often framed around what?
Push and Pull: the conditions in one country (like war, natural disaster, economic instability) push people out while the U.S. pulls them in with the promise of freedom and economic gain
What was the significance of Bhagat Singh Thind's Supreme Court case in 1923?
The Supreme Court rejected his claim to whiteness, ruling that although Indians were considered “Caucasian”, they were not “white” in the common sense understood by the average American
Identify at least 3 of the 5 exempt classes identified in the Chinese Exclusion Act
1. Students
2. Travelers
3. Merchants
4. Diplomats
5. Teachers
This Act was used to justify denying entry or citizenship to certain groups of people from the so-called “barred zones”
The Act of 1917
According to Eithne Luibhéid, immigration isn't just about people moving, but also...
How governments create rules, borders, and categories to control who belongs
According to Ellen Wu, it’s important to consider not only the physical presence of Asians in U.S. history, but also their ideological presence, in order to show…
Asian immigrants arrived in a U.S. society that had preconceived notions about them
In Wong Kim Ark’s case, the court ultimately ruled in his favor based on the phrase “All persons” in the 14th Amendment. Had they ruled against him, it would have meant:
They would have to take away citizenship for immigrants even outside of Asia
According to Moon-Ho Jung, "coolies were never a people or a legal category" (5), but rather...
A social and racial construct used to justify the labor exploitation of immigrants from Asia