In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, created to prohibit the immigration of Chinese people to America, was passed. If this legislation was passed today, in regards to any demographic, there would be national uproar. But, because of negative stereotypes, as well as fear of societal changes; the United States passed the act that forbade Chinese immigrants from seeking opportunity within the United States. Chinese men began to arrive in the United States in substantial numbers in 1848. This was shortly after the beginning of the Gold Rush, when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, California. These Chinese miners were excluded from the better mines, and commonly worked “tailings” (waste left over after processing), after Anglos and European-Americans
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The song paints a picture of the stereotypes surrounding Chinese men during the time: dishonest, “But then I thought you honest, John… I imagined that the truth, John, / You’d speak when under oath/ But I find you’ll lie and steal too..,” ; unwilling to assimilate or adapt to American ways, “Not dreaming but you’d make/ A citizen as useful/ As any in the state… I thought you’d cut your queue (braid of hair) off, John/ And don a Yankee coat/ And a collar high you’d raise John/ Around your dusky (offensive term- having a somewhat dark skin or complexion) throat;” ; unwilling to give and take, “I thought you’d open wide your ports/ And let our merchants in/ To barter for their crapes an teas,/ Their wares of wood and tin,” ; Uncivilized/Barbaric, and greedy, “I thought of rats and puppies, John,/ You’d eaten your last fill;/ But on such slimy pot-pies, John,/ I’m told you dinner still… For our gold is all you’re after, John, / To get it as you …show more content…
The stereotypes were everywhere. They are listed more clearly in a cartoon drawn for Harper’s Weekly in 1871. The comic depicts Columbia, the female icon of America, defending a Chinese man from a gang of Irish and German men, who have come to lynch the Chinese man by hanging him on a noose in the background. On the wall behind Columbia and the Chinese man, there are various propaganda posters that state what the majority of people living in America thought about Chinese immigration. They read, “COOLIE, SLAVE, PAUPER, RAT-EATER… THE CHINESE MAN WORKS CHEAP BECAUSE HE IS A BARBARIAN AND SEEKS GRATIFICATION OF ONLY THE LOWEST AND THE MOST INEVITABLE PEOLE… THE LOWEST AND VILEST OF THE HUMAN RACE… IMPORTATION OF CHINESE BARBARIANS INTO THE COUNTRY MUST BE STOPPED BY THE BALLOT OR THE BULLET… DEGRADED LABOR OF ASIA… JOHN CHINAMAN IS AN IDOLATOR AND HEATHEN…” The statements made are hard to swallow now, but were easy to spit out during the late
The song paints a picture of the stereotypes surrounding Chinese men during the time: dishonest, “But then I thought you honest, John… I imagined that the truth, John, / You’d speak when under oath/ But I find you’ll lie and steal too..,” ; unwilling to assimilate or adapt to American ways, “Not dreaming but you’d make/ A citizen as useful/ As any in the state… I thought you’d cut your queue (braid of hair) off, John/ And don a Yankee coat/ And a collar high you’d raise John/ Around your dusky (offensive term- having a somewhat dark skin or complexion) throat;” ; unwilling to give and take, “I thought you’d open wide your ports/ And let our merchants in/ To barter for their crapes an teas,/ Their wares of wood and tin,” ; Uncivilized/Barbaric, and greedy, “I thought of rats and puppies, John,/ You’d eaten your last fill;/ But on such slimy pot-pies, John,/ I’m told you dinner still… For our gold is all you’re after, John, / To get it as you …show more content…
The stereotypes were everywhere. They are listed more clearly in a cartoon drawn for Harper’s Weekly in 1871. The comic depicts Columbia, the female icon of America, defending a Chinese man from a gang of Irish and German men, who have come to lynch the Chinese man by hanging him on a noose in the background. On the wall behind Columbia and the Chinese man, there are various propaganda posters that state what the majority of people living in America thought about Chinese immigration. They read, “COOLIE, SLAVE, PAUPER, RAT-EATER… THE CHINESE MAN WORKS CHEAP BECAUSE HE IS A BARBARIAN AND SEEKS GRATIFICATION OF ONLY THE LOWEST AND THE MOST INEVITABLE PEOLE… THE LOWEST AND VILEST OF THE HUMAN RACE… IMPORTATION OF CHINESE BARBARIANS INTO THE COUNTRY MUST BE STOPPED BY THE BALLOT OR THE BULLET… DEGRADED LABOR OF ASIA… JOHN CHINAMAN IS AN IDOLATOR AND HEATHEN…” The statements made are hard to swallow now, but were easy to spit out during the late