Many would argue that The U.S. is and has always been a place where anyone from anywhere can come to and live freely, no matter what religion, race, creed, sexuality, or health. However, The U.S. government has a long history of passing laws and policies prompted by fear, anger and ignorance.
After 1870 copious amounts of xenophobic laws passed in order to control naturalization and immigration for the sake of the people’s safety. For example, Kaiser Wilhelm II, known for fighting in world war I, had what he believed to be a “prophetic” dream about the religious figure Buddha riding in on a dragon and invading Europe. Wilhelm II was so respected and admired that his warning of the “Yellow Peril” left so much concern that the US government …show more content…
Very few Chinese people, however were able to do so because “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining” were considered excludable in the 1882 act (www.ourdocuments.gov). This act also affected the Chinese who were already legal citizens of the United States, forcing them to get recertified by the Chinese government. This act was short lived and expired in the same year it was passed. Congress, however, reinstated the act and renamed it the Geary Act in 1902. If a Chinese person in the United States was caught without their papers they faced immediate deportation. The 1917 Immigration Act, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act was passed in order to keep the United States free of “undesirable” people, and avoid corrupting the existing citizens and ultimately making it even more difficult for Asians to enter into America. This act required those who inquired to become a US to be unaffiliated with the following, homosexuality, idiocy, feeble mindedness, criminal history, epilepsy, being insane, alcoholism, being a “professional” beggar, being mentally or physically “defective”, polygamy, anarchy, and advocating destruction of property and unlawful murder. …show more content…
The fifteenth amendment allows any male citizen over the age of 21 without a criminal record to vote. The thought of a former slave voting no doubt angered many citizens so the government made policies to make it as hard as possible for African Americans to vote. In 1890, the government only allowed those who could pass a literacy test and pay poll tax to vote. These rules put black men at a huge disadvantage because since it was previously illegal for them to be educated, only 9% of former slaves were literate. From 1898 to 1915, the Grandfather Clause was enacted in order to exempt white people from the poll taxes and literacy tests. If a citizen was granted already the right to vote prior to the 15th amendment no tests or taxes were required, allowing poor and uneducated whites to vote. However, this blatant form of discrimination was deemed unconstitutional in 1915, but until the Voting Rights act of 1965 signed by president Johnson, these policies were still
After 1870 copious amounts of xenophobic laws passed in order to control naturalization and immigration for the sake of the people’s safety. For example, Kaiser Wilhelm II, known for fighting in world war I, had what he believed to be a “prophetic” dream about the religious figure Buddha riding in on a dragon and invading Europe. Wilhelm II was so respected and admired that his warning of the “Yellow Peril” left so much concern that the US government …show more content…
Very few Chinese people, however were able to do so because “skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining” were considered excludable in the 1882 act (www.ourdocuments.gov). This act also affected the Chinese who were already legal citizens of the United States, forcing them to get recertified by the Chinese government. This act was short lived and expired in the same year it was passed. Congress, however, reinstated the act and renamed it the Geary Act in 1902. If a Chinese person in the United States was caught without their papers they faced immediate deportation. The 1917 Immigration Act, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act was passed in order to keep the United States free of “undesirable” people, and avoid corrupting the existing citizens and ultimately making it even more difficult for Asians to enter into America. This act required those who inquired to become a US to be unaffiliated with the following, homosexuality, idiocy, feeble mindedness, criminal history, epilepsy, being insane, alcoholism, being a “professional” beggar, being mentally or physically “defective”, polygamy, anarchy, and advocating destruction of property and unlawful murder. …show more content…
The fifteenth amendment allows any male citizen over the age of 21 without a criminal record to vote. The thought of a former slave voting no doubt angered many citizens so the government made policies to make it as hard as possible for African Americans to vote. In 1890, the government only allowed those who could pass a literacy test and pay poll tax to vote. These rules put black men at a huge disadvantage because since it was previously illegal for them to be educated, only 9% of former slaves were literate. From 1898 to 1915, the Grandfather Clause was enacted in order to exempt white people from the poll taxes and literacy tests. If a citizen was granted already the right to vote prior to the 15th amendment no tests or taxes were required, allowing poor and uneducated whites to vote. However, this blatant form of discrimination was deemed unconstitutional in 1915, but until the Voting Rights act of 1965 signed by president Johnson, these policies were still