Bigotry Redux

In trying to make sense of the blind bigotry of our times, I am studying earlier periods of American xenophobia. One historian, Roy Garis, said in 1924, “The amazing thing about the immigration problem is the likeness of the arguments of one generation to the contentions of another.” He was thinking back to a firestorm of anti-Chinese attitudes in the 1880s. In 1924, Garris was responding to the newly passed National Origins Formula, a law that sharply reduced immigration from nations where people did not speak English, were not Christian, and were not Caucasian. His thoughts in 1924 apply today.

I found the House Committee report where the idea of this strict formula was explained and received by eager— and bigoted—lawmakers.

If you want a snapshot of this irrational fear of otherness, read this directly quoted excerpt from V.S. McClatchy, publisher of the Sacramento Bee (his company now is a media empire, consisting of 30 major newspapers). As you do, I pose a friendly challenge: Find a current nationality or religious group that is ridiculed like the Japanese were in this 1919 letter to Congress. Post your comparisons on Facebook or email me at mhl@illinois.edu.

THE JAPANESE AS IMMIGRANT AND CITIZEN

He is an undesirable immigrant for economic rather than for racial reasons, and the strongest of these reasons are creditable rather than discreditable to him. His standards of living are lower than ours; he will work longer hours for less money; he is thrifty, industrious, and ambitious; he is a competent farmer, truck gardener and orchardist; he can and does underbid American labor whenever necessary in any community, until he has driven it out; then his wages raise to American standards; ultimately he declines to work for wages, insisting on leasing where he can not buy the farm or orchard….

It is not in one industry, but in all, that they displace us. It has been repeatedly proved that our civilization does not survive in open competition with theirs—it can not unless we accept their standards of living. The Japanese is an undesirable citizen because he does not assimilate. He does not intermarry, nor is it desirable that he should. He does not become an American, save in very rare instances, always remaining a Japanese. Even when born in this country, and educated in our common schools, he is still compelled by Japanese law to attend Japanese school before and after the public school hours. He is taught by Japanese teachers, who usually speak no English, and who have neither knowledge of, nor sympathy with the principles of American Government and citizenship. He absorbs Japanese ideals and patriotism, and that contempt for all other nations, which is the spirit of every Japanese school text book.