The Racist Legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act

History is always political – many of us here are familiar with this concept. However, the lessons taught in school leave out the important context, reducing history to just a mere list of dates, people, and isolated events. As Marx once said “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Understanding the progression of society and the social forces at play situates these seemingly isolated points into synchronization. This is the very tool that connected my experience as a second generation Chinese American to the communist struggle. It is this that taught me that racism against Chinese people from the moment the first Chinese worker stepped foot on this country is a story familiar to all of us today. Analyzing this history is critical as we continue the fight for immigrant and worker rights. I, myself, come from a family of migrant workers: My great-great grandfather was a migrant worker in Australia until he died on the boat on his fourth trip back to China; my great grandfather immigrated to Peru to find work, and my parents immigrated here to the U.S. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/the-legacy-of-the-chinese-exclusion-act-of-1882/