"Impossible Subjects"? How Immigration Law Shaped Race in America

We're reading and learning about how the legal history of the USA, particularly laws regarding immigration and citizenship have created categories of racial meaning AND given racial meaning to categories of identity (such as "immigrant," "alien," "illegal immigrant" or "terrorist").

This week, we've read Angelo Ancheta's, "Looking Like the Enemy" and excerpts from Mae Ngai's book, Impossible Subjects.

Here are some key terms we've discussed:

outsider racialization: us vs. them element; even if you are born in the USA, you are perceived as an outsider / non-citizen

racial triangulation: combination of two axes (racial superiority and citizen vs. non-citizen); whites are citizens and superior; blacks are citizens but racially inferior; "other" groups are seen as non-citizens and fall somewhere in-between on the racial hierarchy.

Vincent Chin: Chinese American man severely beaten in Michigan (1982) because he was mistaken for a Japanese person.  The guys thought he was working for a Japanese automative company and accused him of "taking our jobs." The idea of a "foreign comeptition." The guys who killed Mr. Chin got 3 years probation charged apx $3,000 USD. The judge didn't see these men as "criminals."  Raised awareness in the larger community and rallied Asian American activists. The idea of a "pan-Asian" identity.  He looked "Asian" or different and that was enough to justify the violence.  

 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924: The comprehensive restrictive act embodied certain hierarchies of race and nationality; established a quota system for entry that favored Europe; based on white prejudice (Anglo-Saxon dominance); cultural nationalism of the late 19th century became racialized; all Asians excluded from immigration.  Latinos (Mexicans) not targeted in this law. 

“native stock”: U.S born citizens (implication is "whiteness"); can trace their lineage to founders of the nation

“immigrant stock": official given name for immigrants who came to the US after 1790

“nationality”: according to 1920, nationality didn't include: immigrants from Western Hemisphere and their descendants and aliens ineligible for citizens and their descendants and descendants of slave immigrants and Native Americans and their descendants; the country of your birth 

Francis Walker: He was a Nativist and Social Darwinist and believed in American racial superiority and he believed immigrants occupied less-skilled jobs; worried about population demographics changing and the disappearance of the "white race"; increasing birth rates troubled him

Joseph Hill  & “nation of origin”: Joseph Hill was an old white dude who added questions to 1910 and 1920 census; nation of origin and race are different; nation of origin is the basis for the quota system; implied racial hierarchy

Nationality Act of 1790: granted citizenship to "free white persons" of good moral character.

“white”: A racial category whose meaning changes over time in the USA; seen as racially and culturally superior; associated with cultural traits such as British heritage/ancestry, English language, Protestant religion and property ownership

Takao Ozawa v. U.S.: Japanese immigrant (as a child), studied in USA and assimilated and argued for his citizenship based on cultural beliefs of assimilation and "being American"; he argues that Japanese are "Causcasians" and Japanese are the most Westernized Asian country and are most assimilable. USA says "No!" You are an unassimiable alien--you are not white, Mr. Ozawa!

U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind:  South Asian immigrant who applies for citizenship because color/race should not define citizenship; he is from high-caste background and his family comes from the "Caucus mountains/region"; he also argues that he's "Caucasian." At first he's denied, and the Supreme Court says: "the average, well-informed citizen" would not recognize you as white.  No citizenship for you! 

And our discussion questions:

• What are the origins of the immigration restriction that emerged in the 1920s?

• How did immigration restriction help to create new racial categories?

•  How did the distinction between European and Non-European groups in the U.S. put these groups on different trajectories of racial formation and definitions of citizenship?

• What is the significance of the Ozawa and Singh Thind trials for ideas about what it means to be an American citizen and race?