During the month of May,
we are honoring Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders,
and today's moment that matters
looks into the history of this p
in the United States and how thy
have fought to be seen as Ameri.
I look with great pride at the courage
my grandfather had in coming to America.
That journey helped turn young
Gordon Quad into a leading
US immigration attorney.
He knows better than most
how hard crossing to America
has been for many groups.
For Asians, it was
marked by America's first
immigration ban based on race,
starting with the Page Act in
1875 targeting Chinese women,
and the Chinese Exclusion Act in
1882 that largely stopped Chinee
men from immigrating and those
already here from naturalizing.
Western states push the law
through by cutting a deal with
southern states targeting.
Another minority.
The people in the South
didn't care about Chinese.
If there weren't any Chinese th,
they cared about the Jim Crow Act, right?
The bottom line of that deal wa,
yes, I vote for the Exclusion At
if you vote for Jim Crow. Exact.
Then, three years later, in 188,
came the Rock Springs massacre d
ongoing dispute over Chinese coal miners
in Wyoming spiraled into a bloodbath.
White immigrant workers thought
that they were going to be.
Displaced by these,
Chinese workers decided to
engage in a vigilante justice,
killing 28 Chinese miners,
injuring others and burning dozens of homes.
But tensions between cultures
went beyond borders.
When the US colonized the Philippines after
winning the Spanish American War in 1898,
military officials uprooted
indigenous tribesmen to showcase
them at the 1904 World's Fair i.
Louis. This human display was
a display of imperial power.
Filipinos were displayed in
this World's fair as savages,
as Barbarians, you know,
as almost like animals.
Young Filipinos eventually
became farmers in California,
but under cheap pay and poor
living conditions.
In 1930, a white mob attacked Filipino
farm workers for dancing with white women,
sparking similar attacks in other cities.
There were incidents.
Where they would create riots or they
would they would assault Filipi.
Then came World War Two.
China and the US became allies.
The Flying Tigers a high profile example,
and the Exclusion Act became
a high profile embarrassment.
When you wear the uniform
sure for you country,
they pay attention to us.
Louis Yee, then an 18
year old soldier help with the petition
that ended the immigration ban.
So 1943 they get the exclusion ,
go away with it. But also during World War
220,000 Japanese, 70,000 of them U.S.
citizens, were sent to internmet
camps for the duration of the w.
This as some 33,000 Japanese sed
in the US military and comprisee
legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
That unit was the most highly
decorated unit of the entire wa.
Decades later, another war in Vietnam,
sending 130,000 refugees
to the US by the late 70s.
Many became shrimpers on the Gulf Coast.
The competition triggered shoot,
boat burnings, along with assaus
and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan.
Then in 1982, a killing that outraged
and galvanized Asian Americans,
27 year old Vincent Chin was murdered the
night of his bachelor party in Detroit.
2 White auto workers beat him
to death with a baseball bat,
apparently blaming Japanese
carmakers for taking American j.
Chen was Chinese.
The punishment against his kill?
A $3000 fine?
Unimaginable. These things,
But as the world was grieving,
the 9/11 terror attacks
also spawned even more hate,
this time towards S Asians.
Bullying, harassment, racial profiling
in places of worship vandalized.
The first month after September 11th,
there were more than 300 cases f
violence and discrimination agat
Sikh Americans alone in the US.
Nearly 20 years later,
tracking hate crimes against the
community continues to this day.
Discrimination and violence is
often triggered by greed or fear
and frustrations like jobs,
safety and security.
With family and health and
a lack of familiarity,
it is easy to be afraid of and
to fight what we do not know.