Anti Asian Racism In America

Jasmine Vohra Mr. Stevens

APUSH March 2018

Anti-Asian Racism To be a new group introduced to the Euro-American inhabitants of the United States means to experience animosities and hostilities that keep in pattern with a primarily racist past, as Asian-Americans have come to know. From early trade relations with China to the Vietnam War era, xenophobic sentiment from the part of the United States had remained consistent. However, in more recent times, Anti-Asian racism has evolved to take shape in an unprecedented way through the myth of the “model minority”. This idea essentially praises Asians for achieving more socioeconomic success than their other minority counterparts. The myth of the “model minority”

The United States’ trade relationship with China was initiated in 1784, a few years prior to the Early Republic era, when the first American ship, “Empress of China”, reached China and successfully completed trade that resulted in a 25% profit. As a direct result, America’s trade involvement with China grew over the next few decades—and so did its desire for further economic privileges. Upon defeating China in the First Opium War, the British navy secured special trading privileges, which the United States grew envious of. The result was the Treaty of Wangxia, which granted the United States the same privileges as Britain, along with some additions, most notably a most-favored-nation clause, meaning that the United States would receive any trading rights that the Chinese government would grant other nations. This exchange represents the first in a long history of the United States viewing the Chinese as simply a form of economic utility. It displays a sense of economic entitlement from the part of the United States—a pattern that would continue as Chinese immigrants would settle in the United States, and that would remain the one constant theme as anti-Asian racism morphed into that of the model minority

They are prompt at the call of the bell, steady in their work, quick to learn, and will accomplish more [than Hawaiian workers].”...Asians were listed alongside commodities such as dried goods on shopping lists…”Bonemeal, canvas, Japanese laborers, macaroni, a