AAS 160 (LEC)

How can you establish the rights of the citizens?

Professor Cindy L Cheng

Class notes + week 1 & 2 readings

Week 3-September 18, 2018 

  Readings: Ronald Takaki, Raising Cane: The world of Plantation  Hawai’i

 Haunani-Kay Trask, Settlers of Color and Immigrant Hegemony  Found at the bottom of the notes

Establishing the rights of “citizens” 

 Violence against non-white minorities

o 1849 Rampage on “little Chile”

o One woman killed, several man beaten

 Banned Chinese and Mexicans from key digging sites If you want to learn more check out What type of molecules can diffuse through the membrane?

o Worked in more undesirable sites

What did the foreign miners tax of 1850 make immigrants do?

o Many Chinese opened restaurants, laundries, dry good stores o The concept of If being left out of the major businesses, you are  better off starting your own business also these types of  businesses were needed, did not need a degree)  

o Roles started to change (men had to learn how to cook, clean,  wash clothes because they don’t have those services)  

o Best to start your own businesse

 Native Americans continue to be driven off land by armed miners o 1849-1870 ~ 4,500 N.A. died in violent skirmishes

o More died from diseases

 First state law (REALLY IMPORTANT!!!)  

o 1850 Foreign Miners Tax

What is the first law of the united states?

 “Foreign” miners required to pay $20/month for license to  work gold field If you want to learn more check out Grouped data means what?

 Mainly targeted the Mexican miners (even though they  weren’t foreign born, they had lost control/power)  

 Message from California-an exclusion  

 Some prosperous miners able to afford this

 Less prosperous miners had harder time

 Immigrants vs Citizens rights are not equal

 Declaration of independence/bill of rights did not apply to  immigration status

∙ How we differentiate from each other (foreign vs  

natives)

∙ We think there is immigrant rights but there isn’t

 Spanish speaking population to 15% in 1950 and 4% in 1870 o In 1870 also lost political representation in CA

o Attacked the Mexicans to let the Mexicans know who’s in control,  make them lose more power We also discuss several other topics like What is the definition of histology?

 1852 Miners Tax (REALLY IMPORANT!!!)

o “Foreign” miners required to pay $3/month for a license to work in  gold fields

 1853-$4/month

 1855-$6 /month

o Explicitly targeted the Chinese

 Why it changed from $20 to $3-6 is because only the  

wealthy could pay so when it’s lower, more people can pay  that money which comes a form of tax

o Became a major revenue source for state and country  

governments

o Between 1850-1870 ~$58 million were taken from Chinese  through this tax and other taxes Don't forget about the age old question of What is the sociological imagination?
Don't forget about the age old question of What is the meaning of ketivim?

 Became a social marker of difference**

 Needed this money for transportation, cities, resources like  water, etc.

Other issues:  

 Political representation

 Plantations-Feudal Serfdom low wage work grew into capitalism  economy  

 Free/slave state We also discuss several other topics like What are the different faces of social psychology?

Making California “Free” state:  

 California admitted to Union as a Free state in 1850

 Miners not abolitionist

 Miners Feared competition and saw Slave owning miners as threats  Texan Col. Thomas Jefferson Green

 1858, CA attempted to pass law banning immigration of free blacks to  state

Women & the West:

 “Westward Waiting”

o Managers of the household  

 Missionaries

 Prostitutes

 Why did the women not migrate?  

o Labor was for mining=male

o Also not safe for women to travel alone

 Usually not married if you are a prostitute/missionary BUT it was the  only 2 that allowed women to travel

 Prostitution was a big thing going on

o Sexual urges

o Loneliness

o Very male dominated

Week 3-September 20, 2018 

Chinese Women and the West: 

 Chinese wives of merchants

 Prostitutes  

 2 groups of women  

Chinese Prostitution:  

 Prostitution & Chinese migrant workers

o Did not always serve Chinese men

o Gender norms in China  prostitutes only allowed travel VS  marriage

o Social/sexual needs

o Business venture for both Chinese men & women

 Who were these woman & why would they come?

o From poor families

o Kidnapped or sold

o Sex workers, Brothel owners, Cheap laborers, wives

o In the day, they cooked, worked @ laundries, minor labor, etc.  Gender, Sex, & Chinese Immigration:  

 Gross gender imbalance, SF in 1850, 4,018 men v 7 women  Belief that all Chinese women were prostitutes as dictated by 1870  Census targeted a specific group, Racializing how one group took one  characteristic and assumed other to be the same

 Stigma of Chinese “immigration”  

Racializing and Gendering of Asians:

 Feminized & asexual Asian Male

o Women’s work restaurants and laundry

o Single “bachelors” but were really married

o Everything they earned, always sent money back

 Hypersexualization Asian Females

o Prostitutes women who are sexually available

o Submissive Natural ability to service needs of men

o Sexual preferences based on gender

Building the Transcontinental Railroad:  

 1850-California admitted into the Union  

o Established political linkage but geographically isolated  1858-stage coaches for mail; 1860 CA pony express

 Theodore Judan, engineer, devised plan for transcontinental railroad  Received Financial backing from U.S. Gov. and the big four: Charles  Cocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington

Transcontinental RailRoad:  

 Construction began on Jan. 8, 1863

 Heavily recruited Chinese workers for building of Railroad  May 10, 1869 the central pacific and the union pacific met @  promontory point, Utah with the gold spike

Chinese workers as “cheap labor” or “coolie” labor:  

 Interaction between capitalist demands & U.S. national belonging o How is this interaction shaped by ideas about race, gender,  sexuality, and nationality?  

 Cheap labor started to build  

Raising Cane: The world of Plantation Hawaii  Key points: 

 Immigrants were wanted for labor and to develop  resources

 This increased the diversity

 The plantations were similar to a jail/prison like setting treated bad, work long hours with no breaks, bad  conditions/environments, lunas and policemen who  constantly watched them

 Difference on wage based on gender and race

 Also resemble military roles

 Punishments like making their contract longer

 Tried to find ways to make people stay, added bonuses  Racial tensions amongst others

 Riots, strikes, protests for higher wages, less hours, etc.  Turned to drugs and alcohol until the Plantation decided to install entertainment centers and allowed people to  practice their religion, holidays, set up temples, etc. Make  better housing with lively gardens

 Some strikes were successful and even had interethnic  movements  

 They build a sense of community bc of shared experiences  Divide and control tactic  

 Develop a language for everyone to understand each  other (Pidgin English)  

Settlers of Color and “immigrant” Hegemony Key points: 

 Hawaiians did not consider themselves from America or Asia. They are native to this land

 Different terms like “locals” which refer to the asians and  “settlers” which refer to the whites

 Only 2 tales are told which is never the Hawaiian side  Denied the power to control Hawaii, they promote “power  share” but do not allow the Hawaiians to have it

 Tried to develop their own form of government however the  Asians feel threated by it

 Hawaiians feel like they are dealing with similar situations in  Palestine

 Basically belongs to the Hawaiians because they are native  and they have history here

 Asians may be facing situations but should not be confusing  this as their land

 Supports the claim that this isn’t a nation of immigrants

 Nothing will amend until they are fully restored with  everything they lost

 Settlers get to decide with the power share and not the  natives

 The Japanese would lose power if restored to the natives,  they would lose their benefits

 The natives claim that the Japanese are supporting them  falsely as they do not attempt to help  

 The natives do not want Hawaii to be open to the public   Difference in laws between the indigenous(natives) and  immigrants minorities do not have rights