“Every Dog (No Distinction of Color) Has His Day.” “Red Gentleman to Yellow Gentleman. ‘Pale face ‘friad you crowd him out, as he did me.’” Harper’s Weekly, February 8, 1879, page 101.
Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success (IDEAS) will be having a fund-raising reception on August 26, 2010 to support UCLA undocumented immigrant students. According to their flyer, “Since the University of California raised student fees by 32%, many of our UCLA students are being forced to drop out of college.”
Lots of API folks I speak to don’t think the undocumented plight/fight is pertinent to them, but they’re wrong. In this 2008 Asian Week article, they wrote that “40 to 44 percent of undocumented students in the UC system are Asian.”
However, I think this is a deeper issue in our community. Many have simply forgotten (or have chosen to forget) that we were once and sometimes still are the victims of these same anti-immigrant (re: racist) groups.
It wasn’t that long ago THEY were complaining that WE couldn’t speak English, that WE were stealing their jobs, and that WE were causing crimes. (I should note that many of THEM still think this!)
In order that we never forget, here are just a small sample of the lowlights of our own historical brush with anti-immigrant forces:
- Chinese Massacre of 1871
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Seattle Riot of 1886
- Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907
- Paper Sons
- Immigration Act of 1924
The IDEAS fund-raising reception is Thursday, August 26, 2010 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Western Justice Center, which is located at 55 South Grand Ave in Pasadena, CA 91105. To RSVP, call (626) 584-7494.
