U.S. Senate Apologizes for Decades of Anti-Chinese Discrimination

Last week, the United States Senate approved a bill apologizing and expressing regret for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which explicitly rejected Chinese immigrants until 1943 because of their race, and a number of other anti-Chinese laws passed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries:

“The bill also expresses regrets for racial violence that happened in San Francisco and cities around the country during that time, and for the persecution and harsh detention of Chinese immigrants at the Angel Island Immigration Station, which operated from 1910 to 1940 in San Francisco Bay.”

I had blogged about how the state of California had already issued an official apology, and I believe the House version passed sometime over the summer, which was first introduced by the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, U.S. Representative Judy Chu, (D-California). True immigration reform did not really happen until 1965, and that is when Chinese and overall Asian immigration really started occurring, and that is about the time my parents immigrated to the United States. I am sure that the House and Senate will reconcile the bill and no doubt President Obama will sign the bill into law.