There Goes The Neighborhood

So I've been reviewing my other classmates blogs and a good amount of people seem to be tackling the subject of Europeans coming to America. Well I think I'll do something different. How about...the migration of Chinese people to America.



The year 1848 was the year of  the first large scale immigration of Chinese people to California. Many of them came in hopes to profit from the California Gold Rush ( that sounds kind of redundant, but let's roll with it). This was one of the biggest reasons that many Chinese people migrated here, but it's not the only one. Others came overseas because economic hardship had began to set in in their home country due to the growing influence of Britain, but thats another story for another time. A majority of the new immigrants took jobs as miners where they faced discrimination from the so called "natives" of the land. But, this isn't really suprising because as Americans we reject any signs of change. Chinese miners were forced to pay Foreign Miners Tax. Although, it was called the Foreign Miners it didn't apply to all foreigners such as the large amount of European immigrants in the mining industry. Some tried to refuse to pay the unfair tax, but were met with violence, even as far as murdered.



One of the biggest and most important contributions that the Chinese made in America was the construction of the The Transcontinental Railroad which ran from Sacramento to Nebraska. As many as 12,000 Chinese worked on this project and it has been said that as many as 1,000 people died on the job, tragic. After the railroad was built the Chinese faced even greater racial attacks and legislative discrimination. There were anti-Chinese riots, murders, and lynchings. Many justified their acts by saying that the Chinese wre now becoming an economic threat and that they had to be stopped. Isn't that a load of something that i can't write on this blog. Nowhere in my mind can I legitimize any reason why you shold treat anyone this way on the simple fact that they aren't from the same place as you. But, this is nothing new as I said before. This same type of situation occurs multiple times throughout history in aAmerica, and at this pattern and rate self destruction is eminent. Scary right. Well thats all i have to say for now so until next time, peace.



S.A.D