What I enjoy about readings such as this, is how it brings the dark past of the United States to light. From the reading, What bothered me a lot was how Chinatown was spoken about as a slum and “rotten spot”. If it was such a slum, why did they not think about cleaning it up? I’ve been to the Asian parts of LA, and it’s strange to think about how it’s same with places today. I see that people are mostly talk and less action, but in comparison to back then, there are people who do try to help out. I can compare what I read in the chapters to many topics that occurs in the time I live in. When the chapter mentioned how people complained about the Chinese taking the railroad and agriculture jobs, it reminded me of illegal immigrants taking U.S. jobs and U.S citizens’ complaints about it.
“Pomeroy implied that the county’s only legitimate residents were whites.” U.S. history continues to leave me flabbergasted because of the way white people back then was so utterly convinced that they were the highest of the highest because of their race. Was the U.S. just an experiment to try and create an ‘elite’ country? What is up with man and their quest for territory and expansion? What if countries “restarted” and began to model themselves after the United States? Presenting themselves as a place of “opportunity” and “freedom”? Is it too late for that now? I believe their actions were not only because of their belief in “manifest destiny” but the text blantly shows their fear. The Alien Land Law Acts especially made me ashamed to live in California. It took so many years to get our society to where it is today, and I fear that with the wrong steps, we could easily fall back into the past.
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