CHINATOWN : Exclusion Law’s Effect Examined

To Munson Kwok, things haven’t changed much in the last 111 years in terms of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Kwok, president of the local chapter of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, sees too many parallels between modern-day attitudes toward immigration and the resentment that fueled passage of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which blocked further Chinese immigration and prohibited those Chinese already here from becoming naturalized citizens.

Now, as Kwok and other Asian American community leaders celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Exclusion Act’s repeal, they say they still sense the same negative attitudes toward immigrants, particularly in the current debate over illegal immigration. They fear the atmosphere is ripe for a repeat of restrictive and discriminatory immigration laws.

So Wednesday night, local Chinese organizations will host a reception, panel discussion and premiere of a video documentary to commemorate the Exclusion Act’s repeal. The event is aimed at educating the community about the act’s impact and the reverberations that continue 50 years later.

“Immigrants do make a contribution to Southern California and the country,” said Kwok. “And actions that penalize illegal immigrants could potentially affect all forms of immigration.”

The situation in California in 1882 and today are strikingly similar, Kwok said. The country was experiencing hard economic times and California was home to about 83,000 Chinese immigrants, many of whom were working on the transcontinental railroad, Kwok said.

Just as many immigrants do today, Chinese workers then were willing to take jobs that “no one else really wants to do,” Kwok said. These Chinese workers, most of them men who earned money to send home to China, became the scapegoat for economic woes, Kwok said.

That sentiment helped fuel Los Angeles’ 1871 Chinese Massacre, in which 19 boys and men were killed in a raid on Chinatown, then located where Los Angeles Street and the Hollywood Freeway are now. The rampage was triggered by the death of a white man who was hit by a stray bullet from a shooting dispute between two Chinese, Kwok said.

Kwok and two other panelists will speak Wednesday at the Department of Water and Power auditorium, 111 N. Hope St.

The free event begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m.

Information: (310) 645-1369.