Resources from California Dreams and Realities

"Coming to California: Chasing the Dream" by Gibbs and Bankhead

In this article, Gibbs and Bankhead emphasize the influx of Asian immigrants to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, which represents freedom and opportunity in correspondence to the Statue of Liberty for European immigrants in the east coast. The number of Asian immigrants exponentially increased as the telecommunications and corporation industries required large pools of entrepreneurs. In addition, Asian immigrants worked on United States's agricultural and railroad systems in Northern California. Available job opportunities became scarce, and tensions arose between the white majority group and nonwhite minority groups that affected the Los Angeles metropolis, along with its surrounding cities in California. The influence of jobs in California can be effectively evaluated with this article because it specifically refers to the influx of Asian Americans and other minority groups setting individual goals of success upon migrating to California and persistently working towards achieving the American Dream. Although the information is useful in connecting the plausibility of the American Dream for several immigrant groups, the article does not provide evidence that are up to date. In fact, the sources are dated to be in the first half of the 20th century and refer to historical facts such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1904 and "the earliest days as a part of the northward expansion." However, I do plan on utilizing this source to support the dynamic nature of the American Dream for both nonwhite and white groups. In addition, Gibbs and Bankhead possess a neutral position on the relationship between the immigrants and whites in California, as well as the Chinese-American's choice to assimilate in American society. They further proclaim that "skin color supersede[s] all other salient characteristics" in the land, for segregation and discrimination continued to exist in the city of Angels.

State Needs a "Time-Out from Mass Immigration" by Yeh Ling-Ling

Because of continuous immigration to California, progress involving educational reforms have been static since the decline in the state's education system in 2000. In this article, Ling-Ling asserts that due to the mass immigration of individuals from all over the world, California has been unable to improve in its financial standing and educational system. The author depicts that the flood of immigrants and "import[ation] of poverty" attempting to assimilate in a supposedly flourishing American society actually hinders the state in particularly financial ways. The information provided in Ling-Ling's article includes critical statistics about the disadvantages brought to California due to immigration, such as the budget deficit of $24 billion and 30 percent increase in poverty levels due to working-poor immigrants. The statistics reveal information from the far past, but the opinions given by Ling-Ling are in reference to California's current condition. Both the factual evidence and analysis given by Ling-Ling can be useful resources in supporting the financial perspective of immigration in my essay. Furthermore, the author claims that although "we are all immigrants or descendants of immigrants" as "good workers," the several years of mass immigration has hurt the state government in  prominently financial ways. Her perspective shows that mass immigration should be halted so that California has time to improve and fix its own infrastructure in the time being.

Tracy Kidder and His Art of Storytelling

Tracy Kidder is a name I only heard once while watching my friend read Mountains Beyond Mountains for her Introduction to Global Health class. My friend lauded on  the descriptions of Paul Farmer's life provided by Kidder in the novel and the accomplishments, goals, and efforts he made to solve health problems on an entirely global scale. Through Kidder's presentation, I learned about his relationship with Paul Farmer, the founder of the Partners in Health organization, and Deo, a young medical student from Burundi. As a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Kidder enjoys simply the pleasure of storytelling, especially about Farmer's mission to build a clinic in an impoverished part of Haiti and Deo's passsionate goal in creating a system of public health in his rural village in central Africa. For Deo, he was working as a hospital intern when Burundi erupted in an ethnic civil war. Surviving the onset of the war, he escaped to Rwanda then New York City, delivering groceries and finally enrolling at Columbia University to progress in his dream of improving public health in his native land. Strength in What Remains is not only a story about survival of a individual in midst of an ethnic war, but also a tale about survival, despair, determination, evil, and kindness. While telling the story of Deo, Kidder remarked how one person can affect the global process of problems with diseases. He added that the best stories of living monuments are "memories that have to be preserved," for his way of upholding Deo's life was to tell and spread his remarkable story worldwide. In doing so, he says that there is no need for justification. In addition, Kidder stated that he accidentally started the book in Haiti, intentionally uninterested in the issues that outlined the lives of individuals in the country. Instead, what he aspired to do was art. He mentions that "art has the great power to transform the sufferings into something beautiful."

I think he achieves both storytelling and the art of touching the lives of others around the world. By conveying the story of Deo, he inspires individuals to recognize the global problems and what people are currently doing to save others from ongoing affliction. In fact, I believe that the stories he tells have the potential to encourage readers to experience the character's lives from writing on the page "into the minds of the reader's imagination." I believe that through his presentation, Kidder hoped to build comprehension of global issues through embodiment of inspirational human experiences. Interestingly, Kidder questioned the audience about their ways of approaching hardships that Deo experienced. This question lingered in the atmosphere of the auditorium. I realized that through similar questions embedded in his stories, Kidder has improved the mindsets of individuals to help the world and stop neglecting the virtuous accomplishments people are currently making. In our AMST class, we learned that racially-motivated riots occurred due to society's neglect towards social tension, which certainly relates to the obliviousness of society with not just racial problems, but also health issues in the world today. For our Writing 140 class, I learned that I should not just formulate a group of words into sentences, but stir the imaginations of the readers, inspire, and attempt to create life and a greater understanding of the world on paper. 

A 140 Year Old Truth

With further research of the Chinese Massacre of 1871, I learned that this mass lynching event was caused by social and racial tensions that were neglected intentionally. The event denotes a spontaneous outbreak of not only societal pressure, but also pure hatred. Although they were new to Los Angeles, the Chinese population was feared because of their abilities to work long hours and move upward in the career field, which caused resentment to the people in the already afflicted Los Angeles economy. The Chinese were also alienated from society because of the large contrast between the Asian culture and religion and the Anglo-dominated population of Los Angeles then. This struggle between the two racial classes, as well as the moving in of Blacks, exacerbated Los Angeles’s attempt to recover from its severely declining economy from the end of the American Civil War. Moreover, Los Angeles anticipated the building of a railway from the city that connected with all parts of Southern California to promote the city. Ultimately, the city’s larger vision, to encourage individuals and families to settle in Los Angeles, slowly diminished because of the massacre.

Victims of mob event

The offenses against the Chinese became so severe that during the Civil War, the California Legislature made it illegal for a Chinese man to testify against a white man in court. This motivated a mob of 500 killers who demolished Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles and 17 Chinese individuals on the street of Calle de los Negros. More importantly, the impractical lynching of innocent individuals was not enough for the involvement of the police enforcement. In fact, it is inferred that the Los Angeles authorities and justice system deliberately concealed the news of the massacre and allowed the massacre and its effects to continue. To them, the killings, and ultimately deaths, of Chinese Americans was a shame and embarrassment to the outside world because it did little to promote Los Angeles.

Overall, this truth was buried and never publicly released to attain the greatest attention from the mass public for over 140 years.  There is not a single plaque, memorial, or statue that physically represents this horrendous massacre, and it is highly plausible that the city purposely eliminated this memory from its history.  

This newfound knowledge of the 1871 massacre led me to realize that many other historical and current events of Los Angeles are left hidden, including the Watts Riot and other following riots resembling a similar conflict. Because of its history and “habit” of forgetting the causes and effects of racially stimulated riots, Los Angeles’s culture is characterized by uncomfortable pasts and the inability to face the sorrows and pressures that the people desperately exhibit. Perhaps a solution to this problem is to expose the truths of riots and histories of Los Angeles that are hidden today in classrooms and public events, which can further spread awareness and promote a greater kind of community within this dynamic city. 

Also, I found out that one of the professors here at USC has recently edited a collection called The Blackwells of Los Angeles that includes one of the articles for the Chinese Massacre. Click here to view an online version of the article!

A Story To Be Continued...

The rampage made by hundreds of white citizens,
destroying the homes of Chinese Americans

Caused by a flared argument over an individual named Yit Ho, the Chinese Massacre occurred in Los Angeles on October 24, 1871. The two opponents of the argument both fired at each other, consequentially killing some notable Los Angeles police officers. Other sources state that the massacre was triggered by an unintentional shooting of a white citizen who interrupted a heated exchange of gunfire between two Chinese gangs, or tongs, at a small street named Calle de los Negros (LA Almanac, 2011). The shooting initiated a mob action that included several whites who demolished Los Angeles's well-known Chinatown. More serious actions of the whites included tortured execution of Chinese American residents in the area. Repercussions of these racially provoked riots consist of a divisive discrimination against the Chinese in Los Angeles, ultimately leading to the Chinese Exclusion Act executed in 1882.

This historical event embodies the racial conflicts and potential misrepresentation of various communities in Los Angeles today. The event also questioned the duties and authorities of the officers sheltering residents from violence and racial inequity. In fact, no individual was brought to court for any of the misconduct, which shows the ineffectiveness of the city's investigative strategies.

 In my research, I am planning to search whether the construction of Los Angeles's Chinatown is to lament the consequences of the massacre or to indicate any form of racial disarray. I will also research about the effects of the massacre that are still instilled in the Chinese American population and the police enforcement in Los Angeles for further support of this historical event's influence on the current City of Angels.

Click here for an image of a 1871 newspaper article regarding the Chinese Massacre of 1871.