Those words and sentiments on racial superiority helped pave the way for Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the US. But it was Asian women who were the first people ever legally excluded from this country with the Page Act of 1875, which prohibited women from China, Japan, or other Asian countries from landing on these shores. The white man’s version of history says they needed to be kept out because they would come only to work as prostitutes, but isn’t it more plausible that they were just like my mom, coming to a new country
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