Patrizia Barrera - Yellow Peril

Between 1880 and 1882, finding a scapegoat was quite easy. Americans accused Chinese of unfair competition, job theft, and social rivalry. After the first Immigrants Regulation And Restriction , approved in 1861, which banned interracial marriages -even if Chinese abhorred the very thought of connecting with Westerners- there were others. All of them with the purpose of increasingly restraining both human and legal liberties. The Civil Right Act of 1866 declared that, “All persons born in the United States are citizens, without regard to race, colour, or previous condition”. In defiance of it, the legislators excluded Chinese from the regulation, appealing to a subtle legal loop.

The sole issue? Not all Asians are Chinese and one cannot simply classify them. The Civil Rights Act of 1875, in fact, defined the obvious difference between European and African descent. However, it was not able to make a substantial separation between White and Yellow .

Officially, and it is appalling, it was because Asians had more heterogeneous chromaticity than Black People and less salient somatic traits. As stated, appalling. They were simply Non-White and therefore excluded from any right of citizenship. Hence, any naturalized Chinese-American remained a foreigner.

Previously, other regulations had already limited their freedom in the United States.

In 1858, California enacted a law prohibiting them any access to state careers. Later, in 1879, a new Constitution passed. It declared that the Government had the absolute right to determine the fundamental requirements for residence in the State. Sticking to the quibble of Indeterminacy Of The Race , it denied residence to every single Chinese. Already in 1875, the Congress had blocked the immigration of workers and prostitutes for 10 years. The official reason was, curbing the Underworld and restoring US territory. Between 1856 and 1880, thirty different rulings limited or denied the fundamental rights of Chinese immigrants in the US. It was an evident violation of the Burlingame Treaty, but both Press and General Public did not even blink. Disappointing, but not surprising.

Frustration due to recession drove a wedge, another , between them. The motive? Meagre envy. Chinese people continued to prosper. The audacity.

Targeted by Government and Society alike. Closed in their own communities. Attached to their ancient customs. Last but not least, their disdain of mixing with Whites. They were the perfect Fall Guy . Threats, looting, pranks, tonsuring. They endured everything. Stoically. However, the ice was getting thinner and thinner. Until it degenerated in one of the biggest mass lynching ever happened in the United States. The Chinese Massacre Of 1871.

Figure 6 – Young Mother And Her Two children.

The year, 1871. The set, Calle De Los Negros. What happened, one of the darkest episodes ever occurred in Chinatown.

The Ghetto Of All Ghettos would have be remembered also as Negro Alley. A pitiless mirror of that age and time, home of United States’ favourite culprits -Mexicans and Chinese- it casted a terrible shadow on the growing City Of Angels. George Morrow Mayo described it as, “ a dreadful thoroughfare, forty feet wide, running one whole block, filled entirely with saloons, gambling-houses, dance-halls, and cribs.”

The whole area was, basically, drowning in vice.

The residents were predominantly males, due to the laws restricting immigration of Chinese women. However, the Triad achieved to bring worthy representatives of the Fairer Sex in. With a little help of local authorities, of course . In doing so, the number of Chinese in Calle De Los Negros had grown about two hundred times. In just ten years, it prospered wonderfully. Thereby, discontent among Whites was unbearable. Afflicted by the Post-War recession, they were well aware that they could not compete with the low prices and strenuous working hours of Chinese traders. That dissatisfaction soon turned into rage toward those outsiders who have the nerve to be bold enough to have it better than them. Classic.

It is astounding that tragedy broke out only on the 24 thof October, 1871, and not earlier.

Figure 7 - Calle De Los Negros , 1880. Until 1882, The District Remained Unaltered. Then, Some Of The Buildings Were Demolished.

The official cause of that lynching was, in fact, the regular A-Foreigner-Dared-To-Lay-A-Finger-On-A-White-Person excuse. Dying was a regular and unsurprising event, in Chinatown. The week before the accident, for instance, forty-four people passed away in those alleys. Four of them were police officers, as the victim of that infamous night.

Why such fury, then? What was the difference? Easy. The first victims’ killers were Legal White Residents . Whereas Officer Robert Thompson -owner of the notorious Blue Wings , loan shark, no saint- died in a gunfight with some Asian Mobsters.

That death was the perfect excuse to unleash ghastly wrath of the crowd towards twenty random innocent Chinese.

Kidnapped. Tortured. Mutilated. Hanged. Those were their fate.

Eight people prosecuted, initially accused of manslaughter - which is plain ridiculous - were then fully acquitted. However, many a witness indicated those and thirty more as responsible for that massacre. And Police heard none of them. Typical. Unexpected is not the correct word one should associate to that event. As stated in Scott Zesch’s The Chinatown War, a specific episode happened. A few days earlier, Yo Hing -boss of one of the various clans of Chinese Mob- had ordered the kidnapping and subsequent ransom of one of the very few married women in Chinatown. A great beauty called Yut Ho.

Yo Hing had close relationships with local administrations, who were more than glad to ignore the misdeeds. For a profit.

The rival faction, led by merchant Sam Yuen, did not take it well. Therefore, together with a heavily armed gang of Tong warriors, landed in San Francisco.

On the night of the 23 rd of October, said gang -headed by Ah Choy, the kidnapped woman's brother- opened fire on Yuen. Still, Ah Choy ended up mortally wounded and left to die in one of the alleys.

Figure 8 - Chinatown,1870. Tea Houses, Stores, And Brothels Made It Into A Little San Francisco.

With solid support of local Police, and that of whoever was behind it , Yo Hing reported Yuen as the instigator of that attempted murder.

With bail set at $2000 -an abnormal amount, both for that time and for a Chinese- Yo Hing aimed to let his rival rotting in jail for the time necessary to butter up judges and lawyers. Soon after, he would have him sentenced to death and finally took over his territory. Yuen, on the other hand, realised the setup right away and declared that he was able to pay. Some police officers, at that point, accompanied him home and found out money hidden in the trunk of a tree. A lot of money. An enormous wealth resulting from clandestine trafficking. Something that involved many constables as well.