This is to unite, not to divide and I want to do that by challenging an incomplete narrative and also something that goes against objective historical facts. I think everyone will benefit from seeing how interconnected we are as Americans. I saw several Pastors shared a link on FB written by a Chinese American pastor who wrote this about Asian Americans relations with African Americans. I found it problematic on so many levels:
“What many Asian Americans fail to realize is that our success is largely built on the backs of African Americans themselves. After all, if African American slavery did not exist, the United States may not have been such a desirable country to immigrate to. It was through the enslavement of African Americans that American prosperity was built in the first place.”
Notice the quote made specific claims:
(a) Asian Americans as a group succeeded at the expense of African Americans.
(b) Asian Americans might not have desired to come to the United States if it wasn’t for America having African American slavery.
(c) The prosperity in America from slavery is what attracted Asian Americans to take advantage of it in America.
But is this factually true?
The sad thing is that it is easier for people to write things that are false or ignorant (since they can merely assert it) while it takes a lot of work to factually refute something (if ts backed by facts and some of these truths are interdisciplinary as it touches on economics, geography, geopolitics, population studies, and the history of those fields, etc). My intention is not to attack people today just because their ancestors did things we don’t accept today but challenge a Marxist style reinterpretation of history that only see people as always against each other and taking advantage of others. To narrow the scope I want to look at Chinese Americans here who make the predominant number of Asians in America during the time period the pastor specified.
- Right off the bat let me say Chinese have benefited from African Americans. I am grateful for what African Americans and their struggle have contributed towards the rights of all minorities. Their legal battles and victories set legal court precedence that others have benefited.
- I think one should right away be suspicious of any claims that assume the intention of the heart of a mass group of people. People are complex and different. I can’t say there’s no Chinese ever are racists; but I’m also suspicious when anyone judge a large population and say this is their motive or ulterior hidden motives.
- The guy said Asians wanted to come to the US because of slavery. American slavery formally ended in 1865. But most Chinese Americans immigrated after slavery has ended than when it was still legal. Earliest census data I can find of Chinese being counted in the US is in 1860 (slavery era). In 1860 Chinese had a population of 34,933 making .1% of the general population of the time. The biggest population increase of Chinese Americans in America for the 19th Century was between 1870 to 1880 where it went from 63,254 (0.2% of population) to 105,613 (still 0.2% of general population). That’s 42,359 increase and most of it we can assume the number increase were largely due to immigration and not reproduction since the US only permitted men to come here to work; the men to women ratio among Chinese in America is probably the worst of any ethnicity in US history. Of course more Chinese Americans came to the US in the 20th Century than the 19th Century. These data makes this pastor’s claim that Asians wanted to come to the US because of slavery suspect.”
- Looking at the Asian population who lived in 1860s when slavery was legal the pastor’s claim continue to be dubious in considering the regional distribution of the Chinese population. Slavery took place in the South. The Census data said 100% of the 34,933 Chinese in America lived in the West, not the South where slavery took place. Nor did the Chinese live in the North where various industries dependent upon the South was located at such as textile industry. In terms of occupational trends Chinese did not enter into regional industries that aim to make finished goods from the agricultural South where slave labor dominated. Even in 1870 Chinese stayed in the West: 62,864 out of 63,254. So there’s no wave of Chinese “carpet baggers” going South to take advantage of African Americans before and after slavery.
- During the time of slavery most of the Chinese immigrants came towards its end, in the 1860s. But that was during the American civil war. Logically speaking if Chinese came to take advantage of slavery of African Americans they would immigrate to the Confederates and not the Union. But they didn’t do that. They came to California, a Union state. They came to build railroads in California whose owners, the “Big Four” were all Republicans including Republican governor of California Leland Stanford (Republicans at that time was the party that oppose expansion of slavery to new states). Before Juneteeenth 1865 the Central Pacific Railroad has two thirds of its construction force made up of Chinese workers (Orsi, Sunset Unlimited, 26). Why so many Chinese? This was a time when many Anglos men were fighting in the North, or men in the West kept leaving the railroad company for the more lucrative silver mines and more importantly there was no slave labor force. The very big business the Chinese worked for didn’t touch slavery and politically was against Southern slave states so it’s hard to see the pastor’s claims about Chinese benefiting from slaves (directly or indirectly) being historically rooted.
- The railroad work by the Chinese was of low pay and it has its danger especially the hard work of digging tunnels through mountains. Some of you who know history know that the train builders has their share of corruption; yet a fuller economic history also indicate that it was very hard to build rails that connect all of America; they were struggling to pay for the work to complete making a transcontinental railroad connecting the country from East to West. Chinese low pay and speed in finishing building the railroad (along with the help of Irish and Portuguese workers) allowed the Central Pacific Railroad to barely survive financially at times: And the outcome of the railroads being completed was to the benefit of African Americans. George Pullman an engineer turn business man invented the Pullman car in 1857 that were luxurious train cars with nice beds and dining. After the Civil War the Pullman Porters were hired from African Americans that were formerly slaves and it was a way to get employment outside Jim Crowe South. Pullman Porter were not easy; but it was one of the contribution towards the development of the black middle class in America (Source: “Pullman porter” under Wikipedia).
- Though the pastor claim Chinese build success on the backs of African Americans ironically the reality is the other way around: we see here that African Americans success was built on the backs of Chinese Americans building the rails that allow the Pullman porters to work in those trains. I’m not saying this to say African Americans today owe anything to Chinese people; but I note this to make the point it is bad history to only have a Marxist reading of history that only pits people against other people, or think that if you are not informed of someone’s suffering you must necessarily be complicit in the evil that another party commit, that “silence is violence” or “silence is consent,” that if you aren’t sure of all the ideology someone has they aren’t an “ally” and thus that person or ethnic group must be for everything terrible, etc. I worry about the Balkanization of today’s discussion and use of history that gets reductionistic because reality is more complex and sometimes there’s give and take in relationship between people.
7. Alongside the institution of African American churches the Pullman Porter (with their background of seeing a bigger picture of America, literacy to read other regional newspaper, organizing as a union, etc) played an important catalyst role with the Civil Rights: Rosa Parks was asked by E.D Nixon a Pullman Porter, to refuse to move to the back of the bus. What Rosa Park did of course was instrumental for the Civil Rights movement. It was the union head of the Pullman Porter name A. Philip Randolph that introduced Martin Luther King before he gave his famous “I have a Dream” speech. My point here is what the Chinese did with the railroad was a contributing precondition for civil rights’ movement of African Americans (Source for this point is from Mike Blanc, The Pullman Porter).
8. Jim Crow fully took off after Reconstruction which ended in 1877. If the pastor thinks Chinese during this multi-decades era immigrated to take advantage of African Americans it is again historically unfounded. As Jim Crow was reigning in the South, America passed the Chinese exclusion act that banned Chinese immigration for 61 years (source: here and here); its kind of hard to move to America to take advantage of African Americans when they were banned to come in the country in the first place. Incidentally this act was the only time an entire ethnicity was banned from coming to the US.
9. I touched on why Americans had Chinese immigrants during the days of slavery in point 5. It seems the pastor when he asserted motives for Chinese coming to take advantage of the US failed to account for the factors for why Chinese would want to leave China in the first place and understanding this undermine the thesis this pastor has that Chinese coming to America is about taking advantage of African American slaves. While America had their civil war for 4 years from 1861-1865, China had a 14 year civil war from 1850-64 called the Taiping rebellion. In fact the world’s bloodiest civil war in History was the Taiping Rebellion. American Civil war killed millions, the Chinese Civil war killed its tens of millions if not 100 million. China at that time was under the Ching dynasty, a non-Han Chinese rule, under the Manchurians, historically a nomadic horse back invading tribal group. The Ching dynasty started in 1644, just a few decades shy of African slavery in the New World that began in 1619. It’s no coincidence most Chinese immigrants in the 1860s was from Canton, China, the province where the war started. The motivation to escape poverty, famine, foreign rule and death seems to be better explanation than Chinese motivation to come to the US to take advantage of African Americans per se. Merely taking advantage of African Americans do not explain why a people so culturally tied to ancestral worship religiously and to home town (“Lao jia”) would go to another foreign continent just to take advantage of someone economically when going to that continent means having a low economic social status too. Knowing the background challenges the reductionistic assertion that Chinese just came to take advantage an ethnic group.
10. The Chinese Civil War also indirectly contributed to the end of slavery. Bear with me. The South wanted to get the support of England during the Civil War analogous to how during the American War of Independence the Patriots wanted France’s support with their Navy to break the Naval blockade, aide of money and weapons, and political recognition of being a country, etc. In the beginning it seems Confederates might have their way since the US trade balance would be at a deficit if it wasn’t for cotton export to England; remember this was the time of the Industrial revolution and the textile industry that needed Cotton. But then England had another foreign policy threat at the same time: China was going through a Civil War. Here is England with two important markets for their economy suddenly in upheaval. They won’t have the resources politically and militarily to fight in two different continents. In the end they choose to meddle in the hands of China instead militarily. Why is this important to our discussion about the Civil War and the end of American slavery? If England supported the Confederates the outcome would have been very different. I’m not saying the Chinese Civil War was the ONLY thing that contributed to the end of Slavery but it did shaped the geopolitical landscape that didn’t permit the British to help the South. If I can give an analogy: The US during D-Day won against the Germans and of course American soldiers fought for it. But one of the reasons why Americans won was also because the Germans has committed millions of soldiers and focus to the Eastern front to fight Russia. Historians find that important to make that observation while not downplaying the American bravery and military might and wit. Likewise I’m not downplaying the end of slavery with Americans involved with it, but how the UK who was so desperate for Cotton especially during the middle of the American war in 1863 where in England they even had strikes and riots with the textile industry, but the UK couldn’t commit their political and military capital to help the Confederates because of their entanglements in China. (Source: Stephen R. Platt, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom).
11. For the post-Slavery years economically it doesn’t seem that there’s a great incentive for Chinese to go to the south and profit unjustly from African Americans. After the end of slavery between 1860s to 1870s the North increased their wealth by 50% whereas the South decrease by 60% (Source: Gary Gallagher, The American Civil War Lectures in the Great Courses series). It seems the incentive is to “gain” wealth from places where there weren’t the history of slavery. The Census data confirms this too by the way as most Chinese Americans did not concentrate in the South at all.
12. This post focuses largely on 1860-1943 Chinese immigration (or lack of for certain years) in relations to African Americans. Any claims of Chinese benefiting from African American slave labor or Chinese intentions to benefit from African American slave labor specifically post-1943 will be harder to ascertain given the distance of time since slavery legally was banned, the reality that wealth and poverty is dynamic,the economy got even more complex and developed post-Antebellum and the many cross-currents behind America’s prosperity. Note that other goods and services contributed to American post-war prosperity more than Southern cotton depreciating profit in the world market especially in comparison to the top American profitable export during the war and afterwards was beef, corn and wheat from the Midwest and North (Source: Gary Gallagher, The American Civil War Lectures in the Great Courses series). Then there’s the contributing factor of non-slave labor factories producing non-cotton finished goods and this contribution to American prosperity. Also the motivation of immigrants coming from many provinces from China and outside of China (overseas Chinese from Taiwan, HK, Indonesia, South East Asia) varied from decades to decades, that needs to be examined for the pastor’s claims about Chinese intention to be upheld. Here I want to remind readers that the burden of proof isn’t a one way street; if one feel I haven’t interacted more with post 1943 and contemporary Chinese please realize that the quote I cited said slavery, an institution that ended in the 19th Century, so it’s fair I look at the 19th century. Don’t forget the pastor was the one who asserted his claims without backing them up with any arguments. The burden is squarely on him to point out where I am wrong historically in this post and/or explain what suddenly changed, that long past the days of slavery suddenly Chinese post 1943 was able to profit more from slavery economically than their predecessors did. It doesn’t seem intuitive, so the burden to prove it rests on him.
13. A word about preempting rebuttals. If you can show Chinese being anti-African Americans, or some did take advantage of African Americans and/or had that intention for their migration here I won’t be against you. I’m sure we can find someone wrong somewhere among the masses. I accept that. What I have a hard time accepting is when the explanation is incomplete and when a specific claim goes against the historical data. Wokeness is not a pass for bad history and economics. Also remember my view is there is a lot of give and take of benefits going on between the two, not that the give and take goes only one way.
Thank you for the history lesson!
Your welcome! How are things with the house?
They are coming along. Have to pick different shower flooring as it’s backlogged for like 3 months, arg! Is it ok if I get Psalm 29 to you tomorrow?
Thanks for putting in the work. I had a conversation about this very thing with someone at the coffee shop the other day. I already knew a lot of this because of my very good (and Democrat) History/Government teacher in high school. I recently learned more about the connections with Roas Parks and MLK, but the rest was more or less taught to us in our high school. (And, with the majority of the families in that rural town being staunchly Republicans, it is saying something that we all would have voted for her if she ever ran for office!)
What Rosa Parks did was amazing. The highest form of courage is moral courage. How are you with your Health? Are you still recovering or you clear already?
Agreed.
And Clear! Back at the coffee shop and met with youth last night to start a series on the attributes of God, beginning with the Trinity.
Great post!!! great breakdown of what was said vs. the facts! 🙏🏻❤️
Thanks! Spent a long time writing this up. I think I’m concerned that people get all political worked up in 2020 with seeing real tragic things then can overstep and assert inaccurate history and it becomes popular because it feels right. But facts first before feeling is important in every area of life including religion and our walk with God amen?
Amen!
As an Indonesian Chinese who now live in Singapore the persecution of Chinese based upon smears and lies is similar to the story of the Jews. To write something like this in Indonesia would be a risk. I”m glad I live in Singapore now.
Thanks for sharing that. You sound like you have a story to tell.
Yes. Many do if they were alive in 1998
Wow! You did a lot of research for this post! All good points. Nice job! People get on their soapboxes and make sweeping generalizations without any facts and everyone shouts “Amen” because they’ve been conditioned by popular rhetoric.
I spent a few weeks thinking about and writing this post, largely to be factual and also to be extra careful it can’t be misrepresented. We live in a day and age now in 2020 where people’s mood for the search for justice can be taken advantage of by people with agenda where they say something is socially unjust and there’s little to no verification that its factual. I’m not taking away from legitimate concerns and problem out there, just pointing out when there’s things that are inaccurate with historical claims that end up playing ethncities against ethnicities. I hope the article capture that mood?
Yup, I think you were very even-handed and used historical information to back your arguments. Nicely done.
Thank you, Jim. The problem with most of us, including me, is we don’t know our history. Blessings.
These Critical Race Theory is so unbiblical and sneaking into the church. It has wrong view of race and wrong view of history
Jim, this is a thorough explanation and refutation i.e. balancing the passion and scholarly work; giving us a lot of information in the process! Indeed, it is evident that you did take time on this and I’m thankful also for the review/refresher on geopolitics, and history (American, Asian, and European; I also learned a lot of new ones too. GOD bless you and your family!
Aww thanks for reading this! I was hoping to write this as factual and also in a way that people don’t think I’m trying to attack anyone’s ethnicity (Black or White) but still wanting to show that something is not correct historically. I hope that it was as winsome and fact based as possible, to honor God. How’s your day thus far?
Thanking GOD that I did not read this at 1:30AM PHT or I could have slept around 6:00AM with the interesting historical facts.
Thanks for the post it was really good. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter who or where it is, people generally can get swept up in lies without being given the facts. I actually enjoyed this a lot because I love history and I will research it on my own time every now and then. Unfortunately my public school taught history but it wasn’t in detail or anything. I’m glad I had history teachers that weren’t brainwashed by lies. I hope you are doing well
We live in dangerous times where facts are bent, or have truths are given along with lies with a grain of truth is being presented and worst still straight out blatant lies are given. We need to be discerning as a Christian. Are you working graveyard shift tonight? Just prayed for your work and both you and your wife’s desire to have a child
Always working graveyard. I would love a day shift job that pays well so I can get better sleep. lol. I put it in my last post but we have decided that we believe God wants us to adopt in the future. We’re not sure if it will be our first, second or third(if God tells us that 3 is our number).
I enjoyed reading this historical account, it must’ve taken you a long time to compile and many hours of research. Blessings
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Thank you for reading this. Indeed Crissy it took a long time to research and write this. Ultimately it was joyful though to write this. Actually writing this made me realize I love history a lot even before I became a pastor and that I still love history very much. I think its 6 PMish now, how did the evangelism go?? Also can you check your wordpress comment section under “spam” to see if any of my comments might have been stuck on there? Seems my comments are disappearing from commenting on other’s page
Sure I will check.
Evangelism was a bit slow today. Lots of opposition. Towards the end we we met this 21 year old Christian girl sold out for Jesus. We all had a wonderful conversation about the Lord. God is so good.
Very well done. Thanks for the history lesson. We need the message of Jesus that we are one race and stop the nonsense.
Blessings.
You covered so much ground (history of China, population movement, history of railroads, Civil War, etc). People that claim systematic racism don’t seem to have the same rigor in proving their claims.
You have provided a lot of good information on a very complicated and muddled topic. Thank you for sharing these facts. J.
You’re welcome! Coming from someone who is into History and teach history professionally that means a lot. How are things for you with the virus situation and work(s)?
A lot of work and research, I can tell! A better and balanced view (more of the bigger picture, I believe) that shows the complexities of human interaction, especially between races. Not everything is so simple as many today want to make it…it seems as though the world is simplified to “racist” or “not-racist”. Thanks for your hard work looking into the history.
[…] Back it up with facts and be as rigorous as possible. I recently did that with my post “Asians coming to America to benefit from Slavery?” But when you do speak up make sure that you yourself aren’t being a hypocrite. As […]
Thank you for the research and truth.
You’re welcome Maw Maw thank you for reading this post, I did put a lot of effort into it. Thank you Bonnie, hope you have a good weekend coming up!
It has been good, Pastor Jim. Thank you.
I have a feeling you will be writing these types of posts as Woke ideology is snuck into the church.
[…] Yes America did have racism in its history. But that doesn’t mean every claim about injustice is accurate. I’ve read one article in a publication made the assertation that Asians came to benefit from slavery of African American. My historical response can be found here: Asians coming to America to benefit from Slavery? […]
[…] For historical examples see my article Is Christianity a Tool of European Colonialism? and Asians coming to America to benefit from Slavery? or Discussion with a Pastor about US Constitution and 3/5 Compromise and lesson of […]
Thank you for setting the records straight and providing historical facts to counter the false narratives against Chinese in general, Chinese Americans in particular. Everywhere that Chinese immigrants had tried to settle down in the 1800-1960’s America, racists came out in force to abuse, hurt, harm, lynch, and murder them. Most if not all of the Chinese who immigrated to America knew nothing of slavery in the South. Who was writing about slavery in America’s deep South in Chinese for the mostly uneducated immigrants for their edification? As you have pointed out, the Chinese came to the West seeking a better life or resources to support their families back in war-torn, starvation-hit China. The Chinese already knew they were at the bottom of the social chain in America; none were in foreman, manager, or leadership positions. The Chinese immigrants to America never had it easy.
Some Americans may know about whites hiring the Chinese to help build the transcontinental railroad, but many Chinese were also brought to America to help work in the mines. They were willing to do the hard labor for scraps. There are unwritten and undiscovered histories about the abuse as well as massacre of these Chinese miners throughout the America West. One documented case happened in 1887 when 30-plus Chinese gold miners were massacred in Hells Canyon in Oregon.
Today, SinoPhobia (rabid hatred towards anyone who looks Chinese) continues. The mass media and some social media outlets have been doing their hardest to smear and make Chinese look Machiavelliian on a daily basis. From their relentless disinformation machines churning out multiple scare-mongering stories of China purposely infecting the entire world with the COVID virus, to China positioning itself to become the world’s #1 economic superpower by destroying American manufacturing, to Chinese illegals flooding into America, to China making military moves to take over Asia, nothing is off the table to make China and the Chinese into the West’s #1 worst enemy. They are succeeding in making Americans hate the Chinese, even among Christians. Recently, when ChineseAmerican churches were attacked with racist graffiti and I asked the Christian community to pray, many did not respond or said something like: I pray that all racism ends. China does not want war, but it seems the West does. (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/22/science/flu-season-coronavirus-pandemic.html)
I hope and pray that America’s racist attitudes toward the Chinese change soon. Would you kindly pray that war between Europe/America/India will not come. Please pray that peace will prevail.
I use to think Americans are ignorant with history; now though Americans are brainwash with false woke history!!
Woke ideology comes from the doctrine of Demons. They also don’t even know true history. Which is why all these weak church leaders spouting it prove they are serving Marx not Yahweh.
I will NEVER forget that Dems talk about Asian hate but these primarily happen in Blue states and liberal strongholds
I have also seen Hispanics go against Asians and Asians stereotyping others. Every race has sinners
This makes the leftist side sound racist and irrational. They literally sound like a parody of the Puritans screaming “White supremacists!” So where are the rational people of the left? Seriously this sounds paranoid.