Introduction
It is true that Asians presence on the American soil highlighted various fundamental cleavages in the American society. These Asian immigrants faced hostility in their new land. Bhagat Singh Thind was actually an Indian- American Sikh lecturer and writer on spirituality. He was an immigrant to United States and was involved in a crucial legal battle over Indians rights to obtain United States citizenship in a case titled Bhagat Singh Thind case. Therefore, Thind was the defendant in this case, which would result in exclusion of all the Asians from procuring naturalized citizenship. Up to the year 1923, South Asians racial classification was not fully clear. Prior to this year, South Asians were normally allowed to be naturalized citizens in the United States.
Nonetheless, after 1917 immigration law which effectively barred all the Asians from migrating to U.S., workers in naturalization office started to question the East Indians status not knowing whether they were Caucasian or Asian. After serving in the U.S army for less than one year, the Oregon District Court granted Thind U.S. citizenship on 18th November 1920. However, on 25th July 1923, William Taft, a former U.S president and Chief Justice witnessed and also gave order to Ninth Circuit Court to cancel Thind’s citizenship certificate (Sucheng 47). He therefore sued the State but he was unsuccessful. His loss effectively caused all East Indians to be grouped together with other Asians discriminated classes. The U.S. citizenship doors had at last been closed to all the Asian immigrants and this would last for the succeeding 23 years.
The Tydings-McDuffie Act was a U.S. federal law that provided for the Philippines self-government and for independence of Filipino from U.S. after duration of 12 years. Millard E. Tydings and John McDuffie authored this act. The act also provided for the Constitutional drafting and guidelines for a ten-year “transitional period.” Tydings-McDuffie Act reclassified all the Filipinos living in U.S. as aliens for immigration to America purposes. They were no longer given permission to work legally in U.S. Additionally; a quota of fifty immigrants in every year was established (Sucheng 55). Moreover, this Act paved way for Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935.
After Bhagat lost the case, these immigrants were socially racialized by being grouped together with other Asians discriminated classes hence this case offers an example of racialization. Moreover, the case is an example of racialization as Asian American was not allowed to testify before the courts. Furthermore, the case offers an example of racialization as we observe that despite Doctor Bhagat being a United States veteran he was denied his rights of naturalization. For that reason, this clearly shows that even after Asian immigrants showed their loyalty by serving the country, they were not treated like their fellow white co- workers. Besides, this case provides an example of racialization in higher education as we understand that Doctor Bhagat was a scholar and despite his education status, his citizenship was cancelled.
On the other hand, the Tydings-McDuffie Act is also a good example of racialization due to a number of reasons. First, the act cut Filipino immigration to U.S. to a quota of only 50 persons in every year. This means that this Act introduced race based quotas where Filipinos were not allowed full equal immigration rights like their European counterparts (Sucheng 56).
In addition, the reclassification of all Filipinos in United States provides another reason why this Act is an example of racialization. This reclassification meant that Filipinos were now ineligible for citizenship hence they were denied citizenship. Furthermore, the Act prohibited Filipinos from working legally in United States hence this shows that the act racialized them economically. Moreover, the act led to social segregation where these Filipinos were not allowed to contaminate with the whites. Last but not least, the Act provided economic sanctions to the Filipinos in America.
Works cited
Sucheng, Chan. "Hostility and conflict." Asian American: An interpretive history. London: Twayne, 1990. 45-61. Print.
