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The brutal and systematic “ethnic cleansing” of Chinese Americans in California and the Pacific Northwest in the second half of the nineteenth century is a shocking–and virtually unexplored....


DRIVEN OUT

thank you for posting this.

HugoAppeal,

Sorry, man, but I have to classify this as a repost. I've mention this book before in a "Current books reading" type thread. Yes, I've read this book. Personally, I thought the book was kinda boring. It reads like a college textbook, very dry. I had to force my self to finish reading it. All I got from Driven Out was the repeated, "Early Asian Americans were lynched, murdered, robbed, cheated, and stole from..." theme over and over again. The author just states facts, but doesnt really get into any detail or dissection of them. The information in in this book is a part of American history and it should be included in any American History text book. What was interesting to find out was that sometimes Asian Americans were the perpretrators of crimes against their own people. I also found it interesting that Asian Americans were the first minorities to sue for civil rights and equality, but were almost always denied. I did like the fact the author used actual newsclippings to support her claims. It's an important book to read, but try to find it on DVD if you can. Hahahaha! Just joking folks!

Side Note: DId you know that there were Asian Americans who fought in the Civil War?? It's true! Check out for yourself:

Asian/Pacific Americans in the US Army

This doesn't surprise me. Many of the traders putting slaves on the ships in Africa were in fact Africans. Black Africans. Clueless here about the PC term for that because if you just say "Africans", well some of them are white too. But anyway, all of recorded history shows people perpetrating crimes against great numbers of people of their own culture. That's more about power than ethnicity.

I wish people could get past the exterior. Celebrate culture, ethnicity, race, heritage yes ... but it's the whole concept of people thinking they are better than others, especially something that 1) they can't change or 2) might be somewhat superficial in the big scheme of things (i.e. because some "looks black" or "looks asian").

I will check this book out, primarily because I believe if we aren't aware of the problems that occurred in the past, it is easier to either repeat them or not realize when we need to stand up and take action.

tiger, you are right.

it is never too interesting to find that out or surprising for that matter.

it is all about survival, and if that is a way that some had to chose to survive, that was how they decided they must live their lives at that time.

it is a sad thing, but, then sometimes those who are in power among the subjected people can be very greedy.

some of this shit still happens now. look at sweat shops, sex slaves, etc.