Misplaced Pages

#432567

32-915: The law is sometimes referred to as the Greaser Act because the law uses the word " Greaser ", found in section two, to refer to individuals of "Spanish and Indian blood." The end of the Mexican–American War in 1848 was marked by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , which resulted in Mexico 's cession of the Southwest, leading to the United States ' acquisition of California , Colorado , Nevada , New Mexico , Texas , Utah , and Wyoming . As elaborated by Latino History and Culture: An Encyclopedia , "Euro-Americans were eager to solidify their power in

64-480: A "race" while Latino and Hispanic are an "ethnic group." Lee said, referring to the Hispanic or Latino category, that the category of Asian Americans, quite similarly, comprises different populations of diverse origins. Lee said that people of South Asian origin were categorically identified as " Hindu ," regardless of their religion, in the early 20th century. Lee said that the policy changed to classify people from

96-507: A reason to stop or search people." The Anti-Vagrancy Act exists in a broader history within California regarding immigration, nativism, and race relations, both before and after repeal of the act. Greaser (derogatory) Greaser was a derogatory term for a Mexican in what is now the U.S. Southwest in the 19th century. The slur likely derived from what was considered one of the lowliest occupations typically held by Mexicans,

128-1002: A separate race, Hindu , and in 1950 and 1960 they were racially classified as Other Race , and then in 1970 they were classified as White . Since 1980, Indians and all other South Asians have been classified as part of the Asian ethnic group . Sociologist Madhulika Khandelwal described how " ....as a result of activism, South Asians came to be included as 'Asians' in the census only in the 80's. Prior to that many South Asians had been checking 'Caucasian' or 'Other'. " Respondents can also report their specific ancestry, e.g.: Okinawan , etc. Someone reporting these ancestries but no race would be classified as "Asian". Unlike Southeast Asians, Afghan Americans , Arab Americans , Armenian Americans , Assyrian Americans , Azerbaijani Americans , Georgian Americans , Israeli Americans , Kurdish Americans , Turkish Americans , Iranian Americans , and Central Asian Americans have not lobbied to be included as Asians by

160-470: The 1980 Census marked the first general analyses of Asians as a group, combining several individual ancestry groups into "Asian or Pacific Islander." By the 1990 census , Asian or Pacific Islander (API) was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry. The 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census Bureau definition of the Asian race is: "people having origins in any of

192-525: The Filipinos at the meeting thought they were " brown " rather than "yellow" and the conference thought the term "Oriental" was Eurocentric since they originate from lands "east" only from Europe's standpoint and the term "Oriental" suggested to them "passivity". Earlier Census forms from 1980 and prior listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups along with White and Black or Negro . Previously, Asian Americans were classified as "other". But

224-789: The silent movie era, as evidenced by movies such as Ah Sing and the Greasers (1910), The Greaser's Gauntlet (1908), Tony, the Greaser (1911), The Greaser and the Weakling (1912), The Girl and the Greaser (1913), The Greaser's Revenge (1914), and Bronco Billy and the Greaser (1914). Subsequently, however, Hollywood began to cut its usage of this particular derogatory term to improve its distribution in Mexican and Latin American markets. The eugenicist Madison Grant made mention of

256-494: The "Other Asian" category include Filipinos, Afghans and Nepalese. Peter J. Aspinall of the Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent , recommends privileging the term "South Asian" over the term "Asian", since the term "Asian" is a "contested term". In 1968, an Asian activist conference decided on favoring the name "Asian American" over the competing terms—" yellow ", " Mongoloid ", "Asiatic", and " Oriental "—since

288-519: The "Other Ethnic Group" category rather than the "Other Asian" category, reflecting the association of the word Asian in the UK with South Asian. Despite there being a strong presence of East Asians in the United Kingdom there are considerably more South Asians , for example the 2001 Census recorded 1.05 million people of Indian origin and 247,000 of Chinese origin in the UK. Common origins in

320-514: The California legislature in the 1850s socially and economically restrained minority groups, and in many ways the Greaser Act, "criminalized everyday behavior and wrote racist language into the law of California" as a way for Anglo-Americans to control the new rising economy. The Anti-Vagrancy Act, as well as laws of its time such as the Foreign Miners' Tax, kept minority groups out of the growing mining economy, by restricting and controlling

352-470: The Foreign Miners' Tax and the Greaser Act." Although they were exempt from these California laws because of their native status, they still faced "a multitude of egregious laws in their own right." Therefore, racial discrimination was additionally complicated by nativism and understandings of citizenship. The Greaser Act was in line with other forms of extra-legal violence imparted on minorities during this time period: "the law authorized local militias to keep

SECTION 10

#1732801340433

384-528: The Indian subcontinent as "white." Lee said that, more recently, South Asian Americans were added to the long list of groups that comprise the category of Asian American. Referring to their classification as "Asian," Lee said that, in the United States, the classification of people from the Indian subcontinent depends on their historical location. In 1930 and 1940, Indian Americans were identified as

416-450: The Mexican community at bay by terrorizing its members; allowed Anglos to confiscate Mexican property; and even allowed Anglos to lynch 'recalcitrant individuals' with impunity." As described by Guevara Urbina, "residents continued to face displacement from their land as European newcomers began to use violence, lynching, existing laws, or developed new laws, to seize lands previously held by Mexicans or other indigenous groups." Additionally,

448-479: The Southwest (e.g. Foreign Miners' Tax ). The Foreign Miners' Tax of 1850, which called for all non-European non-citizen miners to pay a tax in order to work in the mines, can be considered "a system of taxation and indenture...to exploit alien caste laborers rather than expel them." Under "An Act for the Government and Protection of Indians ", passed in 1850, Native Americans in California were targeted under

480-490: The form of eliminating the word "Greaser" from the text of the law, but it was still used against Mexicans. Though this changed over time, the discriminatory actions of the 1800s barred not only Mexicans and Mexican Americans, but also Native Americans and Asian Americans. Today, profiling laws bar "enforcement agencies from reliance on ethnicity, color, national origin, political affiliation, language, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disabilities or medical conditions as

512-522: The greasing of the axles of wagons; they also greased animal hides that were taken to California where Mexicans loaded them onto clipper ships (a greaser). It was in common usage among U.S. troops during the Mexican–American War . The term was actually incorporated into an early California statute, the Greaser Act (1855), an expression of a virulent form of anti-Mexican sentiment among many Anglo Californians. Greaser persisted in use through

544-573: The guise of stopping vagrancy and promoting apprenticeship. As outlined by the California Research Bureau of the California State Library , the act "facilitated removing California Indians from their traditional lands, separating at least a generation of children and adults from their families, languages, and cultures...and indenturing Indian children and adults to Whites." The Anti-Vagrancy Act of 1855 extended

576-520: The issue of Spanish and Indian blood... and who go armed and are not peaceable and quiet persons." The word "greaser" (a vestige of the Mexican–American War) was a derogatory term used to refer to Mexicans and Mexican Americans referring to "the practice of Mexican laborers in the Southwest greasing their backs to facilitate the unloading of hides and cargo," their skin color, or presumptions about their hygiene. Discriminatory actions created by

608-521: The laboring bodies of minorities and claiming that labor and productivity would serve to reform idle individuals. Some scholars have argued that the vagrancy act is an example of "internal colonialism" because "this law was an attempt to reintroduce the peon bondage system, which provided cheap labor to the ranchos that existed in California prior to the Anglo immigration." This is an example of how Mexicans "were nevertheless subject to laws designed to deny them

640-588: The large Indian , Pakistani , Bangladeshi , and Filipino expatriate populations in these countries. However, there are instances where the term is used solely to refer to those of South Asian descent. The Australian Census includes four regions of Asia in its official definition. Defined by the 2006–2011 Australian Census, three broad groups have the word Asian included in their name: Central and Southern Asian , South-East Asian and North-East Asian . West Asians are classified as North African and Middle Eastern . The Canadian Census uses

672-413: The largest region of Asian descent in the country, with Iraq once being the largest group of Asian immigrants. In the United Kingdom, the term "Asian" is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Most respondents to the UK 2001 Census of non-Chinese East Asian and Southeast Asian descent chose to write-in their ethnicity in

SECTION 20

#1732801340433

704-512: The law played a role in the racial formation of Mexicans "from a nationality to a race...through the dynamic interplay of myriad social forces...racialization of Mexicans does not occur in a vacuum, but in the context of dominant ideology, perceived economic interests, and psychological necessity." The Greaser Act of 1855 would be later amended a year after its birth. However, the law was still used against US citizens of Mexican ancestry, Mexican nationals and other foreign groups. The amendment came in

736-577: The original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent (for example, Bangladesh , Cambodia , China , India , Indonesia , Japan , Korea , Malaysia , Pakistan , the Philippine Islands , Thailand , and Vietnam )". Sandra S. Lee et al. (2001) said, in regards to the categories of the 2000 U.S. census , that it is difficult to determine why Asian Americans are

768-728: The privileges and status of whiteness, based on their working-class position," complicating how race and citizenship were understood in the region. The distinction between 'native' and 'foreigner' played a crucial and central difference in the racism and discrimination emblematic of the Southwest during the time period. The stigma of 'foreigner' was detrimental to the economic and social opportunities of minorities, as discrimination and oppression affected many groups of people, including Mexicans/Mexican Americans, Asians / Asian Americans , and Native Americans. These laws, however, did not affect African Americans , for "their citizenship and socialization in American society as 'native,' were exempt from both

800-469: The region they had just taken from Mexico," and thus began to construct a legal and economic system to develop the Southwest. California underwent much development during the late 1840s and early 1850s, especially due to the economic boom produced by the gold rush between the years 1840 and 1855. Some have characterized the sentiments of this era as being a consequence of the economic development; for example, scholar Leonard Pitt has described that " nativism

832-510: The term Asian often does not refer to South Asian people . Those of West or Central Asian origin are excluded from the term. Statistics Norway uses the term 'Asian' pan-continentally and considers people of Asian background to be people from all Asian countries. Statistics Sweden uses the term 'Asian' to refer to immigrants of Asian background from all Asian countries, including Western Asia/the Middle East. West Asians make up

864-662: The term "Asian" is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. In South Africa the term "Asian" is also usually synonymous with the Indian race group . East Asians in South Africa, including Chinese were classified either as Coloureds or as honorary whites . In the Arab states of the Persian Gulf , the term "Asian" generally refers to people of South Asian and Southeast Asian descent due to

896-566: The term 'Asian' pan-continentally. In its presentation of the "ethnic origin" results of the 2016 census, Statistics Canada under the category "Asian origins" includes: West Central Asian and Middle Eastern (includes "Arab, not otherwise specified"), South Asian, East and Southeast Asian, and "other" Asian origins. New Zealand's census undertaken by Statistics New Zealand defines Asian to include people of Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino , Japanese, Vietnamese , Sri Lankan , Cambodian and Thai ancestries. In less formal contexts,

928-528: The term with respect to Mexicans of mixed ancestry in his 1916 work of scientific racism The Passing of the Great Race . Asian people Asian people (or Asians , sometimes referred to as Asiatic people ) are the people of the continent of Asia . The term may also refer to their descendants . In parts of anglophone Africa, especially East Africa and in parts of the Caribbean ,

960-404: The timeline for when the act is to go into effect. The law defined a vagrant as including all those who do not have or accept employment, prostitutes and drunkards and calls for their incarceration for up to ninety days; during this time they may be "sentenced to hard labor." Section 2 identifies people by ethnoracial background by referring to "all persons who are commonly known as ' Greasers ' or

992-425: The vagrancy statutes to non-Native Americans in a less severe manner. The original title of the act clearly states that its purpose is "To punish Vagrants, Vagabonds, and Dangerous and Suspicious Persons." Six short sections outline the punishment at first incident, the protocol for disarming greasers, the consequences of a second conviction, the potential avenues of employment for vagrant, the discharge procedures and

Greaser Act - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-515: Was born in the months of 1849 and early 1850 when mining enterprise was most individualistic, government most ineffectual, and immigration most rapid." Tensions mounted in the region, catalyzing both vigilante justice and legal discrimination against minority groups to retain European American interests in the region. The Greaser Act is part of a history of anti-immigration (e.g. Chinese Exclusion Act ) and discriminatory laws passed in

#432567